ADVENTURES IN THE BACKWOODS. 285 



evening; but, as the noise continued, and attending to it 

 more particularly they, concluding it was the voice of a 

 person ir distress, took each one his axe and ran in the 

 direction of the voice, and answered the call. As soon 

 as they got near enough to understand him, he told them 

 he was badly wounded by a bear then at the root of the 

 tree, and not to venture up unless they were armed ; but 

 they rushed on, and the bear ran off. They carried the 

 man to his home, where he was confined the most of the 

 summer. 



ADVENTURES IN THE BACKWOODS, 



IN the autumn of the year, says an old traveler, I wag 

 on a journey to the frontier portion of the States, but had 

 a vast track of the " Backwoods " to travel through. I was 

 in company with a gentleman, a friend of mine, his wife and 

 sister; also a maid-servant, who was in the capacity of 

 nurse, formed one of the party. My friend, who was city 

 bred, had foolishly enough brought a close carriage with 

 him, to the back settlements, when he first located himself 

 there. At the time of our journey, he had resided about 

 five years in the woods, during which his city-built cha- 

 riot had never been used. The roads, in fact, rendered 

 it quite unsafe to use a carriage of that description ; but 

 now that they were about to visit their city friends, he 

 was anxious to do so in the style they knew he had for- 

 merly been accustomed to. I, also, had a carriage; 



