OLD MAN STlCE'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE BEAR. 



35 



birds they impaled them on the switches, 

 II on each. 



The fire had by that time made a 

 bed of coals, and each trapper propped his 

 stick of birds over them to broil to his lik- 

 ing. Then each, with a slice of bacon on 

 another stick, broiled it likewise, basting the 

 birds with the appetizing bacon fat as it 

 dripped from the heat of the coals. 



"I can't stand that smell much longer," 

 said Mose, swallowing a time or 2, to Uncle 

 Snap, who was evidently restraining him- 

 self with great difficulty from snatching his 

 partly cooked birds off the fire. Ten min- 

 utes more^ and the hungry Trappers were 

 reclining on their bed of moss, feasting as 

 only those who are close to nature can 

 feast. 



OLD MAN STICK'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE BEAR. 



W. F. SHORT, JR. 



Two strolling Russians leading 2 big cin- 

 namon bears had passed through town giv- 

 ing exhibitions. The bears were taught to 

 perform all the tricks in the bear manual, 

 such as dancing, climbing telegraph poles, 

 and so on, but the coup de grace was a 

 wrestling match between one of the bears 

 and one of the men. It was a. catch-as- 

 catch-can affair, and just before the con- 

 test the other Russian would pass among 

 the crowd holding his cap in a receptive 

 manner, saying in his broken accent, "Evly 

 body chippy in, an' see de man rascal wid 

 de bear." 



We had just been witnessing one of 

 these exhibitions and had adjourned to the 

 • usual place, when we were joined by old 

 man Stice. Some o'ne asked the old man 

 if he had seen the dancing bears. He said 

 he had, and we gathered from his subse- 

 quent remarks that he did not entertain a 

 high opinion of the outfit. 



"Thar used to be a good many bear 

 'round our parts," said the old man, "an' 

 once when harves' wuz over an' we hed 

 spare time on our han's, Seth Perkins an' 

 me laid out to go up ifi the mountains fer 

 ; a week or 10 days an' hev a bear hunt. 

 We tuk along, besides our blankets, some 

 pertaters an' a side of hog meat, an' the 

 folks made us a hull sack of beat biskits. 

 Of course, we figgered on gittin' plenty of 

 game, so we didn't anticipate thet we'd 

 perish for want of vittles. We got ole Sep 

 Wilkins to take his team an' haul us up to 

 whar we proposed campin'. The place wuz 

 clean up in the mountains, nigh onto 25 

 or 30 mile from the nearest civilization, 

 an' wuz the wildest kentry I ever see. The 

 timber wuz so heavy an' the leaves so 

 many thet the sun couldn't shine through, 

 an' the underbresh wuz thet thick a man 

 couldn't hardly git over the ground. 



"Seth an' me hed been trampin' all day, 

 but hed see no signs of bear, an' night 

 comin' on we set out to go back to camp, 



so tired we wuz plum beat out. Thar wuz 

 plenty of other game to shoot at, but we 

 didn't want it. Nothin' would suit me an' 

 Seth but jist bear. As we wuz a-trudgin' 

 'long an' talkin' 'bout what we wuz to hev 

 fer supper, we heerd a noise, an' 'lookin' 

 up, by cracky ! if thar warn't the all- 

 firedest, bigges' grizzly bear thet wuz ever 

 born'd, standin' right acrost our path, 

 shakin' his head an' lookin' as hungry as 

 we wuz. Well, maybe me an' Seth lost 

 some time a tearin' „ outen thar, bat its 

 more'n likely we didn't. Seth, he went 

 one way an' me another, an' ole griz 

 seemin' to prefer my comp'ny to Seth's, 

 tuk arter me. 



"I run up a alley, an' when I hed gone 

 'bout 4 blocks, as near as I can ricolect 

 now, I come to a high board fence standin' 

 acrost the allev, an' which I couldn't git 

 over. The bear wuz comin' right at me 

 with his mouth wide open, as I could see 

 by the glare of the 'lectric light, an' I 

 could see the water drippin' from his 

 gleamin' jaws. I heerd his big feet shufflirr* 

 over the pavement, an' every time he set 

 'em down his claws would scratch on 

 the bricks with a raspin' sound thet 

 fairly made my flesh look like a gooses's 

 skin. 



"Strange what leetle fool things comes 

 into a man's head in times of danger, an r 

 even when his life is in peril he'll take 

 notice of somethin' what hez no bearin' 

 on the case. Now when I see griz comin' 

 at me with his mouth open an' wearin' a 

 menacin' air, I observed he'd lost one of 

 his front teeth an' I wondered how he'd 

 done it. 



"I never lost my presence of mind fer a 

 instant, howsumever, an' when the bear 

 comes up to me a-rarin' on his hin' legs, I 

 jest runs my arm down his ole throat, 

 turns him wrong side out an' he went the 

 other way." 



