The essay below was written by Opa as a school assignment. However, there is no indication of what class or what grade of school he was in when he wrote it. What we do know is the grade he received for the paper, and why that grade was given to him. At the bottom of the typed essay, the following comments were written by his teacher, along with the grade of B-: “How old were you? Were you afraid? This could be humanized more.”
I Earn Six Dollars
Arthur Odens
It was a cool, cloudy evening, such as often comes after a good spring rain. Chore-time had come again, and the horses were still out in the pasture. They must be brought to the barnyard so they could be put into the barn for the night. To make it a quick job, Dad took me out to the pasture with the car. Starting to walk down the slope to where the horses were trying to find some fresh spring grass to eat, I suddenly noticed three animals near a mound of freshly dug soil. I picked up a rock and was going to throw it at them to drive them away. To my surprise, one of them came toward me and showed me her nice white teeth. By this time I realized that they were not foxes as I had supposed, but they were wolves: a male, female and their little cub. It was the mother who came toward me to protect her young.
While I had walked those few yards into the pasture, Dad had gone to the next driveway to turn around and start for home. I lost no time trying to attract his attention so that he would stop, as I thought we had better do something about getting these wolves out of the pasture, or they might get some of the sheep. As most fathers keep a watchful eye on their sons, it wasn’t hard for me to make him aware of the fact that I wanted him to come over to where I was. Father gave me orders to take the car and hurry home to get the guns while he watched the wolves so they would not escape in the meantime. I tried to hurry, but the road was very muddy and it was a hard job to keep the old Model T Ford between the two ditches. I got back in a reasonably short time, however, bringing the 20-gauge shotgun and my little .22 rifle. However, I had to warn father that I had been able to find only two shells for the shotgun and one cartridge for the rifle.
While I was gone to get the guns, the mother wolf tried to remove the cub from the danger they were in, while the male stayed at some distance. Father was determined to keep the mother wolf there till he had his gun, so every time she attempted to go, he would walk up closer to her, and she, not liking the idea too well, would come toward him. Thus it was more or less of a see-saw affair till I got back.
Now that we had the guns, the next problem was to get near enough to the wolves to get a good shot at them. Every time we tried to get there, they would charge at us. Finally we decided that Dad would walk straight for the wolves while I walked off to the side, figuring that in this way she could not attack both of us at the same time.
When Dad got as near as he thought possible, he aimed and shot both shells. The mother wolf went over the hill, howling for pain. Dad followed her, but after a few yards she fell down and Dad thought she was dead.
I had been trying to catch the cub alive, but he was a bit too large for that. He dashed for a nearby building and got underneath. I then took my rifle and the one lonely cartridge. My aim was good and I shot the cub. I removed him from under the building, a dead cub.
Father and I then went to pick up the mother wolf. We had thought she was dead, but to our surprise she tried to get up on her feet and snap at us. Having no more shells, we couldn’t shoot again, so we resorted to what we found lying around: stones, clubs, etc. We managed to kill her that time and went home with the satisfaction of having been successful in our venture.
Within the next few days, we received a bounty on our wolves. Father got fifteen dollars bounty for the female, but I was just as proud of the six dollars bounty I got for my little cub. That is how I earned my first six dollars.
