THE FIDDLER AND THE WOLVES.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 17, 27 April 1867, Page 4

THE FIDDLER AND THE WOLVES.

The wolf, besides being the most übiquitious of predatory animals, is the most active, tenacious, and difficult oexterpation. It is every where. It fillsf in the chinks of desolation. Its savage, grinning head peers through the broken glooms of stern wilderness—hideous, gaunt and fierce! Itknowsno sympathies, and we give it none. Yet there is one droll incident with which my boyhood was familiar, which seems to indicate in the wolf a certain susceptibility to the softer emotions—or more refined senses, at least. In the early days of the settlement of South Kentucky, there was great trouble with the wolves. The lai-ge grey wolf abounded in the heavy forests; barn yards suffered to a great extent —in the way of pigs, calves, Ac.—from their depredations, which frequently in midwinter, were even carried to the audacious extreme of attacking human beings. Some striking stories of hair-breadth escapes and desperate ventures belong to this period and condition of things. No on? of them ever made a stronger impression on me than the adventure of old Dick, the fiddler.

He was‘ a good old good-for-nothing darkie,’ as the word went in the neighbourhood, whose sole merit consisting in his fiddling; but, by the way, singular as this merit was, it in reality constituted him by far the most important gentleman of color within forty miles around. The fact is nothing of any interest could occur without his presence. It was as important as the very face of the man in the moon—beneath jwhose auspices the weddings, the ‘breakdowns,’ and Juba dances of the neighbornood were enacted Now, Dick had most strongly developed the strongst and most marked traits of the fiddler, the world over—namely, punctiliousness and punctuality Upon' either of these points he was peculiarly irritable; nay, even ferocious. Nothing caused him so far forget 1 the proprieties ’in his own person as the invention of any unusual or accidental causes of delay. On the accasion of a grand wedding festival among the colored gentry of the neighbouring plantation, some six miles distant, Old Dick was, of course, expected to officiate asthemaster of the ceremonies It had been an unusually severe winter, and a heavy snow lay upon the ground on the eventful evening, when, havingdonned his ‘ long-tailed blue,’ with its glittering gilt buttons, and mounted the immense shirt-collar by which the dignity of his official character was to be maintained, the ancient Apollo sallied forth, fiddle in hand, to dare the perils of the distant way alone: for the young-er darkies had all gone to the frolic hours longago, with a haste and eagerness altogether unbecoming his importance, The moon was out, and the stars twinkled over head, as the old man trudged away over the crisp cracking snow. The path which was a very narrow one, led for the greater part, of the way, through the dark shadows of a forest, which yet remained as wild as when the Indians roamed in it, and was untrarersed by a waggonroad for manv miles.

The profound and dreary solitude of the way could not have failed to impress any-one unless he happened to be entirely occupied by one obsorbing thought, such as now held absolutely the body and soul of the old man, in his anxiety to reach the seat of operations in exact time. He was goaded at every step by the maddening vision of the expectant ranks of sable gentility, rolling the whites of their eyes and stamping in their stockingfeet upon the floor, impatient of his delay for the truth was, that he had lingered a little too long over polishing those brass buttons and the settling of that immensity of collar, and the first become conscious of it as he came forth beneath the moon and perceived its unexpected heieht.

On he dashed with unrelaxing energy, heedless of the black shadows and hideous night-cries in the deep forest. Wolves were howling around him in every direction; but he paid no attention to sounds that were so common. However, he was soon compelled to give more heed to these animals than was by any means pleasing or expected. He had now made nearly half of Ids journey, and the light opening ahead through the trees showed him the ‘ old clearing,’ as it was called, through which his path led. The wolves had been getting exceedingly noisy for the last mile ; and, to the indescribable borrow of the old man, he could hear them gathering about him in the crackling bushes on each side, as they trotted along to keep pace with his rapid steps. The woods very soon seemed to the old man to be literally alive with them, as they gathered in packs from far and near.

