114 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



THE BEAR AND THE POLITICIAN. 



15. "I never but once," said Colonel Crockett, "was 

 in what I call a genuine quandary. It was during my 

 electioneering for Congress, at which time I strolled about 

 in the woods so pestered by politics that I forgot my rifle. 

 Any man may forget his rifle, you know, but it isn't every 

 man who can make amends for it. It chanced that, as I 

 was strolling along, the first thing that took my fancy was 

 the snarling of some bears, which proceeded from the hol- 

 low of a tree ; but I soon found that I could not reach the 

 cubs with my hands, so I went feet foremost to see if I 

 could draw them up by my toes. I hung on the top of 

 the hole, straining with all my might to reach them, until 

 at last my hands slipped, and down I went more than 

 twenty feet to the bottom of that hole, and there I found 

 myself almost knee-deep in a family of young bears. 



16. "I soon found that I might as well undertake to 

 climb up the steepest part of a rainbow as to get back 

 the hole in the tree being so large, and its sides so smooth 

 and slippery. Now, this was a real, genuine, regular quan- 

 dary. If I was to shout, it would have been doubtful 

 whether they would hear me at the settlement, and if 

 they did hear me the story would ruin my election ; for a 

 man that ventured into a place that he couldn't get him- 

 self out of, would forfeit the respect of the settlers. Well, 

 now, while I was calculating whether it was best to shout 

 for help or wait in the hole until after election, I heard a 

 kind of grumbling and growling overhead, and looking I 

 saw the old bear coming down stern foremost. As soon 

 as she lowered herself within my reach I got a tight grip 

 of her tail on my left hand, and with my little buck-haf ted 

 penknife in the other I commenced spurring her forward. 

 Ho member of Congress rose quicker in the *vorld than J 



