288 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 25, 1906. 
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Uncle Shaw and Some Others.—V. 
Incidents of Life in a Vermont Village. 
( 1 Concluded from page 250.) 
Like wildfire the story ran through the neigh¬ 
borhood that Uncle Shaw had had a fight with 
a bobcat and was nearly killed. As the story 
was reported from one to another it lost noth¬ 
ing, and before long it was reported that the 
storekeeper had fallen dead on his own store 
steps. 
Many came to see him and his wife, for they 
were great favorites in the town, although the 
people did not know it. Among the first was 
Mrs. Pelham, who was extremely anxious about 
Uncle Shaw, and asked the doctor if there was 
any chance for him. Upon learning that in all 
probability he would come out of it all right in 
time, she seemed much pleased, and said, “She 
guessed she would go down and do some little 
tradin’ ’long of Frank.” That young man was 
very busy now. It had been noticed by the fre¬ 
quenters of the store that he had said "Hur” 
but a few times since the accident, and they 
“guessed” that the new responsibility was 
sufficient to awaken his mind and enable it to 
grasp a question the first time it was presented 
to him, especially if it was not a difficult one. 
Mrs. Shaw was at first much shocked' by the 
appearance of her husband; but she was one of 
those brave souls that accept that which comes 
and try to make the best of it. She sent up to 
Mrs. Leblanc for Marie and installed her in 
the back part of the house to take care of 
Frank and the milk and chickens, while she 
moved herself and carpet rags into the front 
part of the house to take care of Uncle Shaw. 
And she did take care of him, too! The doctor 
came every day, looked at the patient, felt his 
pulse and left some medicine, which Mrs. Shaw 
was careful to see her husband did not take, and 
then went away, telling what a remarkable cure 
he was making. 
As for Uncle Shaw, he was but little trouble 
to himself or any one else. The loss of blood 
had been very great. He was all cut and gashed 
from his head to his knees, many of the wounds 
six or seven inches long. The back of his 
shoulders was a mass of holes and gashes, where 
the bobcat had struck its claws, and, in fact, 
from his neck to his knees there was hardly a 
place that did not bear the marks of the beast’s 
sharp claws. While they were not all deep nor 
of themselves dangerous, there was much in¬ 
flammation, and that and the weak state of the 
patient threw him into a fever. For days he lay 
there, now talking of Mrs. Pelham and the 
Dickermans; then of the fight with the lynx. 
Sometimes he would speak to the boys, or be 
in the store waiting upon customers. His faith¬ 
ful wife was much alarmed about him at first; 
but as the days went past, she saw that the 
worst was over and it was only a question of 
careful nursing and time when he would be out 
again. One day she had been out of the room 
a few moments, and upon her return saw as 
she looked into his eyes that the mind that 
had so long been clouded was clear. His lips 
were moving and she put her head down to 
hear what he had to say. He was very feeble, 
but at last made her understand that he wanted 
Will King to come to him . 
Word was sent over to the hotel, and before 
long Will came up and, with Mrs. Shaw, stood 
by the old man’s bedside. Will was surprised 
at his appearance. There had been a great 
change in his face; it was poor and thin now, 
and there were a great many wrinkles in it; but 
the eyes were as bright as ever. It was evident 
to all that he had something on his mind that 
was troubling him, and that he would not be 
easy till Will was told about it. Twice he tried 
to raise himself in bed, but each time he had to 
give it up. At last as Will put his head down 
toward his lips, the old man whispered, “Will. I 
lost my jack-knife out there where I had the 
fight with the pesky critter, an’ I wish you 
would go out an’ find it.” Will told him that 
he would find it if it was to be found, and Uncle 
Shaw looked satisfied. 
Will got Harry, and they started for the back 
pasture. When they got to the place where the 
trap had been set, they stopped. They could 
see that the beast had got into the trap and 
started off. dragging the grapple along the 
ground. Here and there were places where it 
had caught and been pulled out again. 
After going some little ways? Harry saw a 
clump of raspberry bushes that had been all 
trampled down, and they ran up to it, finding 
when they got there abundant evidence of the 
fight. An old stump had caught the grapple 
as the lynx went around the bushes, and it was 
held a fast prisoner, where, by some means, 
Uncle Shaw must have discovered it and trouble 
ensued. 
Blood was scattered all over the surrounding 
bushes; bits of clothing were trodden into the 
grass, and for a large space the ground showed 
that a hard struggle had been carried on. The 
grapple with part of the chain still clung to a 
root of the stump, and it was evident that it was 
here that Uncle Shaw and the lynx had met. 
