136 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



over a pipe in the grateful shade. " Did you ever get 

 your horse stampeded by bear or lion ? " I asked, by way 

 of starting Jim on a yarn, " No," he said, " I can't say 

 as ever I did. I don't often take chances on a rotten rope 

 or a scrub-bush. A tight knot and a sound tree's good 

 enough for me. But it was pretty much same as stam- 

 peding one time with me and a pack mule. I were riding 

 along with the pack rope in my hand, when I come across 

 one of them mountain lions right afore me. They are 

 mostly terrible cowards. But this here one stood up with 

 her ears back as nasty as could be. I reckon she'd got 

 cubs. ' Well,' I says, ' you're looking that sassy, I guess 

 you'd like to know the time o' day ! ' So I puts up my 

 Winchester careful, and made sure to plug her in the 

 bosom, when I got a jerk as pulled me clean out o' the 

 saddle ; the Winchester went off in the air, and I come 

 scotch on to the ground. The durned mule were off, with 

 the frying-pan and dutch-oven playing accompaniment, 

 and he doing his best to pitch himself clear of the whole 

 pack. I got up that mad I'd like to have let a hole into his 

 thick hide with my little four-eighty, but the muzzle was 

 choked up with dirt, and I began to wonder what the lion 

 were doing. I couldn't see nothing of her. She'd cleared 

 out. But," he added after a pause, inviting sympathy 

 as it were, " I got even with her — a mighty curious 

 thing too, for I make no doubt it were the same. Three 

 days after I were setting a trap for wolverine (wonderful 

 fighters them wolverine ! They ain't no bigger than a 

 sheep-dog ; but they do say that one of them can whip a 

 b'ar or a mountain lion either). I had sot down to smoke 

 a pipe by the side of a little creek, and there were a piece 

 quite open just across the water. A mountain lion, the 

 very same old cat, s'help me, walks out as confidential as 

 could be, a-purring and stretching, and then she stands 

 still and yawns ! ' Oh, that's you ? ' says I to myself. 

 ' You was mighty sassy the other day, and I reckon we'll 

 get level this time.' So I waits till she were moving clear 

 off (you don't want a lion or a b'ar to be coming head on 

 when you go to shooting him), and then I put the little 

 bullet in proper. That stopped her sass, and brought me 



