The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-04-21
A Facilitating Bear.

evening in great alarm, and stated that
his twin sons, Mango and Change, had
taken out his gun that morning, and had
been missing ever since / at once loaded
my rife, loosed my Cuban bloodhound,
and followed the man to his hut There
| put the dog upon the boys scent, fol-
lowing on horseback myself
1t turned out that the young scamps
had gone on the trail of large bear,
though they were only thirteen years old,
and their father had often warned them
not to meddle with wild beasts They
began their adventure by hunting the
bear, but ended, as often happens, in be-
ing hunted by the bear; for Bruin had
turned upon them, and chased them so
hard that they were fain to drop the gun
and take to tree.
1t was a sycamore of peculiar shape,
sending forth from its stem many small,
but only two large, branches. These two
were some thirty feet from the ground,
and stretched almost horizontally in OPP
posite directions They were as like each
other as the twin brothers themselves.
Change took refuge on one of these,
Mango on the other.
The bear Rugged the tree till he had
climbed to them as far as the fork There
he hesitated an instant, and then began
to creep along the branch which sup
ported Change. The beast advanced
slowly and gingerly, sinking his claws
into the bark at every step, and not de-
pending too much upon his balancing
powers
Changes position was now far from
pleasant. 1t was useless to play the trick
-well-known to bear-hunters-of entic-
ing the animal out to point where the
branch would yield beneath, its great
weight, for there was no higher branch
within Changes reach, by catching which
he could save himself from deadly fall
thirty feet sheer.
Three more steps, and the bear would
be upon him, or he would be upon the
ground. Brave as the boy was, his teeth
chartered
At this moment, Mango, nerved to
heroism by his brothers peril, moved
rapidly from the opposite limb of the tree.
Stepping behind the bear, he grasped
with one hand small higher Dough,
which extended to where he stood, but not
to where his brother lay; with the other
hand, he seized the animal firmly by it's
stumpy tail. The bear turned to punish
his rash assailant but angry as he was,
he turned cautiously. 1t was no easy
task to right-about-face on a branch
which already had begun to tremble and
sway beneath his weight
Change was saved, for the bear evil
IDENTIFY had transferred his luminosity to
Mango, whom he pursued, step by step,
toward the extremity of the other limb.
But Change was not the boy to leave his
brother and rescuer in the lurch Wait
ing until the enraged brute was well en-
barked upon Mango's branch, he pulled
its tail, as he had seen his brother do
before. Again Bruin turned awkwardly,
and resumed the interrupted chase OF
Change,
The twins continued their tactics with
success. Whenever the bear was well
advanced on one limb, and dangerously
close to one twin, the other twin would
sally from the other limb and pull his
tail. The silly animal always would
yield to his latest impulse of wrath, and
suffer himself to be diverted from the
enemy who was almost in his clutches.
After two hours Of disappointment, he
learned his mistake. He was now, for
the tenth time, on Changes branch, and
very near Change. In vain Mango
dragged at his hinder extremity; he kept
grimly on till Mango, forced to choose
between letting go the brute's tail or the
higher branch which enabled him to keep
his feet, let go the former.
Change could now retreat no farther,
and he was hardly yard beyond the
bears reach. The branch was swaying
more than ever, and the beast seemed
quite aware that he might tax it's strength
too far. After pause, he advanced one
Of his fore-feet quarter of a yard To
increase the bears difficulty in selling
him, the terrified boy let himself down
and swung with his hands from the
bough.
He was hanging in suspense between
two frightful deaths His heart was
sinking his fingers were relaxing.
Then the deep baying of hound
struck his ear, and his hands again closed
firmly on the branch. In a moment
bloodhound and a horseman sprang
through the underwood.
Change held on like grim death-held
on till he heard the sharp report of a
rifle ringing through the air; held on till