SIEGE OF A BACKWOODS CABIN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2519, 1 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIEGE OF A BACKWOODS CABIN.

A writer in the New York Weekly Sun gives some of his experiences of the land of the Wolverines, when the capital of Michigan had just changed from Detroit to Lansing. Among others this : — Father fell very sick, and one day about the middle of June it became plain that he muse have medical assistance at one. Gordon mounted om: of the horses for a ride, to the doctor's, a distance of twelve miles, and when night came lie had n)t returned. It had scarcely grown dark when the wild beasts about us began to howl and roar and skulk about the house, and, after catching sight of several wolves, I went inand barred thedoor; there was only one opening for a window and, over this was riailf.d a bhnket. It was high up from the ground, and only about two feet square. The horse was in a stout pen, and there waa no fear that he coulil bo got a.t. When night had fully settled down we where in a state of eiege. Wolves to the number of forty or fifty surrounded the house, and, growing bolder as time passed and their number increased, they made furious and repeated effort* to force an entrance. Gordon had taken the gun with him, but we had two axes in the house. Mother stood at the door with one, and I defended the window with the other. The wolves gnawed a hole in the door, through which one could have passed, but for her presenco and the sharp-edged weapon she wielded. Every head stuck in the openiDg received a blow, and the baffled animals finally ceased their efforts at that poiut. although mother dared not leave the spot. After the wolves had worried us for an hour, without, however, having made much of an effort to got in by way of the window, it being too high for them they left us suddenly. I theo dragged a chest across the floor to stop the hole in the door, and mother discovered that father waa dead. The poor man, weak as he was, had not been able to endure the fright of the attack. We did not have many minutes for lamentation. The wolves had given place to a more dangerous enemy. There was a sudden pounce on the roof over our heads, accompauied by a snarl, and we knew that a panther was at hand. The first was soon joined by a second and third, and then two or three others were heard on the grouud. That they were determined to get in we were soon led to understand. I made a smudge on the hearth to keep them from trying the chimney, and then mother took one side of the window and I the other. We instinctively felt that it was the point of danger, now that the chest protected the door. We were hardly at our posts when a panther sprang up, and tore the blanket down. Our light consisted of a piece of cotton lying in a dish of coon's fat and at times the flame was almost out. A couple of minutes after the blanket was torn away a panther sprang into the opening. Had he been left undisturbed he could have equeezed through ; but the instant his head appeared we both struck at him. His right fore-paw hung over the edge of the opening, and my blow cut it clean off and dropped it on the floor. That eettled one of the visitors, although the row he made over the loss of his paw almost unnerved us. At that moment there seemed to be five or six of the beasts about, that was only a short time before another sprang into the opening. Mother struck him square in the face, and five minutes later I severely wounded a third. That seemed to damp the ardour of all, for they soon withdrew, and the wolves returned. They made ltttle or no effort to get at tho horse; but for an hour after their return they made desperate and determined efforts to break their way into the cabin. They came against the door, six or eight of thorn at once—with such force as to shake the house, and had not the lower log been sunk in clay ground they would have dug their way under. The last wolf did not leave before two o'clock. Up to this time mother had not given way to her grief. When danger passed away she broke down, and from then to daylight I sat alone by the door with axe in hand. I looked for Gordon at an early hour, but he did not appear. About ten o'clock the horae came home, bitten in a terrible manner, and so serious were his injuries that he d ied before night. Next day it was found that Gordon had been chased by a drove of wo'ves, and while the horse escaped nothing but a few bones could be seen of the man.