Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-02-12
Seth Green's First Hunt.

IL was a fine morning, the sun was
bright, and / followed the shadows of
the trees, and supposed was going due
west. | did not know | was on the
wrong track until had gone many
miles to the north of my comrades. II
| had not met with some game, follow
ing the shadows perhaps as | had been
doing, might have come back in the
neighborhoOd OF where | started from.
There was some game however. At
about IL o'clock | saw large black
bear looking right at me. l threw my
eyes up a small tree that stood near,
and thought if | missed the bear, and
he came for me, would make tracks up
that little tree. had been taught to
believe that bear could not climb a
tree, but | never was more misinformei
my life, for they eau claw up tree
that isn't more than three inches
through. ran my eye along that tree
and along that riile-barrel, and pulled
the trigger. The bear fell. | loaded
up again right quick, took another look
up that tree, and then went, cautious
like, toward the bear. Now, between
me and the beast there were quite
number of small trees, but | kept my
eyes on them all the time. Presently
got near the bear. and dead for sure he
was. He had fallen between two logs,
and had hard time TO pull him out,
as he weighed fully 800 pounds. When
[ went to look at him | found nv bullet
had gone square between his eyes, and
that must nave killed him stone dead.
The arrangement with my companions
was, that if any of us killed any large
game, we were 10 fire, as a signal, three
shots as quickly as We could load. !
blazed away, but no answer came. The
reason WAS that | was many miles to the
north OF them. Ny position, as made
il out just then, was pretty much as
follows: Here was boy of 10 years
old, 30 miles from any house, with 300
pounds of bear on his hands, and only
a jack-knife to skin 1t with. | did skin
him though, took the hide and one of
the hams and started for the blaze-llne
We had gone out by. Ny load was
heavy, so | had to rest most
every thirty rods. | kept on, though,
until | thought had gone far enough |
10 notice the blaze. But there was no |
sign of blaze. May be-" thought. |
81 have gone past it.'' So | turned |
back TO look for il. but with no better |
luck. Then | just made up my mind /
that | would go straight by a compass,
and did. | walked until it was most /
night, when looked around for camp
ing ground. came across big log
which would make frst-class back for /
a fire, and | found pine tree, full of
dry knots which stuck out so that | |
and shin up the tree in case wolves were
prowling around, for wolves were |
plenty in those parts. | built rousing |
fire and broiled some bears meat, and |
had a prime supper. | lay me down,
and was soon fast asleep. How long |
slept don't know, but it must have
been some time. as my fire was almost
out when I awoke. l was kind of
chilled with the cold, and set about
raking in the ashes to get brand to
start fire again, but before | had a
blaze | heard some kind of an animal
nigh me. This made me so uneasy that
| guess l must have built up that fire
with one hand and kept the other hand
on the limb of the tree. Just then the
began to snort and stamp their
feet, and l knew that they were deer
and that need not be afraid of them.
Before had my fire going well heard
a pack Of wolves coming along, and the
deer made tracks, but the wolves didn't
follow the deer, for they stopped short