178 Old Bays on the Farm 



TWO YOUNG BEAES 



"Then I let myself down into that holler stub 

 without thinkin' how I was goin' to come up. It 

 didn't take me more'n two seconds to drop them 

 little furry chaps into the bag, but climb my best 

 I couldn't make the grade out. An' there I was. 



"Trapped fair an' square, says I, an' then I 

 thought o' Jim's butcherin' knife. Jim's words 

 'take care o' that knife, boy,' didn't stop me for 

 a second. In a wink I was hackin' an' slashin' at 

 that stub faster 'n any red-headed woodpecker 

 ever stabbed holes in a rotten tree searchin' fer 

 grubs. 



"It seems a most amazin' thing but it never 

 occurred to me before I went in that ol' tree that 

 the lovin' parents o' them cubs was only tempo- 

 rarily absent. 



"I'd been so busy hackin' and slashin' that I 

 didn't hear the old she-bear comin' to the top o' 

 the family residence, an' the first inklin' I got that 

 somebody was comin' was when the light at the 

 openin' in the stub was shut off. 



"It came to me all o' a sudden jest what a fix 

 I was in. As I've said, I was young, but I had 

 gumption enough to know that the mother o' them 

 cubs wasn't goin' to excuse me on account o' my 

 youth. Explainin' would be o' no use fer there 

 was her two cubs in the bag. 



