ng summer for
her in the winter time.

LOUISA M. ALCOTT.

[Illustration: "AS THE NIGHT ADVANCED, THE OLD NEGRO FELT THE COLD
PIERCE HIS STIFFENED LIMBS." P. 216.]

SAVED BY A FIDDLE.

Among the most rapacious and dangerous animals of North America, is
the wolf, commonly called the coyote (pronounced ky-_o_-te) in some of
the Southern and Western States. The wolves--far more numerous in the
United States than in Europe--are, perhaps, more horrible in aspect
than those of the old world. Along desert paths, on the prairies or in
the woods, the wolf, the ghoul of the animal race, presents itself to
the traveller, with its slavering jaws and flashing eyes, uttering a
growl, which is the usual sign of cowardice blended with impudence.
"The coyote," says a recent writer, "is a living, breathing allegory
of Want. He is always poor, out of luck, and friendless."

It is very difficult to catch coyotes in a trap, but they are
frequently hunted down with horses and dogs. Their coat is of a dull
reddish color, mixed with gray and white hairs. Such is their ordinary
condition, but like other animals they display varieties. Their bushy
tail, black at the tip, is nearly as long as one third of their body.
They resemble the dogs which one sees in the Indian wigwams, and which
are certainly descended from this species. They are found in the
regions between the Mississippi and the Pacific, and in Southern
Mexico. They travel in packs like jackals, and pursue deer, buffaloes,
and other animals which they hope to master. They do not venture to
attack buffaloes in herds, but they follow the latter in large packs,
watching till a laggard--a young calf or an old bull, for
instance--may fall out; then they dart upon it and tear it to pieces.
They accompany parties of sportsmen or travellers, prowl round
deserted camps, and devour the fragments they find there. At times
they will enter a camp during the night, and seize lumps of meat on
which the emigrants calculated for their morning meal. These robberies
sometimes exasperate the victims, and, growing less saving of their
powder and shot, they pursue them till they have rubbed out the
mess-number of several.

This breed of wolves is the most numerous of all the carnivora in
North America, and it is for this reason that the coyotes often suffer
from hunger. Then, but only then, they eat corn, roots, and
vegetables--in short, anything