ll.

"Oh, a number. Otters and beavers--we caught them in deadfalls and in
steel traps. The mink we usually took in deadfalls, smaller, of course,
than the ones we used for the bears. The musk-rat we caught in box traps
like a mouse trap. The wild-cat we ran down like the 'loup cervier'--"

"What kind of an animal is that?" asked Mr. Maxwell.

"It is a lynx, belonging to the cat species. They used to prowl about
the country killing hens, geese, and sometimes sheep. They'd fix their
tushes in the sheep's neck and suck the blood.

"They did not think much of the sheep's flesh. We ran them down with
dogs. They'd often run up trees, and we'd shoot them. Then there were
rabbits that we caught, mostly in snares. For musk-rats, we'd put a
parsnip or an apple on the spindle of a box trap. When we snared a
rabbit, I always wanted to find it caught around the neck and strangled
to death. If they got half through the snare and were caught around the
body, or by the hind legs, they'd live for some time, and they'd cry
just like a child. I like shooting them better, just because I hated to
hear their pitiful cries. It's a bad business this of killing dumb
creatures, and the older I get, the more chicken-hearted I am about it."

"Chicken-hearted--I should think you are," said Mrs. Wood. "Do you know,
Laura, he won't even kill a fowl for dinner. He gives it to one of the
men to do."

"Blessed are the merciful," said Miss Laura, throwing her arm over her
uncle's shoulder. "I love you, dear Uncle John, because you are so kind
to every living thing."

"I'm going to be kind to you now," said her uncle, "and send you to bed.
You look tired."

"Very well," she said, with a smile. Then bidding them all good-night,
she went upstairs. Mr. Wood turned to Mr. Maxwell. "You're going to stay
all night with us, aren't you?"

"So Mrs. Wood says," replied the young man, with a smile.

"Of course," she said. "I couldn't think of letting you go back to the
village such a night as this. It's raining cats and dogs--but I mustn't
say that, or there'll be no getting you to stay. I'll go and prepare
your old room next to Harry's." And she bustled away.

The two young men went to the pantry for doughnuts and milk, and Mr.
Wood stood gazing down at me. "Good dog," he said; "you look as if you
sensed that talk to-night. Come, get a bone, and then away to bed."

He gave me a very large mutton bone, and I held it in my mouth, and
watched him openin