Wolves are cautions about attacking a human being at once, and usually require some little time to work themselves up to the point. That such was the case now proved most lucky for poor old Dick, who began to realise the horrible danger, as a dark object would brush past his legs every few moments, with a snapping sound like the ring - of a steel trap ; while the yelling and pattering ot the wolves increased. Diftk knew enough of the habits of the animal to be aware that to run would insure instant death, as the cowardly pack would be sure to set upon him in a body on the instant of observing any such indication

of fear. His only chance was to keep them at bay by preserving tiie utmost steadiness until he could reach the open ground before him, when he hoped they might leave him, as they do not like to attack in such places. He remembered, too, that an old hut still stood in the middle of the clearing, and the thought that he might reach that haven gave him some- comfort. The wolves were becoming more audacious every minute, and the poor old fiddler could see their green eyes glaring death upon him from all the thickets around. They rushed at him more boldly one after another, snapping as they went past in still closer proximity to his thin legs—indeed, the frightened fiddler had at length to thrust at them with his fiddle to turn aside. In doing so the strings were jarred; and the despairing nigger took some hope when he observed that at the sound the wolves leaped aside with surprise. He instantly drew his hand harshly across the strings, and, to his infinite relief, they sprang back and aside as if he had shot amongst them. Taking advantage of this lucky diversion in his favor, and as he had now reached the edge of the clearing, he made a run for the hut, raking his hand across the fiddle strings, at" every jump, until they fairly roared. The astonished wolves paused for a moment on the edge of the clearing, with their legs looking after him; but the sight of his flying form renewed at once their savage instincts, and, with a loud burst of yells, they pursued him at frill speed. Alas for the unlucky fiddler! had he been caught now, it would have been all over with him, even had his fiddle shrieked more unearthly shrieks than that of Paganini.

Luckily the old man reached the hut just has they were at his heels ; and slamming the rickety door behind him, he had time to climb out on the roof’ where he was comparitively out of danger. I say comparatively for the perch he now occupied was too ricketty to make it desirable, except by contrast with the immediate danger from which he had escaped. The wolves were now furious, and, thronging the interior, leaped up to the musician with wild yells. They poor old , sinner was dreadfully frightened, and it required his utmost activity to keep his legs from being snapped by some animal more agile or enterprising than his confreres. Wild with terror as lie was, poor old Dick had managed to cling- to his fiddle through it all; and remembering that it had saved him in the woods, he now with the sheer energy of desperation, drew his bow shrieking across the strings, while with his feet kicking out in the air, he endeavoured to avoid the fangs of the foe. Instant silence followed this outburst, and Dick continued to produce spasms of sound such as a man in his hysterical condition would naturally conceive.

This outbreak' kept the wolves quiet for a moment or two; hut old Dick soon learned to his increased horror, that even wolves are too fastidious to had fiddling 1 , for they soon renewed the attack more furiously than ever. This was too much for the instrumentalist, and most especially when the head of a great wolf was thrust up between the hoards of the roof, within a few inches of where he sat. He gave himself up now for a gone darkie; and with horrified exclamation, “ Dress God ! who dar ?” he fell to fiddeling “Yankee Doodle” with all his might—unconciously as the dying swan is said to sing its own requiem. With the first notes of the air silence commenced : Orpheus had conquered ! The hruU s owned the subduing spell; and the terrorstricken fidler, when he came to—astonished at the sudden ccnsation ofhostilities beheld himself surrounded by the most attentive and appreciated audience he had ever played to; for, the moment there was the slightest cessation of the music every listener sprang - forward to renew the battle, and set his pipe-stem legs flying in the air again. But he had now learned the spell; and so long as he continued to play witli tolerable, precision, was comparatively sate. The old fiddler forgot his terror in professional pride. He was decidedly flattered by such intense appreciation"; and, entering fully into the spirit of the thing, played with a gusto and effect he had never before surpassed or even equalled. Even the wedding, with its lights, its sweetened whiskey, was forgotten for the time in the glow of this new professional triumph. But all pleasures have their reverses on this earth; and has time progressed, he began, with all his enthusiasm, to feel natural symptoms of cold, fatigue, and even exhaustion. But it would’notdo—he could not stop a moment before they were at him again and there they persistently sat, that shaggy troop of connoisseurs, fidgetting on their haunches, with lolling tongues and pricked ears, listening to their charmer for several weary hours, until the negroes at the wedding, becoming impatient or alarmed'aboutthe old man, came out to look for him; and found him thus perched upon the roof of the tottering hut, sawing away for dear life, while he was ready to drop every instant for sheer fatigue and the freezing cold. They rescued the old man from his comfortless position, while thelingering forms of his late audience told they most unwillingly surrendered their expected feast.