150 CKUISINGS IN THE CASCADES 



I'll take a drink of water first and then I' 11 tell it to 

 you," and he laughed a kind of boyish titter, and 

 began: 



" Well, me and three other fellers was up north 

 in the Colville country, huntin' , and all the other 

 fellows was crazy to kill a bear. I didn't want to 

 kill no bear, and didn't expect to. I'm as 'feard as 

 death of a bear, and hain't no use for 'em. All I 

 wanted to kill was a deer. The other fellers, they 

 wanted to kill some deer, too, but they wanted bear 

 the worst. So one mornin' we all started out, and 

 the other fellers they took the best huntin' ground, 

 and said I'd better go down along the creek and see 

 if I couldn' t kill some grouse, for they didn' t believe 

 I could kill anything bigger' n that; and 1 said, all 

 right, and started off down the creek. Purty soon I 

 come to an old mill that wasn't runnin' then. And 

 when I got purty near to the mill I set down on a 

 log, for I didn't think it was worth while to go any 

 furder, for I didn't think I would find any game 

 down the creek, and I didn't care much whether I 

 did or not. Well, I heard a kind of a racket in the 

 mill, and durned if there wasn't a big black bear 

 right in the mill. And I watched him a little bit, 

 and he started out towards me. And I said to my- 

 self, says I, c Now Billy, here's your chance to kill 

 a bear.' 



"I hadn't never killed no bear before, nor never 

 seed one before, and durned if I wasn't skeered 

 nearly to death. But I thought there wasn't no use 

 of runnin', for I knowed he could run f aster 1 n I 

 could, so I took out my knife and commenced cut- 

 tin' down the brush in front of me, for I wanted to 



