The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-07-02
SMOKING OUT a BEAR.
An Uniookcd-For Adventure In Searching
For Coon skins.

/
An Uniookcd-For Adventure In Searching
| For Coon skins.
Mrs. Andrew Drake. OF Willow
Creek. had been making a oon-skin
overcoat for her husband that winter.
and one Saturday she needed three
skins to complete It. She wanted to
/ finish the overcoat before she began
to make maple sugar. SO on Saturday
F., afternoon Mr.. Drake ransackod the
, neighborhood In search OF dried coon
skins He was unable to buy any,
and. as Mrs. Drake insisted on having
the skins right away. Mr.. Drake
trudged up to his sap bush on Monday
morning to see II he could find hol-
low tree with nest OF alternating
coons In the trunk. A furlong north
OF the sugar bush Mr. Drake ran
across hollow poplar tree near
Nahum Thompson's swamp says the
New York Sun. 1t looked as though
1t might contain nest OF sleeping
coonS but as the tree stood on Thomp-
sons land he couldn't chop II down.
and Drake concluded to smoke
the coons out He hurried home and
got q scoop-shovel full Of burning
charcoal and Mrs Drake took a
horse blanket and corn basket and
followed her husband through the
woods 10 the big tree. She was going
to throw the blanket over the coons
in case they should try to skip away.
and they were going to carry tho
coons TO the house In the basket.
There was big hole In the butt OF
the tree. and Mr.. Drake placed the
shovel in it and began to pile Ivy
leaves and sticks on the blazing Goals.
A hole ut the upper end OF the crooked
trunk gave strong draught to the
fire. and the smoke began to pour out
of it. Mr. and Mrs Drake stood
back and watched for the coons to
crawl out. Mrs. Drake had the blank
ct ready and Mr.. Drake was gazing ut
the top OF the tree when Mrs. Drake
who was looking at the butt OF the
tree grabbed her husband by the arm
and shouted Just look at that BEAR
Andrew!' ana pointed toward the
blaze.
Mr.. Drake saw the headquarters of
bear backing down toward the fire.
The bears head was out OF sight and
no was snorting and smiling in the
hollow trees as though he didn't like
the smell of smoke A second later
the bear stepped in the shovel OF Goals
with his hind feet gave q below of
pain. threw himself out of the trunk
and danced around and rubbed his
eyes with his paws. Then he sat
down and bit at his scorched toes.
When the bear jumped out OF the
fire Mrs Drake threw the blanket
around her shoulders and started on
run through the woods calling back
to her husband to followshe Instead
Of running after his wife Mr.. Drake
grabbed the shovel The scoop was
red-h hot and while the bear was dig
| ging in the dirt with his burnt toes
Mr.. Drake hit him on tho snout with
the edge OF the hot shovel and burned
the flesh to the bone.
The bear roared and staggered
about and Mr.. Drake jammed the
points OF the shovel into the bears
eyes until he was blinded. Then the
bear backed and stumbled and fell
down several times and Mr. Drake
killed him by pounding him on the
head with the shovel On seeing that
her husband did not follow her she
ran back and while Mr.. Drake was
hammering the bear she begged him
not to kill the unfortunate brute.
The fire was still burning in tho
tree trunk. but no coons had crawled
out and Mr.. Drake extinguished it.
That afternoon he carted the bear to
the house and in the evening Mrs.
Drake packed the unfinished coon-slkin
overcoat away and declared that she
wouldn't take another stitch on 1t till
the next fall.