The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-03-09

vicious rap over the head; but the blow
only made her roar and duck and
scatter blood and foam all over mo and
the tree. At this stage of the fight she
looked = fiend incarnate. After fencing
. while for an opening. l made out to
hit her another sockdolager across the
suout. I hit her 80 hard this time that
splinters few OF tho club. but it only
made her savager and more dangerous
than ever. tried hard to jab her in
the ere. but you might Is well try to
poke fencing master in the eye with
stick As bear. even Il It only has one
paw at liberty. Atlast she grabbed the
stick, and quicker than chain lightning
she wrcnched it out Of my grasp.
There was only one thing to be done
now, and that was to get from between
her and the cub just as lively as possi-
bic. At the imminent risk Of breaking
my neck I skurried along the nearest
branch on all fours until the bough
bent and swayed with the tension. The
old bear was blind with fury, and
started out after me, but as the branch
began to snap and splinter she funked.
and drew herself back to the fork. A
moment later she was joined by the
cub. who threw its paws about her
neck and began licking her bleeding
mouth. The old bears fury seemed to
cool off wonderfully at finding her cub
uninjured. and after soldering over it
awhile they both started down the tree.
The chief concern of the old bear now
was to get away with the cub. As soon
as they reached the ground they looked
up at me. apprchcnsive like. as though
fancying / might be going to follow
them up. and then struck off through
the timber.
You can bet your sweet life. how
ever, had no notion of following up
that old she bear and her cub at that
time. After waiting in the tree awhile
to, give them plenty of time to clear
out, slid down and in about fifteen
minutes struck camp. That was the last
time ever sauntered over to water the
mules without my Winchester; yes.
and revolver, too. for man is liable
to drop his rifle if he has to Skinny up
a tree on the double quick. in which
case a revolver is mighty comforting
thing to have on hand.
This wasn't the only lesson l ever
had that taught me to be wary about
monkeying with cubs Even after it
was thought the mother had been killed
our camp was thrown into fine conf
motion one night over woolly little
cuss about three months old. The pre-
vious day we had been out and lit up
OH pair of cinnamons and this young
cub. At our fire one of the big fellows
bit the dust and the other one made
good his escape through the under
brush. The cub stayed with the dead
bear. and seeing that it was squaw,
we naturally concluded that it was its
mother and that the runaway was its
sire. We carried the cub into camp
and for the night chained him to the
wagon wheel. About midnight we
were awakened by commotion
outside the tent and looking out
we saw what VIC made out in
the darkness to be a big CHINA
mon trying to lug off the cub. As soon
as she found she was discovered she
became fairly crazed, and started to
run amuck through the camp. She
tore the tent down about our ears, tore
one side out of the wagon. stampeded
the mules. which VIC always kept near
by at night, and ended by tearing
the poor cub nearly in two trying to
jerk it loose. Fortunately she didn't
get her paws on any of us She didn't
seem to have any idea of injuring any
body or any thing particularly, but, as
1 say. just ran amuck for general
smash-up. After doing all this DAM
age. she got away without carrying an
ounce of lead with her. too. In fact,
there wasn't a man in camp that OBJ
tanned more than a confused glimpse
of her. As Sagebrush remarked after
ward. it might have been old Nick
himself, for all we knew, cutting up
didos disguised as bear. and not a
cinnamon ut all. l reckon. though. it
must have been a bear.-F0rt Custer
Cor. N. T. Sun.