The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1888-12-07
IN A PANTHER's LAIR.
Thrilling and Awful Experience
With a California LSOnoes.

With California LSonoes.
Ministers are not a class of men who
are generally supposed to have met
with any very startling adventures.
Yet one Of this peaceful calling, whose
acquaintance l made a few years ago
on a journey to Northern Michigan,
had had in his boyhood an encounter
which in vivid frightfulness, as he re-
lated it, I think, is rarely surpassed.
He was a slight, mild, unassuming
man, with one arm noticeably shorter
than the other. Some allusion to this
popularity, from one of our Party-we
were on the after-deck of a Lake Supe-
rior steamboat plying between ports
on the south shore and Duluth-called
out from him the story, which l shall
give substantially as he told it.
My uncle's sheep ranch was situated
in the valley of a small stream which
flows out from the spurs of the Sierra
Nevada, and falls into one OF the
northern tributaries Of the Sacra-
mento. There l visited him, in conf
pany with my mother, in the summer
Of my sixteenth year.
/ had a spinal affection which made
me puny boy, and it was in the hope
that a change of climate might benefit
my health that pressing invitation
from our California relatives was ac-
cepted, and we went to spend a year on
the Pacific slope Under the influence
of the new, wild life of the ranch my
health began to improve Immediately;
and my friends declared that they
could actually see me grow!
There was room enough for that;
for at that time l was so small that l
was almost ashamed to tell people my
age Still il must have been my
fresher complexion and brighter
spirits, rather than a slight increase
in stature, that gained from my
friends, in a few weeks. that delight
full compliment. I believe there is
nothing else so gratifying to a stunted
boy as to be told that he is growing.
In urging our visit. my uncle had
promised me a Pany and o guu. These
excited my most ardent expectations;
though 1 can't say that they proved
quite such powerful inducements to
the mind Of my anxious mother. She
dreaded to have her darling touch a
gun; she shuddered at the mere
thought Of me mounted on a horse!
But when she came to see me shoot at
mark and meet with no more mishap
than to miss it, which 1 did of course,
and actually ride the pretty little pony
my uncle had provided for me, she
conquered her timidity and became
willing, at last, to entrust me out of
her sight. ! galloped over the range.
and along the sparsely wooded banks
of the stream, hunting grouse, rabbits,
and other small game; and although
brought home few trophies of the
chase, l always returned in such a
glow from healthy exercise that my
mother became quite reconciled to the
sport
Still she cautioned me not to ride
''too far away;" an injunction which
fully intended to heed. But as my
powers of endurance increased. my
ideas OF distance enlarged; until one
day l met with the adventure l am
going TO relate.
didn't exactly aspire to encounter
a grizzly; but it was my ambition to
shoot a deer, mountain sheep, or at
least coyote. To ride home some day
and announce to my mother and uncle
and charming Cousin Ruth that had
slain wolf even il it were only one
OF that small cowardly Western
species, would have made me feel my
self about as big as any boy.
A sheep would now and then get
astray, in spite of the shepherds; when
it was pretty sure 10 be killed within
a few hours by some marauding beast
or beasts from the mountains. To re-
nav my uncle's kindness, by helping to
rid tho range of these pests, was
another motive for extending my ex-
cursions.
One morning l actually startled some
wild creature from its prey, in a clump
Of cotton-woods. on the banks Of the
stream. l hardly had q glimpse Of il,
as il dartcd behind a ledge and disap-
pcarod. IL must have been much
larper than n coyote, and l concluded
that it was a wolf, never having seen
wolf in my life.
The s5ittishness Of my pony pre-
vented me from dashing on and get
ing a better view of the fugitive. L
was excited, and may be little scared.
! paused to withdraw the small shot
from one barre! Of my fowling-piece,
and ram down an ounce bail instead.
The other barrel already had charge
OF buck. / remember how my hands
shook as I performed that simple
operation.
Then ! urged my pony into tho
clump Of trees ont of which the beast
had leaped; and saw one of my uncIe's
fine merinos partially devoured. The
shyness OF the horse I supposed to be
occasioned by the smell of blood.
There may have been something in
that; but he WAS also repealed from the
spot by a wilder instinct. which had
been transmitted To him by mis- Nfexi-
can prOgenitors, and which I had q
more awkward experience Of before
Iorg. I Az Eef ger assg enough 20