Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/79

 A farmer who owned a small ranch on the outskirts of one of our western towns had been greatly worried by a clever wolf which had nearly killed off his small live stock. All sorts of means such as dogs, traps and poisons had been tried to get rid of the pest but so far they had not been successful. When the heavy winter snow came, and the ground was frozen hard, and food became very scarce, the wolf grew bolder and even approached the house, taking chickens, and on one occasion a dog, almost from under the



farmer's nose. Here was where the farmer saw his chance to get even, he would take advantage of the wolf's recklessness and destroy it. One moonlight night he tied a kid to a stake just outside his gate and then he himself lay in ambush with his rifle. The wolf soon heard the kid bleating and came up very cautiously to investigate. It was evidently suspicious however and kept carefully out of gun shot. Just as the farmer was about to give up in disgust the wolf threw discretion to the wind and made a dash for its prey with the result that it was shot down at once.