CHAPTER XIX. 



SPALDING'S BEAR STORY CLIMBING TO AVOID A COLLISION - 

 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING A RACE. 



"THAT story," said Spalding, "reminds me of a bear 

 story. I shall do as the Doctor did, tell it as it was told 

 to me. I did not see the bear, but I know the man who 

 was the hero of it, and his brother told the story in his pre- 

 sence one day, and he made no denial. He at least is estop- 

 ped from disputing it, and we lawyers call that prima facie 

 evidence of its truth. It occurred a long tune ago, when 

 there were fewer green fields in Oswego county and especi- 

 ally in the town of Mexico, than there are now. The old 

 woods stood there in all their primeval grandeur. The 

 waves of Ontario laved a wilderness shore, and their dull 

 sound, as they came rolling in upon the rocky beach, died 

 away in the solitudes of a gloomy and almost boundless 

 forest. Here and there a ' clearing ' let in the sunlight, 

 and the woodman's axe broke the forest stillness as he bat- 

 tled against the brave old trees. The smoke of burnimr fa<- 



814 



