The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1879-09-17
miscellaneous. g
A BEAR STORY.

Dy the corner OF the ROAD tnat
leads to Cornish. Elial was as
curious a sort of fellow as ever
lived. IIe was shoemaker, har-
ness-maker, carpenter, mason and
tailor. A regular Jack Of all =
trades;' and what was a little re-
markable, he was good at all Of
'em. His wife was as true help
meet as ever a man had in this
world. She was spinner and
weaver, and q master hand to
knit and when you come to make
bean porridge she hadn't her
equal in Claremont. She used to
pick berries of all kinds in their
season, and always took the baby
as they called the youngest of a
brood-with her.
One time she got interested in
picking raspberries, they were so
thick, and had strayed a leetle
further away from the boy than
she expected. All at once she
thought Of her darling, and leav-
ing the bushes fairly red with
berries, she hurried back to where
she left the baby, and horrible to
tell, be was gone! Wild with
anxiety, she ran hither and yon,
screaming for her child. She
looked in every place where it
seemed possible for him to go;
she crawled under bushes, around
stocks and stumps, and pale and
taintstaggered home with theawful
news. Elial started. and his wife
followed as fast as she could, but
no boy or traces of him could they
find, save the little white cap his
mother had made for him a few
days before.
Nobody can tell the feelings of
that father and mother unless they
have been placed in similar cir
cumstances. After they had tired
themselves all out in their search
they sat down, broken-hearted, in
the place where the baby was left,
and tried to think OF every posi-.
Bile chance that could befall the
child. All at once Elial started
up with:
"I'll bet my life bear has car
ried off that boy
oh! no. says the mother,
don't say that!'
Yes; I believe it. l have heard
of such things; and probably a
she-bear found the baby asleep,
and has carried it to her den. Of
course you heard no outcry?'
None! and it NAV be that she
will not harm the boy. In heav-
EMS name what can be done?
WELL said Elial, after thinking
for little, it may be that we can
save bim, if we can find the bears
whereabout.'
No sooner came they to this
conclusion than they ran to notify
their neighbors. The news that
bear had carried off one Of the
Parmelee children went like wild
fire among the Inhabitants, and
within an hour fifty men and half
that number of boys, with rifles,
shot-guns, axes, iron bars, any
thing they could lay their hands
on that would kill, or help kill a
bear, were mustered and ready for
the hunt and fight. It had got we'll
along into the afternoon, and it
was nigh four o'clock before they
started. Mrs. Parmelee went to
the place where the darling was
left, and we began to hunt for
tracks. Between the bushes the
grass was soft and mighty poor
for tracing anything but Elial
found a broken twig, and we
Judged from the way it was lean
ing that she had started toward
the place known then and now as
Barnes Swamp 1t has been
cleared ever so much since then,
and thousands Of great pines cut
off all around it; but you know
today it is the ugliest hole in
town, about. She had taken g
roundabout course, and struck in
on the northside Of the swamp
but we had surrounded it, and my
brother Bill was the first to find
her tracks as she left 2 spring
where she had probably stopped
to drink. They we're big ones
nearly as long as a mans foot
prints, and two rods from the
muddy spring not sight OF them