Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-09
OUR YOUNG Folks.
Chat About a Bear,

Chat About Bear.
a writer in the Prairie Farmer gives the
following chat about bear. She says:
As promised you last week, l will try
and tell you about the bear l saw few
months ago away down in Nova Scotia,
not many miles from that quaint old city
Halifax. Do hear some of the boys and
girls exclaim, as real grown-up lady did
just before 1 left Chicago; Halifax
why, yes, have heard tell of the place,
but did not think that anybody ever really
went there" People do go there, however,
by the hundreds in the summer time, and a
moat delightful, hospitable, charming class
of inhabitants do they find the Blue Noses,
as they are called-that is, when one goes
to them very well introduced.
But we will have little talk about Hail.
fax and surroundings when you have heard
about the bear.
Well, in the first place l did not, of
course, see the bear in the city, but in
place called Sackville-a section of country
about five miles long, and extending over
hill and dale and valley; through woods
and across streams. My host owned a
beautiful picturesquely beautiful
only, not with money-making beauty
situated upon the slope OF hill, where one
could stand and look upon the most tender
of melting sunsets, away off toward the
broad old ocean.
One morning as we were all gathered
upon the front stOop, grandpa, mamma,
baby, kitten and all, we looked down the
valley and saw coming up the hill, led by
two men, an immense yellow bear. One of
the farm hands was sent to call the men
and the bear up to the house. The men,
who were Swiss, were glad enough t. come,
as they were taking bruin through the
country to show off his tricks ard make
thereby little money.
The children were somewhat afraid at
first, but soon felt quite safe when they
saw be was firmly occurred by rope. Old
bruins keeper first gave him a drink of
water, then poured a pailful over him,
which he seemed II enjoy very much, as
the day was warm ne. One OF the men
said something in Swiss, at which the bear
gave a roar-ike grunt and commenced to
dance. Around and around the great lum-
bering fellow went on his two hind legs,
holding his fore paws in the air 1t was
not what one would call a very "airy
waltz" however. Again the keeper spoke,
and Immediately bruin threw himself upon
the ground and turned somersaults, max.
ing Us all laugh heartily. He then told
him to shake hands (but all in SWISS, and
it was too funny to see the great awkward
animal waddle up on his hind legs and ex.
tend first one paw and then the other
But what interested US all most, both big
and little, was to hear the man say, "Kjsse
me, and then to watch the bear throw out
his long tongue and lick his keepers face
We then gave the bear some milk to
drink, when suddenly he gave a bound for.
ward toward the baby. But he was secure
ly tied, as we well knew The milk reused
all the beasts savage instincts, one of the
men said.
But what will interest you most of all
will be the fact that on the farm (which
consisted of 500 acres, nearly all wood
land) there were seen almost every morn
ing the footprints of a real savage bear.
The sheep were fast disappearing and the
farmers about were not a little worried.
One day ! went for walk into these same
woods, and such woods You Western
boys and girls could not possibly imagine
them-the old moss covered logs, and i'm
mense trees cut down years ago and left to
lie there until all overgrown with moses
and hchens. | never before experienced
such feeling Of solitlde az in that walk
of over a mile in length through those
deep dark woods, where sometimes we had
literally to cut our way through with our
little hatchets I'VE always carried them
with us when in the forest)
AS | sauntered on, those lines of Long
fellows in "Evangeline came uncon-
scously to mXsnind, so exactly did they
describe the place
This is the forest primeval The murmurlrg pines
and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indis
tnct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids Of old, with voices sad and
prophetic
stand Ike harpers hoar with boards that rest on
Loud from its rocky cavcrns, the deep-voiced neigh
boring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the
wall OF the forest.
Nova Scotia is, as you all know, the
Acadian country of which our freside
poet writes so beautifully. 1t was bat a
few miles from where was visiting that
the scene of Evangeline, that exquisitely
tender romance which so thrills the hearts
of both oil and young, was laid. As l
drove through the country, coming ever
and anon Unexpectedly upon one of the
many beautiful lakes from half a mile to
two miles in length, in fancy l pictured
the fair Evangeline and her guide, the
good Father Felician, skirtipg these lakes
in a light canoe as they traversed the
whole land through in the sad and fruitless
search for the lost lover Gabriel.
No wonder the soul OF the poet was
filed with such strange, mystic beauty
which thus found expression in rythm and
SOM, for Acadia has an enchsntment all
its own and can best be interpreted by the
diviner thought of the Toet.