Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1901 — BESIEGED IN A SCHOOLHOUSE. [ARTICLE]

BESIEGED IN A SCHOOLHOUSE.

By Franklin Welles Calkins.

71 CURIOUS, thrilling and true / \ story comes from Montana. some sparsely settled dis(i" tricts of this mountain State school teaching is, at best, a lonely calling. Last summer, in what is known as the Haystack District of the Upper White Clay Valley, Miss Emma Barglof, a young teacher of Swedish extraction, had only one pupil during hay-time and harvest For five long weeks Miss Barglof and little Nettie May had “kept school’’ together. The log school house, built in the mouth of a deep ravine, was shut in on three sides by somber pitch-pine-trees. As the teacher could not teach or her young pupil study all the time, they made a couch of pine boughs in a cool corner of the room, and relieved the tedium of existence by after-din-ner naps. At other times they wandered in search of berries or fashioned decorative wreaths of ferns, or even joined in the Boisterous play of a lively fox-terrier which was allowed to follow them to school. One morning in July, just as they had “opened school” and the Third Reader “class” was reciting, the attention of teacher and pupil was distracted by a loud barking of dogs out upon open ground toward the creek. “Bunts,” the terrier, immediately bounced out-of-doors, and ran, joining in the dog racket with his shrill yipyappings. Almost immediately there was a furious outcry directly in front of the schoolhouse. As the noise continued there, rendering attention to books impossible, teacher and pupil went to the door to satisfy their curiosity. They discovered three strange dogs barking at the foot of a thick-topped pine which stood a little way out toward the valley road. Bunts was also taking a vigorous part in the demonstration. Plainly some wild creature had taken refuge in that big pine, but the eyes of the teacher and the little girl could not penetrate its dense green foliage. While they thus stood looking and wondering, a horseman came galloping along the road and halted near the tree. He was a stranger to them, and evidently the owner of the strange dogs. “Here! Come here!” he shouted. “Here, you, Jake, Snap, come here! I’ll beat you all good, now! Here! here!”

Then, as the crazy dogs paid no heed, the man grew angry and cracked a long cattle whip warningly. This availing nothing, he rode at them furiously, slashing right and left. The dogs now ran off with tails between their legs. “Hope them dogs haven’t broke up your school, miss’” the man halted to call back to the teacher. “Since I been lookin’ for my steers, they sure have give me a heap of trouble treein’ porcupines.” Miss Barglof made a polite reply, and the horseman moved on, with difficulty getting his dogs to follow. Bunts, the pugnacious terrier, refused to be called off. While teacher and pupil resumed their tasks, he continued to yap fiercely at the hidden quarry in the pine tree. In fact, he barked himself hoarse, and only came In when quite exhausted, to lap water from a wash basin, and to lie down to a disturbed and grumbling sleep. After the noon lunch Miss Barglof and Nettie lay upon their couch, and soon were sleeping more soundly than the terrier. From this nap the two were awakened a half hour later by fierce barks and snarls just outside the schoolhouse. As they rose, a spotted, yellow and brown creature sprang, snitting and squalling, upon a window sill, and thence to a desk top, whence It again leaped to the top of a big box stove in the rear of the room. There the strange looking wildcat halted to hump its back and hiss spitefully. Outside the terrier made several Ineffectual leaps to follow his quarry through the window; then, yapping In a frantic fashion, he came bouncing In at the door. As quick as lightning, almost, the cat jumped a distance of ten or twelve feet, from the top of the stove to a chimneypiece upon 'which a pipe flue tested. There, upon a large flat stone, out of reach of the dog, the snarling creature took refuge. Bunts filled the room with courageous noise, and the teacher, gathering assurance as she realized that the cat was not truly very formiable, —It was not more than twice the size of a common house cat,—determined to drive it out of doors, or at least to assist the dog in doing so. Beneath a loose board behind her desk she kept a straight handled ax for splitting kindling wood In cold weather. She got this weapon. "Now, Nettle," she commanded.

