ahunter'st-ife. 51 



ftrdice. When the bear was closely examined by Mr. Cald 

 well, all present saw that Captain Morris's two shots had 

 struck hira — one passing; throuf^h his ear, the other breakinj^ 

 two of his tusks — without doing any serious injury ; and 

 that not a ball from Martin's numerous shots had touched 

 hira at all. This was a bad decision for Martin, and, as 

 the result proved, for me too ; for the old man decided 

 that my two shots had killed the bear ; and he spoke of 

 their climbing trees during such a fight as being cowardly 

 in the extreme, and said that if the bear's back-bone had 

 not been greatly weakened by my last shot, his dogs would 

 in all probability have been killed ; " For," said he, " it is 

 clear that his was the shot that brought him out of the 

 tree ; and as soon as he was on the ground, you not only 

 ran off, but hid yourselves, and let the dogs shift for them- 

 selves. And the same thing would have occurred had you 

 been engaged in a fight with the Indians." 



This was very galling to them ; but they had no redress, 

 except to wreak their vengeance on me ; which they cer- 

 tainly did ; for I believe they told tales about me to the 

 old lady, and caused her to suspect that I was fond of her 

 daughter. But be that as it may, they envied and abused 

 rae subsequently whenever they had a chance. 



It being necessary to skin the bear, at it they went ; but 

 they made a poor hand of it, though they got through at 

 last. When the meat was to be divided among the hunt- 

 ers. Captain Morris required his share, and all were in- 

 cluded but myself. 



"Well," said Mr. Caldwell, what share does Browning 

 get ? " 



They said that they did not know that I wanted any. 



" Browning " said he, " do you want any of this 

 meat ? " 



"I have no use for the meat, sir," said I, "unless yon 



