nan°^ escape. How was that?” says he. I proceeded to tell him 
ot the incident and the bunch stood around eyes, ears and mouth wide 
open in order not to miss a bit of my adventure. T went on to say: 
I went hunting one day and had taken a seat on a bluff or rock 
near the top of a mountain. As I sat there viewing the lay of the 
country, I happened to look back the way I had come and saw two 
Indians sneaking on my trail. I watched them until I was fully con¬ 
vinced that they were trailing me and I thought the best thing to do 
was to beat it—I did not want to kill the Indians as that would start 
trouble, neither did I want them to kill me. As they drew nearer 
they caught sight of me running and took after me at a fast pace. 
As the mountains were rough and the Indians were fleeter of foot and 
had better wind owing to their vigorous life, they soon caught me.” 
At this juncture I stopped talking and looked around to see just 
how my story was taking; they all stood excited and spellbound, 
they had all swallowed the entire lie. Hugh Dennis broke the silence 
with “And what did they do with you?” “They killed me and took 
my scalp.” From this there was a big hearty laugh from all and 
Tom Morris, the saloon keeper, gave us all a drink. 
I remained at Grady the greater part of that day. enjoying my¬ 
self to the utmost. I blew in a ten-dollar bill in no time, treating my 
Arkansas friends, niggers and whites. 
I am afraid you readers might have gotten the impression that 
I was an awful soak. I would not have this impression left as it is 
far from true, though I will admit I took a reasonable amount of John 
Barleycorn, especially when tired; and could do my part always in 
social drinking, always keeping a gauge on the size of the drinks. 
The next morning I got out my steel traps, gave them a thorough 
cleaning, made a lot of stretching boards and hoops on which to 
stretch the beaver and the balance of my time for two weeks was 
taken up riding over the territory which I intended to trap. I could 
see no difference in the signs of the animals. They had trails in 
every direction. In this survey I saw lots of deer, but did not shoot 
them as the weather was warm and the three I had previously killed 
were sufficient for the present. I had never killed a bear but was 
always on the watch for one. At this time the acorns had just begun 
to fall. They were the principal feed for bear at that season. As I 
was standing listening, I heard a racket and a sound much like the 
breaking of timber. I located the sound and cautiously advanced 
toward it, and as I stopped in order that I would not frighten the 
bear, in case that it was one, I perceived the shaking of the limbs 
in a large oak tree. I stood perfectly still and pretty soon Mr. Bear 
reached out his paw and pulled in a limb of the tree. I advanced 
closer. I could now see three bears up the tree, feeding on acorns. 
They would reach out, pull the small branches to them and eat the 
acorns. 
As my position was not clear to shoot from, I slipped up within 
forty yards of the tree the bear was in, keeping myself hid behind 
— 47 