“you go out to the road and keep watch; if you see me coming in a hurry, run with all your might for home. I’m not much afraid, but the creature might fight hard.” The little girl started to obey, but had no sooner reached the door than she turned back with a scream of fright, ran to the corner couch, and flung herself face down, half faltlng with terror. A snarling scream of rage thrilled through the room, and shook every nerve in Miss Barglof’s body. She turned from the beast inside to face one, many times its size, that had thrust its great yellow head in at the doorway. It was a mountain Hon—the dam of the spotted cat. Its big, round eyes scintillated with a greenish light, its cruel fangs were bared, and the creature snarled and hissed in most threatening fashion. The plucky terrier faced this newcomer, barking fiercely into its very teeth. The old cougar and its kit were evidently the animals that the stranger’s dogs had chased to cover from the creek bottom. The old one, on account of the house so close at hand, had lain in hiding; but the kit, when all was quiet, had descended to run about. As this little creature knew nothing of men’s habitations, it had approached the school house, and had promptly leaped in at a window when the dog attacked. And now the savage old dam had come to the rescue of her young one. The teacher felt that the beast must be kept outside at all hazards. Trembling hut courageous, she took her place, with uplifted ax, behind’ the plucky terrier.

The threats of the old cougar were fearful. She had discovered her kit, and her eyes roved from its perch to the barking dog, while she hissed and snarled and rumbled forth growls in deep chest tones. Her square jaws were opened quite wide enough to take in the terrier’s head, and yet his demonstrations alone seemed to hold her in check. Doubtless, too, she hesitated to enter, fearing a trap, and yet she had plainly no intention of abandoning her kit. The teacher found strength and courage to flourish her ax above the dog, and actually attempted to strike the threatening lion upon its head. At this demonstration the beast leaped backward, and instantly Miss Barglof closed the door. She then ran to the nearest window and let down Its lower sash. There were still three open windows, and as she turned to close another, fresh affright awaited her. The old cougar had reared herself against the wall, and had thrust head and claws in at the opening. But for the dog the beast would doubtless have entered the room. The terrier, however, leaped upon a desktop, and thrusting his fierce little muzzle almost within reach of the beast’s claws, barked savagely. The kit joined in the clamor with frightened whining. Several times the teacher had shouted to Nettie to lie perfectly still, and the little girl had not once lifted the terror-stricken face she had buried in her arms. The dreadful threatenlngs at the window continued for a full minute. Miss Barglof hesitated, wondering if she might not attack the kit and drive it out at a window. But when she attempted to approach it the dam’s demonstrations became too ominous. By this time the teacher’s nerves, stout-hearted as she was, had reached a high state of tension. Her desire to end suspense was well-night uncontrollable. With teeth set, she laid . her ax upon the stove, and while fresh threats stormed at her from the open window, she seized a heavy top griddle or lid, and stepping In behind the dog, hurled it with all her might at the lion’s head. The heavy misslfe struck the window still with a crash, and again the cougar bounded away to seek another entrance. Miss Barglof quickly let the window down with a jarring bang that shook the building, and then turned her attention to the whining cougar kit. She secured her ax and attacked it boldly, determined to get the creature outside, dead or alive. At her first stroke the young Hon leaped to the floor, and the terrier closed with it instantly. A sharp and furious struggle took place upon the floor. Snarling, spitting cat and growling dog rolled over and over in what seemed a bouncing baU of black and tan and yellow. From the first, however, the terrier had the advantage, and soon his teeth closed upon the nape of the young cougar’s neck, and the fight was ended.

But the kit gave one last shrill meow, which was a most effective appeal to its dam. Straight at one of the closed windows the frantic old cougar leaped. She struck the panes midway, and but for their double central sash she would have gone clear through. As the splintered glass fell. Miss Barglof turned to see the vicious beast clinging, her head and three legs thrust through the broken panes, and clawing frantically for support. The teacher leaped upon a desk, confronting the scrambling brute, and struck It a swinging blow upon the head. The cougar, dropping to the ground, whirled about and about, holdinlg its head sidewise, as if half-dazed by the heavy stroke. Then Miss Barglof stood guard at the broken window and watched the cougar dam until the creature had recovered its senses, lay down upon its belly, thrashing its tall about and again snarling in futile threats. The teacher now took the body of the kit, which she was compelled to tear away from Bunts, and threw It out to the dam. The old one snarled afresh at this demonstration, and then, realizing that her kit lay before her, she rose quickly and sniffed eagerly at the lifeless spotted thing. She trotted away from the dead kit, and looked back as if coaxing it to follow, and yet not expecting it to do so. This manoeuver she repeated several times, returning to sniff at the body and to lick the soft fur caressingly. Then, with an air .f great dejection, she lifted the lifeless kit in her mouth and trotted off among the pines. The teacher now aroused Nettle and soothed her with assurances of safety. Yet when the two dared to go out of doors they did not stop running until they had crossed the Mayhew irrigating ditch, and found three men peacefully harvesting alfalfa In the field.—Youth’s Companion.