without happy days, sorrow blended largely with its joy!




CHASED BY WOLVES

BY GEORGE DUDLEY LAWSON.


Some forty years ago the northern part of the State of New York was
very sparsely settled. In one of the remote counties, which for a
name's sake we will call Macy County, a stout-hearted settler, named
Devins, posted himself beyond the borders of civilization, and hewed
for his little family a home in the heart of a forest that extended
all the way from Lake Champlain to Lake Ontario. His nearest neighbor
was six miles away, and the nearest town nearly twenty; but the
Devinses were so happy and contented that the absence of company gave
them no concern.

It was a splendid place to live in. In summer the eye ranged from the
slope where the sturdy pioneer had built his house over miles and
miles of waving beech and maple woods, away to the dark line of pines
on the high ground that formed the horizon. In the valley below,
Otter Creek, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, wound its sparkling way
northward. When Autumn painted the scene in brilliant hues, and it
lay glowing under the crimson light of October sunsets, the dullest
observer could not restrain bursts of admiration.

Mr. Devins's first attack on the stubborn forest had been over the