what seemed an extraordinary matter to Joe was that Sneak should yell out something or other about the “asafoetida,” and “moccasin tracks,” after every discharge.  Joe was not long idle.  He soon saw a huge black wolf trotting along the little deer path he had just traversed, with its nose down to the ground.  A moment after, another, and then a third, were seen pursuing the same course, some distance behind.  Joe became uneasy.  His first impulse was to scamper over to the island:  but, when he thought of the jeers and jests that would ensue from Sneak, he resolved to stand his ground.  When the foremost wolf had approached within thirty paces of him, he leveled his musket and fired.  The wolf uttered a fierce howl and expired.

“Hang me, if I haven’t floored you, any how,” said he, exultingly, as he proceeded to reload his gun with as much expedition as possible.  But the other wolves, so far from being alarmed at the fate of their comrade, seemed to quicken their pace towards the position of Joe.  “Slash me, if there ain’t too many of them!” ejaculated Joe, as he perceived several others, and all advancing upon him.  “I’ll settle your hash, by jing!” he continued, firing at the foremost one, which was not twenty paces distant.  The leaden contents of the musket entered its breast, and it fell dead without a growl.  Still the others advanced.  Joe had no time to charge his gun again.

“I’ll make tracks!” said he, starting toward the frozen channel that separated him from the island.  But he had not gone ten paces before he discovered two enormous wolves approaching from that direction.  “I’ll cut dirt back again!” he continued, whirling suddenly around, and rushing back to his stand, where he stood not a moment, but sprang up in a tree, and after attaining a large limb that put out from the trunk, some fifteen feet above the snow, paused, and pantingly surveyed his assailants.  There were now no less than twenty wolves in sight, and several were at the root of the tree yelping at him!  “I’ll be hanged if I half like this,” said he.  “Snap me, if I don’t begin to believe that the asafoetida does charm them, after all.  Confound Sneak! he’s always getting me into some hobble or other!  Now, if it wasn’t for this tree, I’d be in a nice fix.  Hang it! all the wolves in the world are broke loose to-day, surely—­where the mischief could they all have come from?  Just hear the men, how they are shooting!  And they are killing the wild black dogs every crack—­but still they won’t back out!  I’ll blaze away at ’em again!” Saying this, he reloaded his musket as quickly as his peculiar position would allow, and, for the purpose of ridding himself as soon as possible of his disagreeable visitors, he poured in an additional charge of buckshot.  “Now,” he continued, “what if the gun should fly out of my hands?  I’d be in a pretty condition then!  I wouldn’t mind the kick at all, if I was only on dry land—­but if the gun should kick me over here, I’d tumble right down into