eir repast, they
separated, each taking different courses to hunt and drive up such of
the stray cattle as could be found. My father, whom I have designated as
the drover, pursued his way over the vast piles of fallen, tangled
timber, leaping from one tree to the other. As he was about to throw
himself over the trunk of a mighty prostrate oak, he found himself
within two feet of one of the largest and most ferocious wolves that
ever expanded its broad jaws and displayed its fierce tushes to the eye
of man. Both parties were taken so suddenly by surprise, by this
collision, that they seemed to be rooted to the spot without power to
move. I have heard of serpents charming birds, said the drover, but I
never believed in the theory until I found myself fairly magnetized by
this great she-wolf. The wolf stood and snarled with its golden fiery
eye bent upon the drover, who never moved his steady gaze from the
wolf's face.

There is not a beast in existence that will attack a man if he keeps his
eyes steady upon the animal, but will cower and sneak off, and so did
the wolf. But no sooner had she turned her head and with a howl started
off, than a blue pill from the drover's Yeager split her skull, and
brought her career to a speedy termination.

_Whoo-ep!_

A shout so peculiar to the lusty lungs of the western hunter made the
welkin ring again, and as the astonished drover turned towards the
shouter, he beheld a sight that proved quite as formidable as the wolf
he had just slain.

"Well done, stranger; you're the man for me; I like you. That shot done
my heart good, though I was about to do the old she devil's business for
ye, seeing as you war sort o' close quartered with the varmint."

"Thank you," responded the drover, addressing the speaker, a tall,
gaunt, iron-featured, weather-beaten figure, with long grey hair, and a
rude suit of wolf-skin clothing, cap and moccasins. He held in his long
arms a large rifle, a knife in his belt, and a powder horn slung over
his side. He seemed the very patriarch of the woods, but good humored,
and with his rough hilarity soon explained his presence there.

"Well, stranger," said he, "you have had a mighty chance of bad luck yer
last night, and I never saw them cursed varmints so crazy afore."

"Do you live in these parts?" inquired the drover.

"Ha! ha! yes, yes," replied the hunter. "I live yer, I live anywhar's
whar wolf can be found. But you don't know me, I reckon, stranger?