The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-01
sAGAOITY OF A TAME BEAR.
Story That Has Lost No Detail 70
Lack of Imagination.

Lack of Imagination.
SHICKsHINNY, PA, July 20.-While RAM
bling through the Dutch mountains, in Sui
Ivan county. a few days ago, the writer
met an intelligent native, who told him the
| following story:
sid Whlpple, who used to live down in
Deep Hollow" he said, mad the bandiest
tame bear that was ever raised in this re-
gton. His name was Coonrod, and he was
always trying to do something that he saw
people working al. Whenever Sid started
to harness the horses Coonrod would fetch
the headstalls aud neckyoke to him of his
own accord, and when Sid called the oxen
from the pasture the bear would drag the
yoke out to the bars One summer Sid and
some of his neighbors were working tine
road with plows and scrlpers, and the
bear went with them and helped throw
loose stones out of the road Coonrod toiled
faithfully at that until the middle Of the fore
noon, when Sid noticed that he was watching
boy, who was bearing down on the end of
pillow beam in the ditch. All at once
the bear pushed the boy aside, put his paws
on the beam and went to bearing down
good deal better than The boy did and be
took the boys place until the road was all
worked. Sid was blowing side hill one
fall, and Coonrod was tagging him back
and forth across the field and taking great
interest in the work. Some time in the
forenoon Sid left the pillow in the furrow
ana went to spring TO get drink, aud
when he got back Coonrod had the lines
over his neck and was trying to start the
horses. Sid took the lines aud the bear held
the plow without a break until dinner
time. After dinuer Coonrod was esger to
resume work in the field, and Sid let him
guide the plow again. BY and by the
point struck stone and gave the bear such
wrench that he Law down and grunted,
| and Md QnUI1O'R him N fA..rh ha
plow again that year.
Side wife didn't like the bear very much
! till he was years old. Coonrod ofte made
muddy tracks in her kitchen floor, especially
| just after she he'd scrubbed it as clean as a
whsle, and Mrs. Whippls would have to
cane him with. her broomstick and chase
him out OF the dooryard. The spring When
Coonrod was years old he won Mrs.
! Nhipple's friendship. She was pouring the
| cream in the churn one morning, en0 she
said she was dreading the pile of work she
had got TO do before noon, when COonrod
marched in and tried to take hold of the
| dasher just as she had put it in the churn.
| She told him to clear out with his dirty
| paws, and the bear waddled out to the
Watering trough, sWashed his paws in the
| water till they were clean, AID then walked
back to the kitchen on his hind feet
aud held them out TO Mrs. Whip
pie. She wiped them off lust to
| seized the daSuer and cnurned away till the
butter came. Every day that summer and
foil toe bear watched for Sd'5 wife to get
the churning ready, aud he always churned
! for her, but be never again appeared in the
| house without washing his paws in the
trough The bear acted as If he knew that
| Mrs, WhlpDle was overworked, and he
! studied how to Tighten her drudgery every
| day. When the water pail was empty the
| bear would carry it out to the penstock, set
| 1t under the spout and wait for it to fill up,
and thsn he would tug it to the kitchen and
| put it in the sink. He would also empty
the washtub for Sid's wife, and he would
! carry armfuls Of wood for her from the pile
! in the chip yard to the box by the stove
Mrs. Whipple soon got so that she thought
! more Of the bear than Sid did.
| sid used to thresh his grain by letting his
/ horses tread on 1t on the barn floor. and
one winter day, just as Sid had started on
! flooring, Coonrod walked in, fell in behind
! The horses, and marched around till the
| grain had been beaten out of the heads. The
lear helped the horses thresh till the chaff
was foot deep, aud then sid shoveed il
! to one eud of the floor and started to clean
it up with flaming mill. Sid's wife had to
| turn the crank, and when Coonrod saw her
doing It he pushed her away, grabbed the
crank and went to making the mill go as
| though he had been used to 1t, and he ran it
like q man till the last shovelful had been
| cleaned up. Sid threshed some rye with a
| fail one winter, SO as to keep the straw
! straight. and the bear watched him for all
hour or two. As soon as Sid stood the fail
| in O barrel the bear pulled 1t out rose on his
hind feet, and went to beating grain as be
had seen sid doing, and before he had made
half a dozen strokes the fail gave him a
kard crack on the back of his skull. Coonrod
hurled the fell across the barn and fer sew
eral minutes he rubbed MS head vigorously.
He tried it again after a while, and he
watched the beating end SO closely that he
soon got the hang Of it 80 well that it didn't
hit his head again.
"When Sid tapped his sap-bush in the
spring the bear tagged him around in the
woods and watched every detail of the
work with great interest. One DAY Sid saw
Coonrod trying to adjust the sapyoke to his
neck. IL wouldn't stay there, and finally
the bear balanced she yoke on top of his
| head hooked on to the balls of the buckets
and started off. Sid let him go, aud Coon
rod soon oiled the buckets with sap and car
ried it to the boiling place as nicely as Sid
could have done. The bear also gathered
white birch bark for Sid TO start fires and
syrup down with, aud he broke 10 dead
limbs and picked up chips and put them on
the fire.
'Sid had cabin on North mountain,
and every fell he and camped there for q
month and hunted deer with hounds, there
being no law against running deer at that
time. The bear went with US three falls in
succession, and while We were away with
the hounds he stayed in or near the cabin.
He was as faithful as a Watchdog The
cabin was near e spring, and close to it there
was pine tree much taller than the rest Of
the woods Of to the west there was a
long stretch of land that had been burned
over, and it was a capital place FOR deer
to browse upon. There was en-
excellent view of it from the top of the
pine tree, and while we were of hunting
the bear got Ill the habit of climbing the
tree to see il he could see US and the hounds
The third season, when we had been in the
woods less than week, CooDrod lost his
footing on the tree and fell slxty-five feet,
willis we were away from the cabin. De
struck on q stub that pierced his yitals, and
the poor animal lived only few minutes
after we returned 70 the camp. CooDrod
had never harmed any person or any ani-
NAL 10 bis life, and Sid and dug a hole In
the mountain side and buried him The