occasions we had to wait for breakfast until she returned. I do not know
that the fire was ever paid back, but I do know that we had callers
frequently when the errand was to borrow fire.

When I went hunting I was careful to take a piece of this with me. I
broke or tore it off (it was something like tearing old cloth). With
this, a flint and a jackknife I could make a fire in case night overtook
me in the woods and I could not get out. Fire was our greatest protection
from wild animals and cold in the night. This was the way we kindled our
fire in the Reed house, before "Lucifer matches" or "Telegraph matches"
were heard of by us, although they were invented as early as 1833. After
we got a little comfortable and rested, and the wood burned down to coals
we cut some slices of venison, laid them on the coals and roasted them.
Although we had no salt, the meat tasted very good.

Late in the evening we took our venison and started again. It was hard
work to follow the path in the thick woods, and we had to feel the way
with our feet mostly as it was quite dark. We had got about eighty rods
from the house when, as unexpected as thunder in the winter, broke upon
our startled ears the dismal yells and awful howls of wolves. No doubt
they had smelled our venison and come down from the west, came down
almost upon us and broke out with their hideous yells. The woods seemed
to be alive with them. Father said: "Load the rifle quick!" I dropped my
venison, and if ever I loaded a gun quick, in the dark, it was then. I
threw in the powder, ran down a ball without a patch, and, strange to
say, before I got the cap on the wolves were gone, or at least they were
still, we didn't even hear them run or trot. What it was that frightened
them we never knew; whether it was our stopping so boldly or the smell
of the powder, or what, I cannot say; but we did refuse to let them have
our venison. We got away with it as quickly as possible and carried it