Butte record., 1854-04-22

listen. stranger-6'st, my old mare
and myself, and wished both of us any
whore else at the time--then there was
panther, your old acqu'ntance-then
there were four deer, buck and three
does. Then came a catamount and,
after him. black bear, almnst as large
as buffalo Then there was raccoon,
an opossum, and couple of gray wolves,
and swamp rabbit, and-darn the thing.
"a sinking skunk Perhaps the latter
wasn't the most dangerous vermin on the
ground, but it certainly was the most dis
agreeable of the whole lot, for it smeIl
only as an acursed pole cat can smell.
have said, stranger, th,t was m ght-
ily taken by surprise on first seeing this
'clamj mjamfrey' Of creatures but I was
still more dumbfounered when first saw
tn Ii behavior to one another, knowing
their nature as | did There was the
panther lying close up to the deer-its
natural prey aud there were the wolves,
too and there stood the catAmout, with
in three feet of the opossum and the
swamp-rabbit /; nd there were the bear
and the cunning old coon and there
they were, no more minding one another
than if they had spent all their days to-
gether in the same pen. 1t was the od-
dest sight l ever beheld and it remind
ed me of bit of Scripture my mother
had often read from a book called The
Bible, or some such name-about lion
that Was so tame he used to squat down
beside lamb, and not l,y a claw on the
innocent creature. Well, stranger, as |
am saving. the whole party behaved in
this very same way. They all appeared
down in the mouth, and badly scared
but for all tbat l had my fears that the
panther or the bear-I wasn't afraid of
any of the others-might get over their
fright after the food fell and therefore
l kept as quiet as any of them during the
whole time 1 was in their company, and
staying cl' Sc by the mare. But neither
bear nor panther showed any savage pro.
pensity the next day, nor the night that
followed it.
Stranger, it would tire you to tell you
all the movements that took place among
these creatures during that long day and
night. Never one of them laid tooth
or claw upon each other. l was hun
CRY enough mys If, and should have
liked to have taken steak from the but
tocks of one ., the deer, but I dare not
do it, for fear my breaking the peace
might lead to regular 'shindy' When
day broke next morning after, I saw
that the food was falling; and a. soon
as it was shallow enough, led my mare
quiely into the w.ter, and climbing upon
her back, took silent ave of my COM
p 'nions. The water still took my mare
up 10 the tanks, SO that none of the ver-
min could follow without swimming, and
none Of them seemed inclined to try
that. l struck directly for my neigh
boris shan'y, which l could see about
three miles off ; and in an hour or SO l
was at his door. There l did not stay
long, but borrowing an extra gun he
happened 70 have, and king him along
with his rife, / started my mare back to
the island.
We found the game not exactly as l
had left it. The fall of The food had
given the panther, the cat and the wolves,
courage. The swamp rabbit and the
opossum were complet' ly gnne-al but
their woodland one of he does WIS bet.
ter than half devoured. My neighbour
took one sid and | tn other, and riding
close up, We surrounded the isl nd. |
plusg the panther at the first shot,
and he did the same for The bear. We
next laid out the wolves. and then the
coon, and then We t'olt our time about
the d er these tier nj til bear be-
ing the on y valuable ihings on the is
land. The skunk We killed last. rs we
did not want the thing to stink u, IF
the place beiore we skined the deer
After killing the skunk VI mouuted and
left, OF course, 10 ded with our bear-mrt
and venison. got my rife, after all.
When the food went down, I found 1t
near the middle Of the prairie, half buried
in the mud of the slough.
saw | had built my shanty in the
wrong place but 1 soon looked out for
a better location and put up another -
| had all ready in the spring, and then
went back to Mississipi and brought out
Mary and the two young ones"
Thus uds the >q,atter's story.