go NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

was riding in a sleigh in company with his wife and child,
when he became aware that they were being pursued by
wolves. He urged the horses to their utmost speed but it
soon became evident that the wolves would overtake them
before they could reach a place of safety. Urged to des-
peration, the peasant ordered his wife to throw the child to
the wolves, hoping thereby to gain time and thus escape.
The wife refused to part with her little one, whereupon an
altercation ensued, during which the peasant tried to drag
the child from her arms with a view to throwing it to the
wolves himself. In the struggle both mother and child fell
from the vehicle, and with a lightened load the horses
dashed forward at an even greater speed. For some ap-
parently unaccountable reason, however, the wolves took no
notice of the mother and child and continued to pursue the
sleigh, possibly anticipating the larger meal that the horses
would supply. In this they were not disappointed, for they
succeeded in overtaking the sleigh, and the peasant and the
horses fell victims to their ravage. In the meantime the mother
and child found their way to a farm house where they were
sheltered until danger was past.
Tame Notwithstanding his natural fierceness, the
Wolves. wolf becomes tame under kindly treatment, and
shows much affection for those who cherish him. Instances
are common in which wolves have remembered their bene-
factors, after years of absence, and have shown every demon-
stration of joy on recognition. They have even been har-
nessed and taught to draw carriages and to fulfil other useful
offices. With wolves, as with many other animals, hunger
and thirst are apparently the principal causes of savagery
and the struggle for existence the main cause of rapacity and
cruelty.
The Cunning The cunning of the fox is proverbial and if
of the Fox. only one half of the stories told about him are
true, there are quite sufficient to invest him with a degree of