CAMP-FIRE TALES 219 



THE GRIZZLY THAT FELL INTO THE FIRE 



" Campbell was a bald-headed old fellow who lived 

 a few miles above Meeker, Colorado. He was great on 

 killin' grizzlies, and he killed so many of 'em that finally 

 he wasn't ever afraid of one, nohow. One time a feller 

 was drivin' along a trail, and he saw old Jack come a-run- 

 nin' out of a thick patch o' young jack pines, with an axe 

 in his hand, lookin' behind him. No, he didn't have no 

 gun. Bimeby he stopped, went back into the jack pines, 

 but soon come a-runnin' out again, just as before. Then 

 he stopped, and blamed if he didn't do it all over again. 



" Then the feller on the trail got off his wagon, 

 hitched his horses, and went up to see what it all meant. 

 And what d'ye s'pose that old cuss was up to? " 



Everybody gave it up. 



" Well, sir, there was a grizzly bear in the middle 

 of them jack pines, eatin' on a dead horse; and blamed 

 if old Jack wasn't a-tryin' to tease that bear into chasm' 

 him out into the open, where he could swing his axe, so 

 that he could kill him, with his axe! The bear would 

 chase him part way out, then go back to the horse." 



"Well, did he get him?" 



" No. About the third trip the bear got scared, and 

 ran off the other way. But that wasn't what I started 

 in to tell ye. One time old man Campbell and another 

 feller was out in the mountains huntin'; and one night 

 they camped right at the foot of a rock cliff about, 

 well, I don't know just how high it was. In the morn- 

 ing old Jack got up first, built up a big log fire, and put 



