Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-11-24
TWO TOO MANY
An Old TraPPer's Story.
BY SEVEN AND NINE.

BY SEVEN AND NINE.
What wur the closest 'scape l ever he'd
from the Injuns? Wall, young fellar, l
reckon there's so many on EN- its mighty
hard to purticulurize, like. Did liver tell
ye bout the time l got away from the
Crows, up on the Yallerstun? Didn't?
Wal, that wur clost enuf, / kin tell We. 1t
wur nigh onto thirty years ago that l wur
trappin' round Chimley Rock, all alone by
myself. wur mighty ventersum lad
them days, and cared nothing at all about
the risk as long as beavers wur plenty, and
pears to me l never see game so thick as
'twur that year.
I'd made myself camp on little island
in the river, and was having the best of
luck; didn't see an Injun or the sign of
one for two months, and got careless, like.
Wal, in visitin' my traps one afternoon,
seen bar ''sign"-not grizzly. / know too
much to go arter one of them fellars with
out kumrade-no, this war thunderin'
big black bar, from his tracks, and | made
up my mind to trail him in the mornin'
| started out soon arter sunup, and fol-
lowed the trail till late in the afternoon,
and lost it in the shingle. 'Twur gittin'
late, and | concluded to go back to camp.
AS l6ttE dS COu1N lullRC L MuI dDOuL GlGlI
miles from camp, but not more'n a mile
from the river, for the trail he'd run kinder
parallel to it, We see. Thur wur a spring
clost by where | left the trail, and | stop
bed to get drink before starting. Iwur
lest rising ur from the water, when heerd
a twig snap, and looking up l see five durn-
ed red niggers a coming right tO'ard me-
and not more than thirty rod off, either. l
lit out of that mighty suddint, you can bet,
and of course the mint they seen they wur
diskivered they give a yell, and come tear
in after me. Ny jints were blamed sight
more supple them days than they be now,
and the way legged it wasn't slow, reck-
on. l made fur the river, thinking meb be
l cud give EN- the slip and git across, and
then | knew I cud fool EN-, and throw EN-
off the trail among the rocks on that side.
When got down to the river bank 'twur
dark, and Citing darker every mint, bein'
as thur was fog risin' from the water.
| couldn't hear nothin' of the lnjuns,
and Degan to think mebbe they'd lost the
trail. he'd notion that they might hev
a canoe cached thur, so | kimmenced look
in fur it. / Orter known better'n to waste
time that way; but wur then thOughtless,
Jest like you be now, and | must hev fool
ed around hunting for the burned canoe
fur mebbe quarter of an hour.
All to onct | heeld the niggers coming
down the bank. They'd struck the river a
| little above me- l wur badly skeered, tell
We, fur thur wur no place to hide, and
knowed well enuff 'twan't no use strikin'
back into the thinner.
I'm gone case, thinks Wiped out
sure, when Jest as | cum to thet konclusion
l spied a laundering big log, or rather a
hull tree, that he'd been brought down by
the spring floods, and jest lodged by one
eend on the bank, the tOther eend reachin
out into the stream. 1t Cured to me that
| if | could crawl out to the far eend and
hug the bark mighty tight, they cOdn't bt
| likely to see me, specially as twas quite
dark then, and if they went on down stream
| a lookin' fur me, | could take the bach
track and cross a mile or two above, whal
l knowed thar wur ford.
Wal, | want long in gitting out to the
far eend of the log, which wur partly un-
| der water, but afloat. l straddled the log,
with my legs in the water, and held my
rifle acrosst it in front of me, and theT
bowed myself down and Rugged the bari
like possum.
/ Jist as l got settled, and wur thinking
what burned nice thing it 'ud be if th'
stick 'ud only float off, down come tht
redskins to the edge of the bank, and stood
thar, within fifty feet of me, a peerinG
round. kinder puzzled like, as if they WI
a wondering whar on airth I'd got to.
| Wal, thinks l, if they diskivver me now
they'll lift my har to a sartainty. The!
| spoke to one another, but l didn't max
! out what they wur saying, though know
cd heir lingo tollable well. Dreckly ont
on on EN- en- sp,elIe little louder, and my ear
wur sharp enGzt4 to keteh the words. ID
'peared to be the head buck OF the party
and said to the other H. l'Sg4rS, bo oIos
"Where is the canoe? . I'a0' " 0-'o
by; step on the log and find it. .b. nav
One of EN- handed his gun to ''' Ioil I0n
one, and stepping on the log began to " ~
out to'ard me. Perhaps l didn't hug bark
and hold my breath as he stopped down,
almost over me, and kmmeneed feeGn' fur
the canoe.
He didn't pear to find it quick enuff to
suit the fellars on the bank, and another of
EN- jumped onto the log to help him. The
jar set the burned thing aflOat, and splash
it cum right into the river, chucking the
two red niggurs into the water. 'Twan't
when I seed how the old log throwed EN-
/ CttWdAluD lnlO O44C WdtCLs
Hows'ever, they mighty quick got hold
Of the log again, and in mint more there
wur three of us sitting strsddle of it, and a
floating down stream with a mighty smart
current.
That wur burned purity purdickament,
wurn't it, young feller, floating down the
Yallerstun straddle of log, long with two
pison-sarpents Of Injuns? The fellars on
shore, when they fust seed the fix we wuT
| in, set up a laugh. 'sif they thort it wur a
| mighty good Joke: but 'twarn't no laugh
in matter-leastways to me, and my ship
mates 'peared to be Of the same opinion.
They called to their kumrades on the bank
to hurry up and git the canoe and take em
off.
Meanwhile we had fioated twa or three
hundred rods down stream, and / wur a
sitting straddle of the small eend, lest as
quiet as deer listening for the hounds,
and wondering how l wpr goin' to git out
of the scrape.
All to onct one Of the Injuns, in irving
to shift his position on the log, rolled the
thing PARKWAY over, and come burned near
splllln me inter the water, In trying TO
save myself | must q made cOnslderabul
noise, for when / got fixed again could
hear EN- mutterin' to each other, and seed
that they knOWeu iuuT WuE sOluebOuy VI
sumthing onto the log besides themselves,
How the Injuns looked l couldn't tell
fur it wur so dark l couldn't see their
faces; but they must have been worse
skeered than wur, for l knowed who they
wur, but they didn't know who / wur.
They kept on jabbering to each other,
and at first thort mebbe they wur goin to
quit the float and streak it, but dreckly
they stopped talking and began peeping
to'ard whar wur cached, like a eupple Of
cock-turkeys looking fur worms. Then one
of EN- said:
"Don't you see somethingY
eyes, answered the other; clark lump
bear perphas."
And then the first speaker called out:
"Who's there2"
he'd nothing to say, and ! growed small
so fast, trying to squeeze myself out of sight
that my skin hung as loose as Mackinaw
blanket on lodge pole. They kept peep
in at me, and finally heerd one ssys-
ats no bear-it's man. Look at his