A RAINY DAY IN CAMP 209 



close to me. Anyway, he jumps from behind that cedar, 

 plumb at the b'ar's throat, just as I fired! I didn't 

 see the dog till he filled the sight, just as I pulled the 

 trigger; but when the gun cracked, I knew I'd killed 

 him. The ball went clean through his shoulders, killin' 

 him stone dead; but it also hit the b'ar in a front leg, 

 and when he grabbed his leg between his teeth and bit 

 it, it gave me a chance to put a ball into his neck, which 

 finished him. 



" The death of my dog made me so mad and locoed 

 I just emptied my Winchester into that b'ar, after he was 

 down for keeps. I felt as I couldn't ever stop shootin' 

 him. He was shore scorched by my last five shots. 



" That was the only b'ar that ever charged me. Al- 

 though he had only just come out of his winter den, he 

 was very fat. We got out of him over a hundred pounds 

 of grease. He hadn't eaten anything since he holed up 

 in the fall. His stomach was about the size of my two 

 fists, and there was nothing in it but wrinkles. He was 

 a dark silver-tip, and his hair was rather short and thin. 

 We got only twelve-fifty out of him, bounty and hide. 

 The bounty was $10. He was the biggest b'ar I ever 

 saw. No, we didn't weigh him, nor measure him. We 

 had no way to do either; but his dry hide was over ten 

 feet long." 



THE BIG BEAR THAT GOT AWAY 



Some one said something about the difficulty of judg- 

 ing distances in the mountains, particularly over snow; 

 and that led to a remark from Mack Norboe 



