Chapter II (3)

And her still sleepy blue eyes fell on a large hairy paw which was thrust through an aperture in the bottom of the door, where it joined the step of the roughly-built log cabin.

"Look, Wattie, look!" she exclaimed, "a doggie wants to get in. See, see, there's its paw."

"All right, love," said Wattie, in a voice which he tried to make cheerful, "all right; you go to sleep and leave me to see to the dogs."

But Hetty, who from her corner could not see very clearly what was going on, was more amused than frightened, and begged her brother not to be cross with the poor dog, but to "give it a bone, and then it would go away."

"But, darling, they're not dogs, they're wolves," said poor Wattie, feeling it was best to tell her.

"Wolves! What, like Red Riding Hood's wolf, Wattie? They won't hurt us, will they?"

"No, darling, I won't let them!" said Wattie, setting his teeth and looking stern, as he felt he could die, if need were, for his little sister. At this moment the paw came through again, and this time it was pushed farther into the room. Without a word Wattie seized his axe, and bringing it down with all his might, and with the skilful stroke he had learnt since he had been in the backwoods, he smote off the evilly intruding limb. A howl followed, then a silence, and then another paw was thrust under the door to share the fate of the former one.

Hetty lay quite still on the settle, and watched her heroic defender.

"Oh, Wattie, don't you wish father and mother would come? Why don't you get father's gun and shoot them? You can shoot now, you know; and didn't Mr. Hughes say that was what you would have to do if the wolves came around this winter?"

"Yes; but, Hetty dear, father took his gun with him—he never likes to go away without it. Oh, Hetty! do you remember Mr. Hughes saying that if anyone blew out a bladder and hung it in the wind that the wolves would never come very near it? Oh, if we only had a bladder!"

"Why, we have! Mother said she must buy some lard to-day when she looked at the empty bladder."

"Oh, you good girl to remember that! Where is it, Hetty?"

"Up in the loft. I saw it when I was up there with mother this morning. But I was poorly, you know, so I didn't care to play with it then, and I hung it up in the loft. Father blew it out and tied a piece of string to it, and told me I might have it to play with, as I couldn't buy balls out here in the backwoods."

"Oh, Hetty, God must have put it into father's heart to do that. Come, dear, take my hand while there's a minute's silence, and we'll baulk them yet."

Quickly the two ascended the ladder into the loft, and there, sure enough, was the bladder, fastened to a rafter and swaying about in the wind, which came keenly in through the rough little shutters of the window which lighted the loft.

Very quickly Wattie pushed open the shutter; very quickly, but very firmly, he tied the string to the hook which held the shutter, making sure that the other end of the string was fast to the bladder. Then he left it to flutter in the now rapidly-rising wind, and, with his little sister, descended the ladder again, and piled more logs on the fire and waited.

"Why," he said, after a pause of anxious watching, "Farmer Hughes must have known what he was talking about, after all!"

No paw was thrust under the door, although Wattie awaited it with uplifted axe. The fierce howling changed to a half-fearful whine, and it was more distant, too. After a while it almost ceased.

Presently, Hetty said, "I'm not a bit afraid, Wattie; I'll say my prayers and go to sleep. I know you'll take care of me," and she nestled into her brother's arms and fell asleep, thoroughly tired out; nor did she even awaken when Wattie started up at the sound of a shot at some distance, then another and another in quick succession, and then the welcome, welcome sound of his father's shout!

Gently laying the sleeping child on the settle, Wattie rushed to the door.

"My boy, what has happened? Have you been frightened by the wolves? I've settled some of the brutes to-night, at any rate. How is Hetty? We've been delayed because the doctor was away from home, and mother here is nearly out of her mind with anxiety about you. And what's that fluttering up at the loft window?"

Wattie soon related all that had happened after his father's departure, and when his mother hugged and kissed and cried over him, and his father called him a little hero, and even had tears in his eyes as he said it, Wattie felt prouder than ever he had done in his life, and thought he was richly rewarded for all that he had gone through during that terrible, never-to-be-forgotten night with the wolves.