tory!" clamored the
other boys.

"Ah, what's the use," said Slim, with a gloom that the twinkle in his
eyes belied. "You wouldn't believe it, anyway."

"I would," said Melvin solemnly. "Cross my heart and hope to die if I
wouldn't."

"Well," began Slim cautiously, "there was a fellow up in Maine once that
was spending the winter with a pal of his, trapping in the woods. They
were about twenty miles off from the nearest town, and every month or so
one of them would have to go to town to lay in a stock of provisions.

"This was a good many years ago, and the wolves were very thick in this
part of Maine up near the Canadian border. That winter had been colder
than usual, and, as the ground was covered with snow, the wolves were
unusually fierce and hungry.

"One day, this fellow I'm telling you about, hitched up his team to the
sleigh and drove to town, as their stock was running pretty low. He was
kept in town longer than he had expected, and it was late in the
afternoon when he started back for his cabin in the woods.

"He had gone about half way, when he heard behind him the howl of a
wolf. Then other wolves took it up, and, looking back, he saw some black
specks that kept getting bigger and bigger. He whipped up his horses,
and they did the best they could, because the wolves frightened them
just as much as they did the driver. But they had traveled a good many
miles that day, and the wolves kept getting nearer.

"The man had some flour and bacon and other things in the sleigh, and he
kept throwing these out as he went along, hoping it would stop the
wolves until he could reach his cabin. But he soon found that this was
no go, and they'd surely get him, unless he tried something else.

"The only things left in the sleigh now were an empty hogshead, a cask
of nails and a hatchet.

"By this time, he had reached a small lake that he had to cross. It was
frozen solid, with ice several feet thick.

"By the time he had driven into the middle of this, the wolves were
close behind and coming fast. He jumped out of the sleigh and cut the
traces, so that the horses might have a chance to get away. Then he
threw the nails and hatchet and empty hogshead out on the ice. He turned
the hogshead upside down, crept in under and let it down over him. He
hadn't any more than done this, before the wolves were all around him.

"But he was safe enough for the time. He had the little cask of nails to
sit on, and he was sure that