AS A HUMORIST. 107 



Of course he dropped his gun. They al- 

 ways do drop their guns, by some singu- 

 larly sad combination of accidents, when 

 they start up a tree with two rows of big 

 teeth in the rear, and it is hardly fair to 

 expect the young bear-hunter from New 

 York to prove an exception. Poor Boone 

 was severely maltreated by the savage old 

 mother grizzly in defense of her young. 

 There was a crashing of brush and a crush- 

 ing of bones, and then all was still. 



Suddenly the bear seemed to remember 

 that there was a second party who had 

 been in earnest search for a bear, and look- 

 ing back down the trail and up in the 

 boughs of a small tree, she saw a pair of 

 boots. She left poor Boone senseless on 

 the ground and went for those boots. Com- 

 ing forward, she reared up under the tree 

 and began to claw for the capitalist. He 

 told me that she seemed to him, as she 

 stood there, to be about fifty feet high. 

 Then she laid hold of the tree. 



Fortunately this madrona tree is of a 



8 



