l, as it peered down at me from its
hiding place in the dense foliage of a cedar far above.

"Never mind who, you old rascal," I laughingly replied, and picking up
my fishing-rod I parted the underbrush to start on my way through the
wood for some trout, but suddenly halted when I found myself staring
into the face of a huge timber wolf. The beast's lips were drawn back
displaying its gleaming fangs, its back hair was as erect as the cropped
mane of a pony, its mongolian eyes shone green through their narrow
slits and its whole attitude seemed to say, "Well, now that you have
found me, what do you propose to do?"

Now, boys, do not make any mistake about me, I am not a hero and never
posed as one; in truth my timidity at times amounts to cowardice, a fact
which I usually keep to myself, but I never was afraid of wolves until I
so unexpectedly met this one. It is needless to say that I have no hair
on my back, it is as bare as that of any other fellow's, nevertheless,
on this occasion I could distinctly feel my bristles rise from the nape
of my neck to the end of my spine, just the same as those on the
oblique-eyed, shaggy monster whose snapping teeth were so near my face.

Everybody is familiar with the fact that people who have had limbs
amputated often complain of pains or itching in the missing members. My
missing back hair, the hair which my ancestors lost by the slow process
of evolution, the hair which grew on the back of the "missing link,"
stood on end at the sight of this wolf. However, this fear was but
momentary and when my courage returned I lifted my rod case in a
threatening manner, and the wolf slunk away as noiselessly as a shadow,
and like a shadow faded out of sight in the dim twilight of the ancient
forest. When I reached the open land beyond the forest another surprise
awaited me.

Surely this is heaven, I thought as I waded knee-deep among the
beautiful flowers of the prairie, starting the sharp pin-tailed grouse,
prairie chickens and sage grouse from their retreats and sending the
meadow-larks skimming away over flowering billows. Reaching an
elevation where I could peer beyond the crests of one of the "ground
swells" which furrowed the sea of nodding blossoms, I saw through the
stems of the plants, a part of the prairie at first concealed from view,
and there appeared to be numerous irregular boulders of dark brown stone
scattered around among the vegetation, and the boulders were moving!

Ca