A TRUE BEAR STORY. 219 



he remained till the danger was over, he concluded to 

 come down. He was astonished to find that his efforts to 

 descend were powerless. He seemed to have frozen to the 

 tree. Upon looking around, to his utter amazement, he 

 found himself sitting on the ground, with both, legs and arms 

 locked fast around the tree ! fie had not climbed an inch,, and 

 the bear had not been aware of his presence in the woods ! 



11 That ash sapling was" safe from that day. It stood then 

 in the old forest. The woodman's axe spared it. It stands 

 now in the open field, a majestic tree; its great trunk, eight 

 feet in circumference, its long arms covered with foliage, 

 casting a broad shadow over the pasture beneath, in which 

 cattle and sheep seek for coolness and ruminate in the heat 

 of the summer days. It is pointed out as the tree which 

 the man who was frightened by a bear didn't climb, and is 

 referred to as evidence of the truth of my story, as the 

 Dutchman proved the authenticity of his Bible, ' by the pic- 

 tures.' " 



" And that," said I, " puts me in mind of a bear story, which 

 has this merit over both of yours it is true. I can speak 

 of it as a thing of personal knowledge, occurring within my 

 own personal experience. I began the study of law in An- 

 gelica, the county seat of Alleghany county, and as it was a 

 good many years ag*o, it is fair to assume that I was a good 

 many years younger than I am now, and that the country 

 in that region was younger too. Everybody knows that 

 Alleghany county is, or used to be, a great place for whirl- 

 winds and tornadoes. If they do not, they may understand 



