r.

The hunters would always kill the young wolves. But they could not
find the old mother wolf. She knew how to keep out of the way.

The farmers tried to catch her in their traps. But she was too
cunning. She had had one good lesson when she was young. She had put
the toes of one foot into a steel trap. The trap had snipped them off.
After that she was more careful.

One winter night she went out to get some meat. She came to Putnam's
flock of sheep and goats. She killed some of them. She found it
great fun.

There were no dogs about. The poor sheep had nobody to protect them.
So the old wolf kept on killing. One sheep was enough for her supper.
But she killed the rest just for sport. She killed seventy sheep and
goats that night.

Putnam and his friends set out to find the old sheep killer. There
were six men of them. They agreed that two of them should hunt for her
at a time. Then another two should begin as soon as the first two
should stop. So she would be hunted day and night.

The hunters found her track in the snow. There could be no mistake
about it. The track made by one of her feet was shorter than those
made by the other feet. That was because one of her feet had been
caught in a trap.

The hunters found that the old wolf had gone a long way off. Perhaps
she felt guilty. She must have thought that she would be hunted. She
had trotted away for a whole night.

Then she turned and went back again. She was getting hungry by this
time. She wanted some more sheep.

The men followed her tracks back again. The dogs drove her into a
hole. It was not far from Putnam's house.

All the farmers came to help catch her. They sent the dogs into the
cave where the wolf was. But the wolf bit the dogs, and drove them
out again.

Then the men put a pile of straw in the mouth of the cave. They set
the straw on fire. It filled the cave with smoke. But Mrs. Wolf did
not come out.

Then they burned brim-stone in the cave. It must have made the wolf
sneeze. But the cave was deep. She went as far in as she could, and
staid there. She thought that the smell of brimstone was not so bad as
the dogs and men who wanted to kill her.

Putnam wanted to send his negro into the cave to drive out the wolf.
But the negro thought that he would rather stay out.

Then Putnam said that he would go in himself. He tied a rope to his
legs. Then he got some pieces of birch-bark. He set fire to these. He
knew that wild animals do not