Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1858-02-11

ring about among them. Then ont come
an awful great black bear, the uglies
| looking Teller that | ever laid my eye,
on. He looked up towards the tree W,
was on, and turned up his nose as thougl
he was shutting something. ! begun tc
feel pretty streaked; knew bears wa,
terrible climbers, and I'd 4 gin all the
world ifI'd only had my gun in my hand
well loaded. But there was no time to
go down after it now, and thought the
only way was to keep as still as possible
and perhaps he might go off again about
his business. So we didn't stir nor hardly
breathe. ga e}roaa1
Whether the old Teller smclt us, OF
whether he was looking for beechnutS
| don't know; but he reared right up on
his hind legs and walked as straight to
the tree as aman could walk. He walk
ed round the tree twice, and turned his
great black nose up, and looked more
like Old Nick than anything | ever see
before. Then he stuck his sharp nails
f into the sides of the tree, and begun t.
Ihitchahimself mp. ! felt as if we had
got into bad scrape,, and wished we
was out of it. Ned begun to cry. But,
says | to Ned, Its no use to take Oh
about it; if he's coming up we must fight
him offthe best way we cam We climb
ed up higher into the tree, and the old
bear come hitching along up after us
| made Ned 60 up above me, and as
had pretty good club in my hand,
thought might be able to keep the old
teller down. He didn't seem to stop for
the beechnuts, but kept climbing right
up towards u.s. When he got up pretty
near | poked my club at him, and he
showed his teeth and growled. Says l,
Ned, scrabble up a little higher We
elm up two or three limbs higher, and
the old bear followed close after. When
he got up so he could almost touch my
feet, i thought it was time to begin to
fight. So up with my club and tried
to fetch him pelt over the nose. And
the very first blow he Knocked the club
right out OF my hand, with his great
niger paw, as easy as / could knock it
out OF the hand OF baby year old
| begun to think then it was gone goose
with us. However, took Ned's club,
and thought I'd try once more; but he
knocked it out of my hand like feath-
|er, and made another hitch and grabbed
lat my feet. We scrabbled up the tree,
and he after US, till we got almost to the
top of the tree. At last | had to stop
a little for Ned, and the old bear clinch-
ed my feet. First he stuck his claw in
to EN-, and then he stuck his teeth into
'em, and begun to nav. | felt as if
twas Il gone case, but kicked and fit,
and told Ned to get up little higher,
and | got up little higher too, and the
old bear made another hitch and come
up higher, and begun to nav my heels
again. And then the top Of the tree
begun to bend, for we had got up so
high we was all on n single limb as
l'twere; and it bent little more, and
cracked, and broke, and down we went,
bear and all, about thirty feet to the
ground. AT first | didn't know whether
| was dead or alive. l guess we all lay
still as much as minute before we
could make out to breathe. When l
come to my feeling little, found the
bear had fell on my lame leg, and give ii
another most awful crushing. Ned
wasn't hurt much. He fell on top of
the bear, and the bear fell partly on me.
Ned sprung off and got out of the way
of the bear; and i'll about minute more
the bear cfawled up slowly on to his
feet, and began to walk off, without ta-
king any notice of us, and | was glad
lenough to see that he went rather lame.
When come to try my legs ! found
one of 'em was terribly smashed, and
couldn't walk a step on it. So | told
Ned to hand me my gun, land to go home
as fast as he could 90, and get the
horse and father, and come and carry
me home.
Ned went off upon quick trot, az il
he was after the doctor But the blum
dering critter-Ned always was a great
blunderer-lost his way and wandered
about in the woods all night, and didn'r
get home till sunrise next morning. The
way spent the night wasn't very com
Portable, | can tell We. Just before darl
Int begun to rain, and | looked round tC
try to find some kind of a shelter. A
last | see a great tree, lying on til,
ground little ways off, that seemed e
be holler. | crawled along to it, anC
found there was a holler in one end large
enough Tor me to creep into. So in
went, and in order to get entirely out o
the way of the scattering of the rain
and keep myself dry, ! crepti in as mucl
as ten feet. laid there and rested my
self as well as could, though my les
panied me too mnch to sleep. Some
time in the night, all at once. heerC
a sort of rustllng noise at the end of thu
log where | come in. Ny hair stood
right on end. 1t was dark as Egypt;
couldn't see the least thing, but coulC
could hear the rustling noise again, anC
it sounded as if it was coming into th'
Hog. | held my breath, but could hea
something breathing heavily, and there
seemed to be sort OF scratching agains
the sides ofthe log, and it kept working
alog in towards me. / clinched ID,
towl;ng-piece and held on to it. 'Twa
Ewell loaded with brace of bullets anC
some shot besides. But whether to fire
or what TO do, couldn't tell. | wa
sure there was some terrible critter IL
1.-The long, and the rustling noise KEEP
coming nearer and nearer to me. a
last heerd low kind of a growl.
thought if was only dead and decent,
buried somewhere l should be glad; 10
TO be eat up alive there by bears, o
wolves, or catamounts, | couldn't bea
1.-The idea of it. In minnie more some
thing made a horrible grab at my fee
and begun to nav 'em. At first crawl
ed little further into the tree. Blu
the critter was hold of my feet again ii
a minute, and found it was no use fo
Ime to goin any further. / didn't hadl,
dare to fire; for / thought i'll didn't XII
IL critter II Mnuld be only liknlY ID