The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-04-02
DON'T suppose
ithas got noised
arc un d here

" S vet 6DOuU JILL
Bonesett having to shoot his trained
bear, Sassy Sam, has it?' asked
an innocent-looAing man who had
come in on the night train and had
been listening to some "reminiscences
| and experiences of different members
of the Fairchild house circle, which
was sitting in informal session in HAM
mondsport.
''Not YETI replied Landlord Ross.
1--WE don't hear much news OF that
kind any more since Stebbins got mar
ried and Jake Lapham went to New
York. So Sassy Sam is dead, Ell?
Well, where did he live when he was
| alive?''
''Down my way" said the stranger,
eyes, Sassy sam Is dead. Jim had to
shoot him He got the big head, Sam
did, and Jim had to put bullet in it.
He was an ungrateful cub, that bear
was, but what nice mother he had!
His mothers name was Peggy Ann.
She lived number of years Oh Jim's
farm, and if ever IL bear had a romantic
life Peggy Ann did. Ten years ago
next spring a fine Berkshire SOW be-
longing to Jim gave birth to litter of
nine coal black pigs. This interesting
pig family was kept in an Enclosure out
| near the barn, and early one morning,
when the pigs were about three weeks
old, Jim heard great squealing among
them, and, hurrying out, he saw bear
getting out of the pen with one OF the
pigs under it's arm. The mother of this
kidnapped pig had made the fur t1y out
| of the bear, and it seemed glad to get
away without tarrying to capture more
than one of the family. After
that Jim moved the old sow
| and her pigs to a small building
| that had been used as a smokehouse.
| where he could shut them in and pre-
| vent further raids upon them by bears.
! Two or three days afterward Jim fed
his pigs and started for his work and
forgot to close the door of the smoke
house. When he came home at night
his wife told him that early in the
afternoon she heard the pigs squealing
| as if their little hearts were breaking
and going out found the mother gone
and the pigs huddled together in one
corner of the Enclosure. The old sow
| hadn't returned to her family when
Jim and his wife went to bed and they
! were at loss to understand her
strange disappearance. AS soon as ne
got up next morning jim went out to
take look at the pigs. Everything
was quiet and when he got to the
smokehouse he was rejoiced to see the
old SOW lying in her place as comfort
able as ever, sucking her family But
what was Jims establishment to dis
cover that the place at her maternal
fount which had been made vacant by
the heartless kidnapping raid of the
bear was filled and that a black
and furry baby bear occupied the
place. The thing was plain as day
to Jim. The sow, smarting Tor
revenge on the bear. had taken advan-
tage of her first opportunity to get
away, tracked the bear to it's lair and
watching until the heartless marauder
went away on some similar expedition
had kidnapped the bears cub and
brought it home with her.
THAT cub thrived amazingly in
charge of it's strange foster mother and
grew up and away beyond its foster
brothers and sisters. A feeling of un-
diving affection seemed knit between
the bear aud Old Blacky, as the sow
was called, and it grew stronger as one
by one the pigs were taken away and
f:lttened and killed. Jim named the
bear Peggy Ann, it being that kind of
a bear. At the age of two years she
was whopping big animal and Jim
trained her to work the churning ma
chine, take the cows to pasture, turn
the cider mill. drag the harrow and
make herself generally useful about
the farm She was as kind and gentle
as sheep and when she wasn't at
work spent most Of her time cheering
up her beloved foster mother, who was