92 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



1 had got him home, I didn't know what to do with him, 

 and so I sold him to this fellow in the white hat for fifteen 

 dollars, and he sold him to a yankee pedlar for fifty dol- 

 lars — them yankee pedlars will buy any thing; but the 

 pedlar paid for the painter in wooden clocks; and after the 

 pedlar went away, none of the clocks would go. Tom — 

 him in the white hat — said they all acted as if they were 

 bewitched, and he got so mad at them, that he said he had 

 a great mind to knock them all to pieces. But all this 

 wouldn't have been so bad as it is, if the pedlar, when he 

 was going to take the young painter away, hadn't made a 

 bargain with Tom for a buck elk — I think he took the 

 bark off of you there, Tommy. Tom don't like to tell that 

 story, and so, I suppose, since you have made me tell mine, 

 I must tell his'n. 



"May be you know that there is still a heap of elks in 

 that tract of country, away across from the Sinnemahoning 

 to Toby creek. Well, the pedlar told Tom, when he bought 

 the young painter, that he would give him a hundred and 

 fifty dollars, and may be, two hundred dollars, if he would 

 bring him a live buck elk, away to where he lived, at Ro- 

 chester, in New-York state; and so Tom and another chap 

 agreed to go halves in what they could make; and the first 

 chunk of asnowstormthat came, they set out on a hunt-like, 

 and got ropes and dogs with them, and when they got on the 

 track of some elks, they picked for the biggest track, and 

 run a great buck elk so, that at last he took to fight the 

 dogs till the men come up, and they got their ropes about 

 his horns and tangled him so, that finally they got him 

 down and secured him; and Tom thought it so fine an op- 

 portunity to make a fortin, that when they had got the elk 

 tied to a tree, he offered the other chap fifty dollars for his 

 chance, and he took him up at his offer at once. So Tom, 

 as soon as he got ready, streaked it off with his elk to go 

 to Rochester — a horse, with a long rope to the elk's horns 

 before, to pull him along if he wanted to keep back; and 

 two men, with each a rope to his horns, to hold him back 

 if he wanted to pitch at the horse. So they went on for 

 two days. Tom rode the horse, and the horse was almost 

 skeared to death, and kept his head over one shoulder all 

 the way, looking back at the elk, and the elk, he was na- 

 tion sulkey; and they had a cruel time of it. Tom says, 

 that the elk put up his hair all the wrong way, and was 

 tarnal angry at all about him; and before they passed 

 through Potter county, the elk, I suppose, thought he would 

 not be made a fool of any longer, and so he jist laid down 

 and died; and poor Tom here, had to go home again, and 

 pay the fifty dollars to his partner in the hunt. He offered 

 the fellow all the clocks which he had got in the bargain 

 for my painter; but the other said he wouldn't have any 

 thing to do with such nation silly things that wouldn't go 



at all; and if they did go, would make a noise like a house 

 full of rattle snakes. 



"And so Tom lays the blame of all this on my young 

 painter; but it wasn't my painter at all that did it; and his 

 old aunt Keezy told him so, and said that it was all a right- 

 eous judgment on him, for having any thing to do wifh 

 one of them horn-flint, wooden-nutmeg yankee pedlars. 

 And I am quite entirely of aunt Keezy's mind. Now, 

 an't she right, Tom ?" R. 



SCIPIO AND THE BEAR. 



The Black Bear ( Vrsus americanus,) however clum- 

 sy in appearance, is active, vigilant, and persevering; 

 possesses great strength, courage, and address; and un- 

 dergoes with little injury the greatest fatigues and hard- 

 ships in avoiding the pursuit of the hunter. Like the 

 deer, it changes its haunts with the seasons, and for the 

 same reason, namely, the desire of obtaining suitable 

 food, or of retiring to the more inaccessible parts, where 

 it can pass the time in security, unobserved by man, the 

 most dangerous of its enemies. During the spring months 

 it searches for food in the low, rich, alluvial lands that 

 border the rivers, or by the margins of such inland lakes 

 as, on account of their small size, are called by us ponds. 

 There it procures abundance of succulent roots, and of the 

 tender juicy stems of plants, upon which it chiefly feeds 

 at that season. During the summer heat it enters the 

 gloomy swamps, passes much of its time in wallowing in 

 the mud, like a hog, and contents itself with crayfish, 

 roots, and nettles, now and then, when hard pressed 

 by hunger, seizing on a young pig, or perhaps a sow, 

 or even a calf. As soon as the different kinds of 

 berries which grow on the mountains begin to ripen, 

 the bears betake themselves to the high grounds, fol- 

 lowed by their cubs. In such retired parts of the coun- 

 try where there are no hilly grounds, it pays visits to the 

 maize fields, which it ravages for a while. After this, the 

 various species of nuts, acorns, grapes and other forest 

 fruits, that form what in the western country is called 

 mast, attract its attention. The bear is then seen ram- 

 bling singly through the woods to gather this harvest, not for- 

 getting meanwhile to rob every 6ee-/ree it meets with, bears 

 being, as you well know, expert at this operation. You 

 also know that they are good climbers, and may have been 

 told, or at least may now be told, that the Black Bear now 

 and then houses itself in the hollow trunks of the larger 

 trees for weeks together, when it is said to suck its paws. 

 You are probably not aware of a habit in which it in- 



