Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-12-07

1 the game IN MS 0ciEDDofuUyu. Ilt seAae
/ little about achievements in that way, but
talked about the habits of wild animals
"One remarkable trait in the character
of bears" he observed. ''is their phiio-
sophie way Of acting when they get into
difficulty. There is no fretting or making
fuss over o matter they can't help, as
men and women do, but they make them
selves as comfortable as they can under
the circumstances. / knew an instance
| once. in which a bear. when he got into
trouble. acted more like philosopher and
/ a Christian than one man IN hundred
would. I'll tell you about 1t.
| II had made but small crop of corn
| one wear. on account of the very dry sum
mer; put il into new courthouse which
/ I had built about a hundred and fifty
! wards from where we are now sitting. IL
/ was set up about three feet from the
! ground. on six large cottonwood blocks
sawed sau;spe off at the ends. The bears
had someone's robbed my old courthouse
by pulling the corn out from between the
logs. which were crooked, and in some
places hand breadth apart. To prevent
their doing so, had the logs for the new
one hewn straight on the edges so as To
come close together There WASH a crack
an inch wide between them anywhere.
about the middle of November, Old
Harry, my foreman, came to me one
morning and told me he had seen bear
tracks about the courthouse. l laughed,
for ! knew it was bear-proof. A few
mornings after he came to me again,
scratching his head as if he was trying TO
solve some mystery. He had found seveal
| ears of corn in the path leading back into
the swamp he pulled one Of them out OF
his pocket and showed it TO me.
ssiaas Tom, said ne whar de kaun-
house key bin hangin' O nights all dis
| week:
II told him thought on the nail outside
the house-door.
"'Outside de do. hey?' he continued,
still scratching his head. Now sposc a
| bar reason to hsself dis way. If j kin
only git de key, and go TO de kaun house
| an steal a armful o kaun, and den lock
| up de do, an hang de key back whar |
| got it, de Major never miss his kaun an
| SO 90 on stealin' of it all de winter.
Mas Tom, bars is got much sense as peo-
| pie is; heap mo- un some folks; an dcy
Away considers de matter, jcs' like you
and me, fo' dey go to work 'bou. any
| thin"
"The idea of the bears stealing the
| courthouse key and replacing it on the
| nail was so original that ] laughed out
right in the old fellows face. To humor
| him, however we went TO the courthouse
| and examined it all around, and, to my
amazement, found that the bears had
really accomplished II stratagem that re-
quircd almost as much forcthought as
stealing the key, and then hanging it
! again on the nail.
81 had placed my corn-tops and fodder
i'm three large stacks which quite hid one
corner of the building. We had stripped
the corn in the angle formed by the stacks,
and the loose shucks lay all around.
Here the bears had scratched away the
soft earth undermining the block that
supported the corner, and, pulling the
block down, had rolled il aside. Any one
would naturally suppose that the corner
of the house would sway down. The
bears, no doubt, thought SO, and they
were not Disappointed; for there was an
opening between the lower log and the
| one next above, out Of which they had
| been helping themselves for week or
| more.
II sent Harry for large jackscrew,
and some of the field hands to help us. in
tending to replace the block. When he
returned he made a suggestion. S'pose
you don't riz up de corner, Mas Tom,
| till tomorrow mOrnin', an set de bar-trap
by dc crack inside. spcct dey II come
fcclin' dar gin tonight fur mo- kaun, an
wen ketch one Of de black genlmuns.
| 81 acted on Harry's idea, and going
! inside, we removed nearly all the corn
| from the sunken corner, leaving small
| pile about an arms length from the logs.
then closed securely all but foot or 50
| of the crack. Within convenient distance
from this I set powerful spring trap
which had bought expressly for bears.
| On the plate of the trap | tied half-eaI
of corn, and set the trigger SO that il
would spring quite easily. That night
| told my people to keep away from the
corn house and to shut up all the dogs
| that they might not bark and scare the
bears if they came.
81 sat up late reading, and when went
| to bed found the mosquitoes very trouble
some. At last, however, / got to sleep
and, ! suppose, would have slept until
| breakfast time. But a little before sun
| rise was awakened by n knock at the
door, and Harry, poking his head in, ex
| claimed, Got him, Mas TomH
Il had forgotten all about the bears and
traps, and replied, peevishly, Go long,
! you old rascal, Haven't had three hours
| sleep; and turned over to take another
snoozc. But Harry, laughing in his quiet
way, continued, Got him sho' 'nuf, Mas
Tom! want You come look at him
81 hurried on my clothes, and taking
my gun, and putting on II fresh cap, hur-
ried with the old fellow to the corn.
house.
600 easy, Mas Tom said Harry,
shaking with laughter. / want you see
what he bout l bin keepn' de people
way purpose for you to git a good look at
him fo' he git angry
crept up softly, and, peeping around
one of the odder-siacks, saw the most per
feet picture of was going to say Chris
tian resignation and patience under suffer
ing ever beheld There was large bear
sitting on his launches, his left paw thrust
through the crack between the logs and
fast in the trap. In his right he held a
corn shuck, patiently brushing away the
mosquitoes from his face. " was the
saddest countensnce / ever saw"
Here the Major, apparently satisfied
that he had finished his story, took up II
coal with the tongs and lit his pipe. i en-
tered plea for the bear.
Why, Major, you did Mt shoot him,