Winamac High School - Totem Yearbook (Winamac, IN)

Page 22 text:

16 THE TOTEM • . • .JC ft) «» ..v . - Hill t r i -™ r rl Hi 1 1 R

Page 21 text:

THE TOTEM 15 THE LYNX Winter was approaching hard and fast in Ontario, a southern Canadian province. It was now about three months since Ned Harding ' and his two sisters, Mabel and Helen, had plunged into this wilderness, cut of which they carved the hut of unhewn logs and sod roof. One evening as Ned was slowly plodding homeward to his scanty meal after chopping wood all day, he was surprised to find his city cousin, Sam Alder. Sam intended staying all win- ter, and besides bringing with him the fine new shotgun which he had just received as a birthday present, he brought a dozen chickens; these would afford them some food in case the wild game grew scarce. Each day while Ned would be cutting wood, Sam would take his shotgun in quest of food; this he seldom obtained, for he never ventured farther away than the sound of Ned ' s axe: and although flocks of wild pigeons daily flew over, still they seemed to know the exact range of the old-fashioned shotgun and would rise in noisy circles before he got close enough to fire. It ' s high time we had some fresh meat, said Ned, one morning. He took down the large old-fashioned, brass-mounted rifle, and taking de- liberate aim against the door sill, fired. The woodchuck that was sitting on a large stump fell backward and lay still. Sam ran to the place and returned in triumph with the animal. But woodehueks were aol the Larg- est game in these backwoods. About one mile from Ned ' s home was a large, overgrown basswood which ' uid recently fallen and its hollow trunk afforded a sheltering home for the mother lynx and her brood. She was old and gaunt, for a rabbit plague the autumn before had swept off the most of their support; nothing was left for her but the partridges and red squir- rels, which were hard to catch. One day she heard a queer voice calling, and upon taking the direction whenee it came, hoping that she might find something new for her half-starved kittens, she got many new odors. She soon came to a clear place where there were many weeds and stumps; walk- ing about on a dry knoll were a num- ber of partridges, that is, birds like partridges, only larger and of vari- ous colors. All her nature was aroused; the old huntress sank to the earth. She must have one of the partridges at any price; no trick must be untried. She sneaked from stump to stump. Finally a huge white bird wandered behind the weeds near by. Five more silent steps and the mother lynx was behind the weeds. She gauged tiie distance, tried the foot- ing, and leaped straight with ail her force. The white bird never knew

Page 23 text:

THE TOTEM 17 the death it died; even before the a large creature like a big bob-tailed others bad time to fly the lynx was kitten appeared and Looked Lnquir- gone with its prey squirming in its ingly at him. Then a second one thai jaws. he had not noticed began to play with One day Sam had gone without a the first. He had almost raised his gun as lie on ' y meant to gather some gun when a fierce grow] close at hand wjntergreen berries lie had seen. As startled him and turning around, not he cane to the place which he reCOg- ten feet away stood the mother lynx, nized by a fallen elm. his eye caught tierce, and as big as a tigress. Before two moving things on the log. They he was ready to shoot at her, how- were the head and tail of an enorm- ever, she had picked up something ous lynx, the body being invisible he- near her feet; the boy got a glimpse of came it was so nearly the color of the :i newly killed fawn; then she passed log. She had seen him and was glar- out of sight. The kittens followed ing and grumbling; under one paw and he saw no more until he was less was a white bird that at a second able to shoot than then. glance proved to he one of their Six weeks passed until one day precious hens. How tierce and cruel Ned arose and went to the woods to the brute looked! How Sam hated work, feeling unusually bad. He it! As he stood wondering what to came home early and was trembling do, the lynx growled more loudly, from head to foot. After several picked up its victim, and leaping from hours he was in a high fever and in the log, was lost to view. spite of ad their herbs and nursing On another day he came upon pig- the young man got worse. At the like footprints in the woods. Later end often days he couldn ' t work. he caught sight of a mother deer, Say, girls; I can ' t stand it any searching through the woods, trying longer, Ouess I better go home. the ground for trails. Sam remem- I ' m well enough to drive today. bered a trick Ned had told him. Mot her ' II have me all righl in a week Making a whistle out of a broad or so. blade of grass, he gave a short, shrill Half a week had scarcely gone he- ld at. and the deer, though a long fore all three of them, Sam. Helen and way off, came bounding toward him. Mabel, were taken down with chills He snatched his gun. meaning to kill and fever. her, but he desisted when she stopped Soon Sam was the only one ah ' e to and looked inquiringly at him. Her rise, and one morning when lie big, soft eyes touched his heart, and dragged himself to cut as usual the as she bounced behind a large tree little slice of their treasured bacon, he exclaimed: Poor thing. I he- he found to his horror that the whole lieve she has lost her little one. piece was gone. He was in despair Half an hour after seeing this lonely when his eves lighted on the chickens deer as he passed the huge basswood, in the stable. There were only torn-