ere alone wi' th'
two young ones."

"Tell me about it," I suggested.

"'Twere this way sir," said Tom, spreading the pelt over a big chest
where we could admire it. "I were away 'tendin' fox traps, and I has
th' komatik and all th' dogs, savin' one, which I leaves behind. Th'
woman were bidin' home alone wi' th' two young ones. In th' evenin'[D]
her hears dogs a fightin' outside, and thinkin' 'tis one o' th' team
broke loose and runned home that's fightin' th' dog I leaves behind,
she starts t' go out t' beat un apart and stop th' fightin' when she
sees 'tis a wolf and no dog at all. 'Twere a wonderful big un too. He
were inside that skin you sees there, sir, and you can see for
yourself th' bigness o' he.

"Her tries t' take down th' rifle, th' one as is there on th' pegs,
sir. Th' wolf and th' dog be now fightin' agin' th' door, and th' door
is bendin' in and handy t' breakin' open. She's a bit scared, sir, and
shakin' in th' hands, and she makes a slip, and th' rifle, he goes
off, bang! and th' bullet makes that hole marrin' th' timber above th'
windy."

Tom arose and pointed out a bullet hole above the window.

"Then th' wolf, he goes off too, bein' scared at th' shootin'.

"I were home th' next day mendin' dog harness, when I hears th' dogs
fightin', and I takes a look out th' windy, and there I sees that wolf
fightin' wi' th' dogs, and right handy t' th' house. I just takes my
rifle down spry as I can, and goes out. When th' dogs sees me open th'
door they runs away and leaves th' wolf apart from un, and I ups and
knocks he over wi' a bullet, sir. I gets he fair in th' head first
shot I takes, and there be th' skin. 'Tis worth a good four dollars
too, for 'tis an extra fine one."

They are treacherous beasts, but, like the wolf, cowardly, these big
dogs of the Labrador. If a man should trip and fall among them, the
likelihood is he would be torn to pieces by their fangs before he
could help himself. You cannot make pals of them as you can of other
dogs. They would as lief snap off the hand that reared and feeds them
as not. It is never safe for a stranger to move among a pack of them
without a stick in his hand. But a threatened kick or the swing of a
menacing stick will send them off crawling and whining.

The Hudson's Bay Company once had a dozen or so of these big fellows
at Cartwright Post, in Sandwich Bay. They were exceptionally fine dogs
of the true husky breed, brought down from one of the more n