Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-09-29

'Our little craft danced upon the
water and seemed likely any moment to
turn keel upward, but the bear showed
no intention of relaxing his hold; on the
contrary, he appeared every moment
mounting higher into the canoe
"Give him swan, said to John
son; perhaps he will leave us them
"'Darned if | will; he's got no man.
ners and [ will show him none. Take
that, we old villain.
he was summoning strength to strike
heavy blow one of his feet slipped, and,
with a smothered exclamation, he
plunged into the water. The bear at the
same moment relinquished his hold and
disappeared after johnson.
Presently there was violent COM
motion in the water, and johnson,
breathing like a porpoise, appeared on
the right of the dugout. He retained
hold of his gun, but it was useless, and
he had no knife.
"Why in thunder don't you shoot? he
called to me, and for the first time I re-
membered that my gun lay beside me.
/ lifted it from the bottom of the boat,
but it was SO dark, and thefgures in the
water were so indistinctly defined that I
dared not fire for fear of shooting my
friend
"The loud splashing showed that both
johnson and the bear were making vio-
lent endeavors with diverse intentions,
the man striving to keep out of bruins
clutches, and bruin eager to get him
within them. I feared for my friend,
but still [ dared not fire.
'Tarnation take We shoot 7 shouted
Johnson.
cat that very moment the light
blazed UP in the bow of the boat, and I
saw the bear distinctly Taking
hurried aim, / fred. Bruin answered
the shot with fierce growl, and turning
directly about, came toward the boat.
CT fastened to load my fowling piece,
and tell you l never put more elbow
grease into anything than / did into that
charge, but before I had the weapon
loaded the bear had seized hold of the
stern and was clambering In.
"The rickety old craft shook and
rocked like leaf. L thought it would
surely capsize, but it just escapedit every
time the animal plunged forward. had
only the percussion cap to afix to the
nipple, but by the time [ had finished
the operation bruin was entirely in the
boat, which commenced to sink.
81 sprang out at once, leaving the
bear i'll full possession.
"To a disinterested spectator the
scene would now have appeared ludi-
crous. Indeed, as / look back and see
how it ali looked cannot help smiling.
Bruin was seated upon his launches, and
the swans we had secured after so much
labor were disappearing in his greedy
NAV about as fast as anything could.
johnson contemplating it with look of
intense disgust.
"'The burned brute shan't have ali of
those fowl if I can help it, he said. mad
as halter, and he swan to the bow of
the dug-out and, with some difficulty,
seized knot that was burning.
calling back, he then lifted himself
by one hand over the gunwale and with
the other he applied the torch to bruins
shaggy hide. There was a smell of burn
ing hair, followed by fierce growl and
then the bear plunged into the water.
He seemed to have had enough of
the battle, for he did not attack us again,
but swan toward the shore not far dis
tant. We were not long in laundering
into the boat, when we speedily extin-
guished the fire that was beginning to
spread an the bottom, and repaired things
generally. Bruin, in his hasty exit, had
left two Of the trumpeters untouched,
one for each Of us.
johnson at once proceeded to clean
ing and drying his double-barrel.
"'I am going to have that BEAR he
quietly remarked. see if 1 don't! The
fight amt over yet.
Before he had loaded, however. the
sounds of fierce strife came from the
shore. Growls, roars and screams sue
ceeded each other, and the cracking of
underbrush showed that Two large ami
mails were engaged in deadly fight.
"'That's painters scream, I know,
said Johnson. All the beasts in the
forest are out arter swans, [ guess.
Well, they can have them for all of me.
We padded up slowly to shore, but
the screaming and the tearing still con-
tinued, and we dare not land, not know
ing what enemies might attack us.
F'The yells were terrible, and the
heavy crushing and tearing among the
bushes told of fierce struggle. All at
once the yells ceased. We heard a loud
groan and then all was still.
"'One of them's beat or else they're
both played out, but I am sure I don't
care enough about it to go and see, just
yet; and my companion seized the paddle
and pushed out into the lake.
And there we remained the rest of the
night, sleeping in the bottom OF the boat
When it was morning we pao lied care
fully to shore. Leaving me with the
paddles johnson got out and made a
wary examination. heard him crash
ing through the bushes, and presently
he called out:
"They're both stone dead. But
there's been something of a scrimmage.
tell you. It's the largest painter 1
ever saw; and the bear amt small one.
guess we've got paid for the swans this
old carcas devoured.'
"We skinned them on the spot, and
taking portion of bruins shoulder for
breakfast, we went on board the dugout