The
deed, in truth, was characteristic of the dauntless young farmer, whose
courage and heroic character (as his eulogist justly remarks) "were ever
attended by a serenity of soul, a clearness of conception, a degree of
self-possession, and a superiority to all vicissitudes of fortune,
entirely distinct from anything that can be produced by a ferment of the
blood and flutter of spirits, which not unfrequently precipitate men to
action when stimulated by intoxication or some other transient
exhilaration."
That was "Wolf Put," or "Old Wolf Putnam," as he came to be called
thenceforth. But at no time in his active and wonderful career was he
an old man when he performed his deeds of valor. The wolf-hunt, in fact,
was mainly a young men's and boys' affair, Putnam himself being only
twenty-four at the time, and the wolf having been traced to her lair by
young John Sharp, a boy of seventeen.
The slayer of the old she-wolf was the hero of the time; but he bore his
laurels modestly, though exaggerated accounts of the affair were
published all over the colonies, and even in England, where they were
exploited in the public prints.
Pages:
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32