Long and carefully did the boys hunt for the 
knife; but it could not be found. They lifted 
the bushes and looked under them, but it was 
not there. At last, as they were about to give 
it up, Will saw something shining a little to one 
side, and upon going to it, found it was the 
knife. It was an old one, nearly worn out by 
repeated sharpening, and the open blade showed 
that one of its principal uses was to cut 
tobacco. 
Back to the house they went and were ad¬ 
mitted to Uncle Shaw’s room. He had been 
impatiently awaiting their return, Mrs. Shaw 
said, and the look of inquiry on his face told 
how anxious he was. Will placed the knife in 
his hand, he looked at it a moment and went to 
sleep. 
After this his recovery was rapid, and under 
the skilful nursing of his wife each day showed 
a decided gain, much to the satisfaction of the 
doctor, who did not know that the only reason 
that he was permitted to come at all was that 
Mrs. Shaw knew too well what would be the 
effect upon the gossips of the town should no 
doctor be engaged. 
Those about him had refrained from asking 
Uncle Shaw about the fight for fear it would ex¬ 
cite him too much; but as the days passed all 
became more and more curious to know about 
it. ■ 
One fine day, just as the sun had got away 
from the front part of the store, a big rocking- 
chair with pillow and quilt was placed on the 
piazza, and Uncle Shaw, supported by his wife 
and Frank, came out and sat down. 
He was but a shadow of his old self, but the 
gray eyes had not dimmed, nor the lips become 
less firm, and they could see that all that was 
wanted was a little more flesh to make the 
same Uncle Shaw that they used to see. 
Many were the congratulations he received, 
and it was hinted quite strongly that they would 
“like to know how in tunket he come to git 
into any such scrape, anyway”; and encouraged 
by his liberation from the house and by the 
crowd around him, Uncle Shaw told his story. 
“Wall, you see, I went out on the North Road 
to see a man. and just as I got most to his 
house, I see him driving away. I knowed I 
couldn’t see him that afternoon, so I went over 
to the paster to let out the cows. ’Twa’n’t very 
late then, and I thought I would go back in 
the paster and see if the sheep was all right. 
“When I got up there, I couldn’t see nary a 
sheep, so I went up by the head fence and there 
in the corner all huddled up in a bunch 1 found 
them as scat as ever you see. Then I was 
sartin that that critter had been chasing them 
again, and I thought I would go down and see 
if he had been nigh the trap. When I had got 
putty near the place I was going around a 
clump of bushes, and all to once I heard an 
awful kind of growl, and a big critter, as big as 
a Newfoundland dog, jumped at me; but it had 
the trap on its hind leg and the chain was hitched 
to a root. He started me so that I kinder 
stepped back and my heel catched on a root or 
something, and dow.n I went flat on my back. 
I suppose that kinder encouraged him, for he 
gave another spring, and that time the chain 
broke and he landed right on my chest. 
“It was all kinder sudden, and I was ’fraid 
he would get at my throat, so I put up my arm 
in his face. He bit that and stuck his claws into 
my shoulders, and I see in a minute that I had 
got to do something or I wouldn't be able 
to carry •him home. You see, I told Will King 
he might have whatever we got in the trap, and 
I knew he’d be disappointed if it got away, be¬ 
sides that, it had the trap and I didn’t want to 
lose that if I could help it. 
“I took out my jack-knife and tried to stab 
him with that, but it was so dull that I couldn’t 
do nothing, and I lost it. Wall, the tarnal 
critter, he kept a-ehawing my arm and a-kicking, 
and I see that I’d got to do something, so I 
got up an my feet and tried to git holt on 
him so as to smash his head on a rock, but he 
used his mouth and forepaws so smart that I 
didn’t have no good chance. 
“When I was standing up he kicked with his 
hind feet, and I was afraid he'd kick my insides 
out. One of his hindlegs was in the trap, and 
lie couldn’t do much with that; but there wa’n’t 
nothing the matter with the other one, and he 
kept it so busy that I see’d I’d got to put a 
stop to it. So I just threw him down on the 
ground and fell right on top of him and held his 
hind parts so tight to the dirt that he couldn't 
scratch me much. 
“By this time he had chewed my arm most off, 
it seemed to me. and I just got holt of his throat 
with my other hand and choked him so he let 
up on my arm; then I got both hands on to his 
neck and pressed him on to the ground as hard 
as I could. 
“He kicked and wiggled putty hard, but I 
hung on and by-and-by he didn’t kick so hard. 
His claws was stuck into my shoulders, and had 
been all the time. And as he got short of breath 
he kinder yanked on one and it hurt powerful. 
It didn’t seem as though I could stand it, but I 
didn't see no way of stopping it, only to hang 
on to his neck, so I just shut my teeth together 
and we had a tussle to see who could stand it 
