222 THE "ADVENTEK CROP AND i MET WITH." 



This alarmed him somewhat, for whoever the great black 

 hand belonged to was concealed by the thick- bushes and 

 their foliage from his view. Presently, two great black 

 hands were placed upon the log, and a huge black bear 

 clambered lazily up, and, for a second, stood in utter amaze- 

 ment, face to face, and within fifty feet of my friend. Both 

 broke at the same instant, in affright; my friend in one 

 direction, and the bear in the other my friend for the fields, 

 and the bear for the deep woods and each as anxious as 

 fear could make him to put a ' broad belt of country ' be- 

 tween them. My friend dropped his basket, as he leaped 

 from the log; it was no time to stop for a basket; a limb 

 caught his hat and pulled it off ; he had not time to stop 

 for his hat. The truth is, he was in a hurry, and something 

 more than a hat or a basket was required to stay his pro- 

 gress towards home." 



"The Squire's stony," said Cullen, as he knocked the 

 ashes from his pipe, and commenced shaving a fresh supply 

 of tobacco with his jack-knife, and depositing it in the palm 

 of his left hand, "the Squire's story reminds me of an 

 adventer Crop and I met with, over towards St. Regis 

 Lake, a good many year ago ; and I'll state the circum- 

 stances of the case, as the Judge would say. It was an 

 adventer that don't happen often leastwise, not in the same 

 way. It made me understand some things that I hadn't 

 much idea of before. Let me tell you, Judge, if you don't 

 want a fight with an animal that's got long claws and sharp 

 teeth, don't come close upon him ona wares, or may be 



