ry!" said Jimmy. Jenny shuddered with delight.

"As I went along you may be sure I never thought my grandchildren
would be pleased to have me in danger of being eaten up by wolves."

Jenny looked shocked at the imputation. Grandpapa watched her with
twinkling eyes. When she saw he was joking, she cried: "But you
weren't eaten, grandpapa. You were too brave."

"Ah, I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps I'd better not tell the story.
You'll have a worse opinion of my courage, my dear."

"Of course you _had_ to run from _wolves_, grandpapa!" said the little
girl.

"I'll bet grandpapa didn't run then, miss," said Jimmy. "I'll bet he
shot them with his gun."

"He couldn't--could you, grandpapa? There were too many. Of course
grandpapa _had_ to run. That wasn't being cowardly. It was
just--just--_running_."

"No, Jenny, I didn't run a yard."

"Didn't I tell you?" cried Jimmy. "Grandpapa shot them with his gun."

"You're mistaken, Jimmy."

"Then you must--No, for you're here--you weren't eaten up?" said
wondering Jenny.

"No, dear, I wasn't eaten up."

"Oh, I know! The wolves didn't come!" cried Jimmy, who remembered one
of his grandpapa's stories as having ended in that unhappy way.

"Oh, but they did, Jimmy!"

"Why, grandpapa, what _did_ you do?"

"I climbed into a hollow tree."

"_Of course!_" said both children.

"Now I'm going to tell you a true wolf story, and that's what few
grandpapas can do out of their own experience.

"I was resting on the shore of a lake, with my snow-shoes off to ease
my sore toes, when I saw a pack of wolves trotting lazily toward me on
the snow that covered the ice. I was sure they had not seen me. Right
at my elbow was a big hollow pine. It had an opening down to the
ground, a good deal like the door of a sentry-box.

"There was a smaller opening about thirty feet higher up. I had looked
up and seen this before I saw the wolves. Then I rose, stood for a
moment in the hollow, and climbed up by my feet, knees, hands, and
elbows till I thought my feet were well above the top of the opening.
Dead wood and dust fell as I ascended, but I hoped the wolves had not
heard me."

"Did they, grandpapa?"

"Perhaps not at first, Jenny. But maybe they got a scent of the
deer-meat I was carrying. At any rate, they were soon snapping and
snarling over it and my snow-shoes. _Gobble-de-gobble, yip, yap, snap,
growl, snarl, gobble_--the meat was all gone in a moment, like little
Red Riding