Cherry 



The storm having blown over in a couple of 

 days, we broke camp and started for the ranch, 

 and on the way ran across the tracks of an 

 enormous grizzly, and, as luck would have it, 

 caught up with him, and, having a fair shot, I 

 killed him almost where he stood. As we 

 were taking off his hide, Cherry told me 

 about the last one he had killed, and as the 

 story progressed, I began to feel that this one 

 was only a cub in comparison. According to 

 this narrative, while he and his companion 

 had been trapping on the upper waters of the 

 Gros Ventre two years before, their trap had 

 been set and been sprung, but the bear had 

 somehow managed to escape. The same thing 

 happened a second, and then a third time. 

 Exasperated at such unbecoming conduct on 

 the part of the bear, Cherry and his com- 

 panion resolved that they would have him at 

 any cost, and they set a spring gun by the 

 trap, and also a spear with a dead fall, to pierce 

 the wily animal's back. The next morning 

 they found that the trap had been sprung, the 

 gun had gone off, and the spear lay buried in 

 the ground, but the bear had evidently es- 

 caped without a scratch. This was too much 

 for Cherry's companion, who insisted upon 



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