"Now, men," said the old man as we topped out the dirt roof and smoothed it up, "we've a snug shelter here for our stock in case of need, but, of course, we won't put 'em into it till we have to. As long as it's fair they'll do better out on the buffalo-grass, as they've been doing. Our stable, hay, an' grain will be our reserve for stormy weather or when the grass is covered with snow. We must still work hard till we get our own winter quarters finished up, an' then let the weather turn loose—we'll be ready for it."
Toward evening I made the round of the buffalo carcasses and poisoned them for the night's catch of wolves.
As we gathered around the supper table in the evening I suggested:
"As I expect a big job of wolf skinning in the morning, I guess I'll need help, and maybe I had as well take Jack along with me and be breaking him in."
"All right," replied the Irishman, "if Tom says so, I'm your huckleberry. How many skins are you going to get this haul?"
"Well, I don't know, but, putting it low, I ought to find at least five or six around each bait, and maybe twice that many, so you see, skinning, bringing in, and pegging down thirty-five or forty wolf pelts is no small job."
"Well, it'll take the two of you the whole forenoon," said Tom ruefully, "but the wolfskins must be taken care of—that's what we're here for. Still, I'm mighty anxious to get the other dugout done, so I guess you'd better not kill any more buffalo for bait unless we need some more of their skins to cover our dugout. These six will keep you a-poisoning and a-skinning for at least three or four days to come, and all of that time there'll not be much done on the dugout, for part of my time'll be taken up doing the cooking an' camp work. But go ahead with your wolf killing, for every pelt cured is as good as six bits or a dollar in pocket at the least calculation."
After an early breakfast next morning Jack and I mounted and started. We found fully as big a job as I had anticipated, for the night's catch yielded us over fifty wolfskins. It took us most of the morning, brisk work, to get them all gathered in, and our horses were so well loaded with the hides that we had to walk and lead them back to camp. Jack proved an apt pupil at wolf skinning and soon could snatch a hide off as quickly as I.
When we reached camp with our loads we found that Tom, with his usual foresight, had whittled us out a good lot of pegs, which greatly assisted us in disposing of the pelts, and we soon had them stretched and pegged down, flesh side up, on a smooth piece of ground near the tent where we had already started a drying yard.
Each evening, while there was anything left for a wolf bait of the buffalo we had recently killed, I made the round, poisoning the flesh, and next morning Jack and I visited the baits, skinned the dead wolves, brought in the pelts, and pegged them down. This generally "spoiled" the forenoon, while the afternoon would be spent in digging our dugout; but, as our winter quarters were to be only about half the size of the stable, we soon had the new excavation finished.