The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-11-08
An Awkward Situation.

fall OF 1000, the writer, then youth OF
II, had an adventure with a bear, which
though anything but amusing to him al
the time, may be found amusing by the
reader.
L had been attending school that fall
Mt the l.. Academy, where / was study.
ing to prepare myself for college. ]
did not have an easy time of it by any
means, for had to pay my own way.
Summers / worked in haying time fol
the farmers, at $15O a day, and winters
i taught school in some of the back
districts where regular teachers were not
employed.
That season taught the winter
school in the northern part of Oxford
county, Me. 1t was the first school |
had ever taught The distance was
forty-five or fifty miles from l.. School
was to begin the first Monday in No
vember.
l set off on the very last day of Octo-
Der, walked part of the distance, and
rode the rest of the way on stage.
Snow had "held off" remarkably, so
the farmers said The ground was bare,
and the woods full of dry rustling leaves,
which lay in heaps and windrows along
the fences and stone walls.
l had that fall begun the study of
mineralogy. Lodges, rocks and all loose
stones had suddenly acquired new
interest.
The locality around Cousin Ben's was
uncommonly well furnished with raw
material for study and tield-work.
spent my mornings and Saturdays ex-
amining the rocks and crags, and even
during the first two weeks of school L
had made quite collection of feld-spar,
rose-quartz, with some rather good speci-
mems of plumbago, of which l was very
proud; for l thought / had discovered
IA considerable deposit of this latter
mineral
My cousin, through whose influence
had obtained the school, had told me of
a mountain in the next township where
there were "black diamonds" as he
called them, which he had noticed while
numbering up there the previous winter.
He described the place to me. 1
| thought his diamonds" might be black
tourmaline in crystals, and was anxious
to visit the place. 1t was rather stiff
Jaunt to take on foot, but Ben offered
me the services of his old calico" horse,
jed. 1t being new country with
rough roads, the people there rode horse
back a good deal, and nearly every man
had saddle and saddle-bags.
SO 1 mounted old Jed, put my ham
mer and drill in the leather bags, and
set Off.
There was new road for three or
four miles. Ny route then led me along
disused lumber road which followed
up the valley of large brook.
1t was very desolate, wild tract, but
L readily found the lodges and the black
crystals which Ben had described. These
proved to be very fine, large crystals of
tourmaline, some of them fully six inches
long by two and three in diameter.
set off to return little before sun
down. AS nearly as l now remember, /
had gone mile and half perhaps
more, for the sun had now set to me in
the valley of the lumber road, when my
horse, which had thus far plodded on
soberly enough, stopped short and began
to snort and stamp.
hitSl lhpibCllt vi tWO Il tIlcO 10 urge
the horse along He set his fore-feet
and snorted, and while / was trying to
spur him up, large black ANIMAL
bear l knew at glance-trotted out
into the road from behind pile of bass
wood logs.
Seeing us, the bear stopped and
stretched out an inquiring nose toward
the horse. The animal was perhaps 10C
feet ahead of us. felt the horse begin
to tremble under me. His ears were
bent forward, every nerve tightening
1 kept speaking to him, and shouted
at the bear, who stood looking sullenly
at us. / didn't know what to do; but
old Jed settled that question for me.
All his fears seemed suddenly to turn
into rage, and he bounded at the beal
like fury. / came near going off hi:
back at the first leap, but clutched his
name and hung on.
The next thing recollect seeing wa.
the bear almost under the horses fore
feet, running and growing, the horse
biting wildly at him.
1t seemed as if we must come dowr
plump on the bear at every spring. HI
was right under the horses fore-hoof,
at each plunge.
/ should think we went hundred
rods down the road in just that way, tn,
horse almost trampling on the bear a
every jump.
At length he tackled suddenly out O
the lumber-road into the woods, and tn,
horse, rushing frantically after him
dashed under some hemlocks, the low
boughs of which scraped me off hi
back and sent me rolling into it'll,
hollow.
1 got up and listened while, till tn,
horse and bear had gone fairly out o
hearing, then Imped home in anything
but comfortable condition.
Next morning, however, we found tn,
horse near the barn. One of the stir
rups was torn of, and he had lost tn,
hammer and part of my specimens on
of the saddle-bags. How he had com,
off with the bear we could only guess.
was destined to have still anothe
bear adventure in that region. We hae
four terms year mt the l.. Academy
each of eleven weeks. The spring tern