With Trapper Jim in the North Woods | Page 7

they,
Don?" continued the old trapper. "And in the excitement a dog can't
always just defend himself, eh, old fellow! They will get a dig in once
in a while, spite of us."
Don barked three times, just as if he understood every single word his
master was saying.
"And how about Ajax?" Bandy-legs continued.
"He's a general all-around dog, and ain't afraid of anything that walks.
Why, boys, I've known him to tackle and kill the biggest lynx ever seen
in these parts, and that's something few dogs could do."
"What's a lynx?" asked Bandy-legs.
"A species of wildcat that sometimes strays down this way across the
Canada border," replied the trapper. "Generally speaking, he's bigger'n
the other and fierce as all get out. Fact is, I believe I'd sooner have a
panther tackle me than a full-grown, ugly tempered lynx. Some people

call it the 'woods devil,' and they hit it pretty near right, too."
"Hasn't a lynx got some sort of mark about him that makes him look
different from the ordinary bobcat?" asked Owen.
"Why, yes," replied Trapper Jim, "there's some difference in the beasts;
but I reckon the little tassels that kinder adorn the ears of the lynx mark
him most of all."
"Looks like a full house, now," remarked Max, who had not hesitated
to make up with both the dogs, being very fond of their kind.
"Oh, while I have company Ajax and Don'll have to sleep in the shed or
lean-to outside," remarked the master of the dogs. "Of course, when I'm
here all by myself they stay indoors with me. And I tell you, lads, they
make a fellow feel less lonely in the long winter days and nights. Dogs
are men's best friends--that is, the right kind of dogs. They become
greatly attached to you, too."
Toby just then seemed to become greatly excited. Finding it difficult to
express himself as he wanted, he pointed straight at Steve, and was
heard to say:
"A-a-attached to you! S-s-sure they do; S-s-steve knows! Saw one
attached to h-h-him once. Wouldn't h-h-hardly let go."
At that there were loud shouts, and even Steve himself could hardly
keep from grinning at the recollection of the picture Toby's words
recalled.
"'Spose you fellers never will get over that affair," he remarked, as he
put his hand behind him, just as if after all these months he still felt a
pain where the dog had bitten him. "Cost me a good pair of trousers,
too, in the bargain. It was a bulldog," he added, turning toward Trapper
Jim, "and he was so much attached to me that he followed me halfway
'over a seven-foot fence. Would have gone the whole thing only the
cloth gave way and he lost his grip."

"Well, that showed a warm, generous nature," remarked Trapper Jim;
"some dogs are marked that way."
"This one was," declared Steve. "But I got even with the critter."
"How was that?" asked the other, looking a little serious; for, himself a
lover of dogs, he never liked to hear of one being abused.
"I got me one of those little liquid pistols, you know, and laid for my
old enemy," Steve continued; "he saw me passing by and came
bouncing out to try my other leg. But he changed his mind in a big
hurry. And, say, you just ought to 'a' heard him yelp when he turned
around and faced the other way."
"You didn't blind the poor beast, I hope?" remarked Jim.
"Oh, nothin' to speak of," said Steve, gayly. "He was all right the next
day. Ammonia smarts like fun for awhile, but it goes off. But, listen,
whenever I passed that house, if old Beauty was sitting on the steps like
he used to do, as soon as he glimpsed me, would you believe it, he'd
turn tail and run quick for the back yard and watch me around the
comer of the house."
"You had him tamed, all right," said Max.
"We called it an even break, and let it go at that," said Steve.
When the boys began to yawn, and betrayed unmistakable evidences of
being sleepy, their host showed them how he had arranged it so that
they could all sleep comfortably.
There were only two wooden bunks, one above the other. Trapper Jim
was to occupy the lower one, and turn about, the five boys were to have
the other.
This necessitated four of them sleeping on the floor each night. But as
there were plenty of soft furs handy, and the boys announced that they
always enjoyed being able to stretch out on the ground, Jim knew he

would have no trouble on this score.
So the first night passed.
Perhaps none of them slept as well as usual.