The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1876-02-11

The North American bear j. an animal OF great
ferCcity and prodigluus strength. "a hen wound
Ell aud enragef Il l. exceedingly dangerous. His
strength j. uch that he has been known u twist
ri1e barrel Ike piece Of pack thread. chew il
savageiy, and then =pit out the fragments. 4
celebrated n"beman lived IN constant dread Of
this animal. and hal the quaint motto engraved
upon his coat q arms. "lewarthe bar. odd
srifh's AHsps0fed Nature.
= You never hearn tell % the bar chase
me an Pete Boilers wunst had down
onto the Arkensaw, did you, boys2'' re-
marked Abe Half 10 a select circle Of
friends around the bar-roOm FIRE, one
winter evening, As they al sat smoking
their pipes in leisurely content. while
the chilly blast sounded mournfully
without.
"No, never heerd about it. Tell il,
Abe,-
Abe Huff sat with his feet cooked up
against the chimney jam, with a long.
dingy, black chalk pipe in his mouth,
the very picture of comfort and salts
faction.
Wall, boys, as I've got a leetle
leisure time this evening, b'leeve III
do it, But-here. Bill Jones set us M
sumthin' fust, for I'm as dry a. fish,
an | do hate 10 talk when | am drv.''
The bar-keeper hustled round behind
his counter, and soon returned with a
tray full Of clinking glasses, each con-
tanning a liberal amount Of =. old Bour-
bon"
Abe took his Off straight, alta sin
gle smacked his lips with evident
gUsto, knocked the smoldering ashes
from his rusty old pipe. relit the same.
settled himself back in his chair, pulled
his ancient, weather-beaten hat down
over his ewes. in order to shade those
rubicund optics from the glare of the
fire, and then launched out on the
promised yarn
"lou see, boys. me an Pete Boilers
had been raised together ever sense we
was boys. We'd lived mostly all our
lives in the woods. We'd bunked to-
gether under the same trees, drunk
.outen the same gourd, ct outen the same
wallet, hunted together day in and day
out, and had every thing together Jest
like two brothers An in that time we
) nerer had fsllin' out but wunst, an
that time it was about a sguaU. An she
war a beauty, boys. no mistake. She liked
Pete tust, but arterward she TUX fancy
to me, an went back on Pete. He got
awful mad at me about IL; howscndever.
arter a reglar, stan'-up knock-down
between US about the dusky critter,
Pete he got in good humor, we made
it all up agin, and war as good friends
rs ever.
"Wall, boys, about two years arter
that scrape, me an Pete war out on big
hunt together. We made our camp on
small prong o. the Arkensaw, along
the second bottom. The timber war
awful big an heavy. an the shade in
thar made il look almost like night,
even in the middle o. the day. II war
an awful lonesome place thar, not a
house within twenty miles, Injuns thick,
an bar, deer, an other game plenty.
We'd ginerally start out on our hunts
by the first peep o. day, an it'd be late
Of night before we'd git into camp.
Sometimes we'd be gone severil DAYS
before we'd make headquarters agin,
an then we'd live on parched corn an
jerked venison, till we'd swing round
into camp. Sometimes, too, we'd get
lost in them ar deep woods, an be
week or more a-gittin' in. Sometimes