g to an opening.

"All at once I heard a halloo, and hauled up, and listened. I heard it
again more distinct, and it sounded sharper 'n a halloo, and yet I
reckoned somebody was calling. I bellowed back an answer, and an
answer flew back like a woman calling. It was closer by than at first,
and it trembled, and swelled in the screeching echo. I reckoned surely
I warn't fur from home, and it was Huldah after me, calling. Away I
shouted again; and back flew an answer full scream, and now it was a
good 'eal nearer. It couldn't be Huldah. It sounded a little like her
voice, but it screamed sharper than she ever did in a call or a scold.
Louder, and sharper, and nearer come another singe-er of a scream, and
I knew in a trice what it was. It was a painter; and the mate of the
one I had killed!

"I thought of my gun, but I hadn't re-loaded. I felt for aminition,
and there was only one single charge left! Scream--yell, come the
sound oftener and nearer, and there I was, as you may say, a-most
destitute of all means of battle. I turned cold all over, and my hair
stood up like a hedgehog's. But not a second was to be lost; for the
scream shook the staddles, and rung and rolled. So I loaded my gun
with the last little charge, and legged it like Jehu, as Aunt Polly
says, for several rods; then throwed down my game and jumped as fur as
I could any way spring out sideways from my track; and a few jumps took
me about six rods from my painter skin and turkey; and there I waited
on my last legs, with my gun cocked, and butcher-knife slung, and Bose
at my feet for a battle.

"The sun was just sliding down west o' my aim; so I had the advantage
of all the light there was, and a big sugar-maple for a cover and rest.
It was all done in a jiffy, while yell-ety-yell, scream-ety-scream come
the sound, and the wild old woods rung again, and shuddered and shook
with the echo! A thousand thoughts darted through my head as if
lightning had chased 'em. I thought of poor Huldah; how she would
feel, and what she would do, and what would become of her, away off
here in the wilderness, if I was killed. I thought of her, and wanted
to see her, and bid her good-bye at least; and would a give money for
that little comfort.

"But scream-ety-scream come the sound, and my flesh crawled all over as
if in a nightmare, and I sweat like rain. Now the scream was
continual, and I heard every bound the fury made! Now it stopped. It
was back