134 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



able to guarantee. Gentlemen, I have observed that the 

 squirrels invariably begin their attacks on the outside row 

 of corn in the field. Omit the outside row, and they 

 won't know where to begin ! " The money was in his 

 pocket ; he bowed and vanished by the platform door ; his 

 horse was tied to the post, he leaped into the saddle and 

 was seen no more in that credulous settlement. The act 

 was one of extreme courage as well as impudence in that 

 land of ready lynching ; but my father was wont to say 

 that, after the first murmur of stupefaction and roar of 

 anger, the disappointed audience dissolved into the most 

 good-humoured laughter at themselves. 



Another serious depredator, and one of a more sporting 

 size, was the bear. One night in August, a negro boy 

 rushed breathless into Mr. Bohanan's house, inarticulate 

 with importance, and managed to splutter out, " Oh, mas'r, 

 mas'r ! big bear in corn-patch ; I see 'im get over." All 

 at once was bustle ; bullets were cast — " a job," says my 

 father in the letter describing this event, " that always has 

 to be done at the moment they are wanted " — and the 

 planter and his overseer crept out with their rifles to the 

 field. But it was too late. The prints of Bruin's paws were 

 all over the place, but he had prudently retired. Bears are 

 very seldom seen in the woods, being shy and nocturnal in 

 their movements. A curious case happened, however, while 

 Philip Gosse was in Mount Pleasant, of a planter who was 

 riding into the forest to search for strayed cattle, and who, 

 suddenly seeing a huge bear start up before him, could 

 not refrain from giving it a lash with his cow-whip of raw 

 hide. To his dismay, the beast showed a disposition to 

 fight, but turned tail at last, when the thought struck the 

 planter that he might possibly drive it home, like a re- 

 fractory bullock. He actually succeeded in doing this» 

 whipping the bewildered bear for six miles along one of 



