e
a pretty sight; and I sat lookin' at 'em, as
girls do, and pullin' wintergreen leaves. I
never smell wintergreen now without thinkin' of
that day. All of a suddent I heard Bluff bark;
and lookin' round, I saw him snuffin' and
smellin' about a steep clay bank covered with
vines and brambles. "Woodchuck!" I thought; and
I called him off, for I never let him kill
critters unless they were mischeevous, which in
the wild woods they couldn't be, of course.
But the dog wouldn't come off. He stayed there,
sniffin' and growlin', and at last I went to
see what the trouble was.

My dear, when I lifted up those vines and
brambles, what should I see but a hole in the
bank!--a hole about two feet across, bigger
than any that a woodchuck ever made. The edges
were rubbed smooth, as if the critter that made
it was big enough to fit pretty close in
gettin' through. My first idee was that 't was
a wolf's den,--wolves were seen sometimes in
those days in the Cobbossee woods,--and I was
goin' to drop the vines and slip off as quiet
as I could, when what does that dog do but pop
into the hole right before my eyes, and go
wrigglin' through it! I called and whistled,
but 't was no use; the dog was bound to see
what was in there.

I waited a minute, expectin' to hear the wolf
growl, and thinkin' my poor Bluff would be torn
to pieces, and yet I must go off and leave him,
or be treated the same myself. But, Dolly,
instead of a wolf's growl, I heard next minute
a sound that made me start more 'n the wolf
would ha' done,--the sound of a human voice.
Yes! out o' the bowels o' the earth, as you
may say, a voice was cryin' out, frightened and
angry-like; and then Bluff began to bark, bark!
Oh, dear! I felt every which way, child. But 't
was clear that there was only one path of duty,
and that path led through the hole; for a
fellow creature was in trouble, and 't was my
dog makin' the trouble. Down I went on my face,
and through that hole I crawled and
wriggled,--don't ask me how, for I don't know
to this day,--thinkin' of the sarpent in the
Bible all the way.