150 HILLS AND LAKES. 



up towards me, and when he got about near enough, 

 I straitened out ; and the way I sent my boots agin 

 his back settlements, was a thing to wonder at. If 

 ever a dum animal was astonished, I reckon it was 

 that bear ; and the way he put for daylight, was curi- 

 ous. As he grunted and hustled towards the outside 

 of the log, I followed on my elbers and rump, and the 

 kicks I gave him in the stern, shot him like a cannon 

 ball, about twenty feet down the banks. " There," said 

 I, " you darned black, stern goin', round about circum- 

 stance, be off to your own hum, and let honest 

 people's houses alone." He didn't stop to make any 

 answer, nor to ask any questions, but put out at his 

 best gait for the Shatagee, and it's my opinion he 

 never know'd what it was that booted him out of that 

 holler log. He was done with the Saranac lakes, for 

 he was shot the next day, forty miles away down by 

 the Lower Shatagee. I know it was the same bear, 

 for there was the white prints of my clayey boots on 

 his rump, plain as a pike staff. If you don't believe 

 it, you may ask Joe Tucker there, (pointin' to me,) for 

 he's the man that shot him.' I didn't, of course, con- 

 tradict the story, and the fellers standin around, took 

 it all for gospel. But rnany's the time I've quizzed 



