58 • FOaTY-i'UUR YEARS OF 



desire to have a piece. If you do, I will give yon what 

 should be mine. But I would like to have the skin." 



Mr. Caldwell immediately took up the skia and handed 

 it to me, saying, " It is justly yours ; for my dogs treed 

 him, and you killed hira ; and you have a right to the 

 skin ; for it has always been a rule among hunters that 

 the first blood drawn takes the skin, be it bear or deer." 



This last decicion completely fixed their malice against 

 nie. The meat was then shared out, when Mr. Caldwell 

 secured his piece. 



This was the first bear-fight I was ever engaged in. 

 The adventure raised my reputation as a fearless boy, and 

 the old man often told it to persons who happened to 

 spend a night with him, much to my gratification. And 

 frequently, when Nancy and the other children happent'ii 

 to be in the kitchen during the evenings, they would in- 

 duce me to relate the whole tale, when they would ridicnio 

 the back-track party for their cowardly conduct. I saw, 

 or thought I saw, that it had raised me in the opinion of 

 the old man and the children ; for on one occasion Xaiicy 

 said, in a pleasant way, "Browning, when mother frighl- 

 eucd you so I thought you were a great coward ; i)ut I 

 don't think so now. And I heard Pappy tell a strange 

 man the otlier day that if he had you in an Indian fight lie 

 knew you would attack them as fearlessly as you did that 

 bear. Browning," she added, " I have often wished that 

 I had been born a boy ; then I would be a man some day, 

 and helj) either to kill or drive ofi" the yellow rascals so 

 far, that they would never come back again to murder the 

 whites. If you had seen as much of their murdering as I 

 have I know you would fight." She then related the fol- 

 lowing st' "y : 



" Some years ago, before General St. Clair lost so many 

 men in a great fight with the Indians, father and mother 

 were comi)elled to leave tliis place, and we all went up to 



