By the Fireside 181 



little advantage in my scrap with the cat an' I 

 soon ended the fight. 



'* ' Here's yer knife, young feller,' says he, 

 handin' me Jim's favourite pigsticker, ^an' it 

 was a mighty lucky thing fer me that ye lost it the 

 way ye did, an' if that old b'ar hadn't just passed 

 it along to me in the nick o' time there 'd a' been 

 a widow and orphans in our clearin'.' 



"That's my very best b'ar story, children," said 

 the story-teller as he lighted his pipe. **I've told 

 it a good many times. My Dad used to want every 

 visitor to hear it that ever came our way fer years 

 after, an' when I'd come to that part about that 

 old she-b'ar goin' out o' that stub as if a charge 

 o' blastin' powder had been let off under her, he'd 

 jest lay back an' laugh fit to split." 



