Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1851-01-15
SMOKING A GRIZZLY.
BY SOLITAIRE.

with whom we were engaged IN "6aT'
conversation one evening on jamestown
bar.
"Never," said !, in all seriousness, "i
has never been my good fortune to encoun'
ter one Of the beautiful varmints."
"Well boss, when you do, perhaps il
WON'T be the pleasan,es, mimi. you've ever
he'd, for thar aint no varmint in these hills
nor any whar else I've ben, that kin kick
wus, either round or sideways, than full
grown Grizzly"
s'But you can easily get out Of the way
of clumsy animal like that, said J provok-
ing the old digger into yarn Of his expert
ence in regard to Grizzlys.
DWELL when you kin get out of thur way
gives you my advice to get out quicker
tho they amt bull, real beautiful for runnin'
they 7ope awful smar! when thur arter hu-
min cri,,er. was desperate glad to gel
away from one myself once.''
had provoked him to the edge Of bal
story, and knowing from his manner, thai
his relation Of such an occurrence as getting
away from Grizzly would be interesting
tempted him on.
"Where did you say you fell in with him?''
inquired |.
II Jidn'l say fell in with him anywhar,''
answered he ''cuss the vsrmint, he fell in
with me, and I'd le,,le rulher hev fell in
with Old Nick just at that mint | was
over thar two miles ,o,her side Of high ridge
beyond Sulivan's, lookin' arler that gray
mule of mine-and ,alkin' about wicked
things, Jest puts me thinkin' what detar-
minedly vicious sarpint that gray mule was!
Well, was hunin' her, and arler runnn'
over the hill, and shoo,in' down half do
zen gulches, began TO get out of wind /;
and set down to bless that gray crit.er for
the many tramps she had given me-rll
swar no larat 'ud hold her not ef it was
made of bull hide an inch thick. hadn't
sot more'n a mint, when heerd snort,
and roar and a growI, and right smart
sprinklin' Of fast travelin' all mixed up to-
ge.her. Lookin' up parpendickular hill,
right behind me, thar saw comm, my gray
mule, putin in her best licks, and few
yards behind her was grizzly, not much
bigger than yearlimg. Many an infarual
scrspe that mule has taken me into afore,
but this was rather the highest place she
ever did git me into. hadn't a weepun
abou. me 'cept one Of those mean, one bar
relied auction pistols; and that hadn'.a a con-
sarned mite of load in, and hadn't nu-
thing TO load it with, and no time 10 put ii
in, ef had and eff it had been loaded, ii
wouldn't hev been worth a cuss.
ou had better believe, boys, that my
skin got moist suddln,-lbar waren'l no
dry d.ggns under my red shirt, long afore
that grizzly 60, down the hill. The infar-
nal mule no sooner seed me than she jest
wheeled round and put me a,ween her and
the bar, and stood off to see ef wouldn'.
lick him about as easy as | used 10 whale
her when she got stubborn. Old grizzly
drawed up, when he seed me, and gin TO
roll his old barrel head about, and grunt, as
eff was the MORN he bargained for; and
I'D jest given him that mule easy, to hev
got off square. As the fellers say at monte
he was lay ou. didn'. want to bet on.
commenced backin' out, and wanted to
make it a draw game: but he kept shufflin'
up TO me, and any feier who had been close
to his head, would hev gin his whole pile
jes, to get chance to cut. ] considered
my etlects-that pan, rocker and crow-bar
Jest as good as mins,ered upon ; and al
most felt the coroner slllin' on my body.
stuck my hands into my pockets to see if
there warn't knife about me, and pulled
on, half a dozen Of Luciter Matches, that
had just been bought that afternoon.
dom. know what put il in my head, but
so, box blazn', an, held it out towards
old grizzly, and reckon you havn't often
seen two ewes stick out wiser than his did
then. He drew back at least ten yards, and
moved off about twenty yards in to'her di-
rection. The bar crept up to The lucIIers
snd took smell, and if the muscles OF my
Jaw hadn't been so tight with fear, I'D hev
burs,ed into a reg'lar snort of laughIn', at
seein' how he turned up his nose and sniff
fled. The next mini. he rerealed at least
fifty yards and then sot another box OF the
lucifers, snd-boys dar you b'lieve it-he
gin to hack out j.! As soon as felt had
him skeert, didn't keer cuss for a whole
drove of grizzlys. jerked out another box
of lucifers, teched it of, and let ou. the most
onairlhIy yell that ever woke those diggns,
and the way that bar broke into canter 'ud
hev dsanced any quarter nag IN Chrlsten-
dom-he jest seemed to think tina. any.hln'
that could fire up as easy, and smell as bad
as me, war rather delicate subject TO kick
up row with. As he was gellIn' over the
hill, fairly squeeIed out langhin' and l'll
swar ef that impuden, mule-which was
s,andin' behind me-didn't snicker too! !
looked for rock to hit her-ins,ead Of
ketchin her to ride 10 csmp-and the un-
grateful crit.er sot rgh, off in ,rot, and left
me TO walk. made short lime a,ween that
r,vine and my tent; for ] was awful feer'd