212 CHASING A BEAK. 



where in it then, and travel in any direction a hundred miles 

 from it, and not get sight of a white man, and without 

 climbin' a fence. 



"'Wai, we came down the Alleghany in two canoes, 

 and shantied on the Ohio, just below where the Alleghauy 

 empties itself into it. We hid our canoes, and struck 

 across the country, and travelled about explorin' for six 

 weeks, and when we got back to our shantyin' ground, 

 we were tuckered out you may believe. We rested here 

 a couple of days, layin' around loose, and takin' our comfort 

 in a way of our own. Early one morning, when my com- 

 panions were asleep, I got up and paddled across the river 

 after a deer, for we wanted venison for breakfast. I got a 

 buck, and was returnin', when what should I see but a bear 

 swimmin' the Ohio, and I put out in chase right off. I soon 

 overhauled the critter, and picked up my rifle to give him 

 a settler, when I found that in paddlin' I had spattered 

 water into the canoe, wettin' the primin' and makin' the 

 gun of no more use than a stick. 1 didn't understand 

 mufti about the natur of the beast then, and thought I'd 

 run him down, and drown him, or knock him on the head. 

 So I put the canoe right e'end on towards him, thinkin' 

 to run him under, but when the bow touched him, what 

 did he do, but reach his great paws up over the side of the 

 canoe, and begin to climb in. I hadn't bargained for that; 

 I felt mighty onpleasant, you may swear, at the prospect 

 of havin' sich a passenger. I hadn't time to get at him 

 with the rifle, till he came tumblin' into the dugout, and 



