St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-22
HIS PAR0 WAS A BEAR
A Trapper From the Maine
Woods Tells a Cave
Story.
The Cave Contained Queerly
Assorted Group Of
Tenants.
A Quartette OF Four-Footed
and TWo-FOoted
Friends.
They Spent a Long Winter
Together in Perfect
Harmony.

A trapper from the woods came int
Pat Murphy's hotel at South Norrldge-
wock, Me-, to get supplies.
Said he: "Boys, if told var. yere'd
say | was trying to play var for suckers.
but l amt. Fve been livin' with a
new pard and bari
"Yes," he went on, as howl went up
from the men at the bar. "a bar! a
full-sized 'un, although he waren'tquite
full growed when furst seed i'm.
"You see, Bill Stevens and you, Jeb,
when l left yer on the AllegaSt last fall,
lowed I'd strike across the Tobique.
did, saw signs, plenty, and, reckoning
the locality good 'un, started in to
find sort o. respectable place whar l
could build me camp fore the winter
set in, and, while poking around the bed
OF washout | came full on the track of
bar.
-tNow, thar amt nothin' in strikin'
bars trail out thar, lows, but darn me
if I'd followed this 'un more than a
couple of PAGES fore l seed thar was
somethin' wrong with i'm like. for
whichever way the track led thar was
the marks of rope or a chain towing
right behind.
"Well, boys, you here knows | amt
over curious, but this did strike me as
being kind O. funny, and l says to my
self, blessed if it amt a tame bar what's
got loose from somewhere. So l fol-
lowen it up, found it led bout half way
down little valley, Mhar it
panned out near tidy size hole
in the rocks. Here L reckoned the cuss
hn
he might feel kind O. cross to have me
a'spyin' on him, squinted in, but 'tWar
so almighty dark couldn't catch on to
anythIn' and, as the bar did not seen in
clined to come out, thar Whar nothln'
for me to do bit to go in, and now, what
will var say, | seed when lgot so could
stand up right, and my eyes sort O. used
to the black of the cave. The bar! yes,
the bar! but that warn't all, for, dash me,
by the soul of Gabrielle l did't spy
man and dawg, the dawg Lying near
the bar, and the man a smoking OF a
pipe on pile O. pelts.
"'Well. stranger he said to me, 'yar
look kind O surprised. Cess var Didn't
calculate to find the place habited, and
maybe var came to take possession var
self, but now var here sit down. Then
he rolled me an empty -four keg and |
did sit down, for | felt knocked all o. a
heap to see the man and the dawg with
the bar All the same, Joe Willard,
that's him, Warn't bad sort, and when
| told him how seed the bars trail and
followed it up to the hole, he just
laughed, and said I'd better hunt that
winter with him. and posted me how thu
country round thar lay.
ut pears Joe had struck 'cross from
the Allegast the fall before me, only he
left it bit late. and when he got thar
he didn't only just have time to get his
stakes drove fore the ground froZe right
| up OH i'm.
"Said Joe, 4 was looking round like
| you was fur good camp spot when
bar and two cubs crossed me right at
the head of this blessed valley, and
though | guessed the old 'oman's pelt
wouldn't be much good, seeing how she
| had young 'uns, L laid her out and one
cub, t'other one got away, and when L
trailed it the trail led right plump
here"
"Now, Joe, like me, lows faint quite
| professional to go diving head first into
a dark hole after bar when you don
know how man thar may be inside, so
he said he reckoned he'd curse bit and
see if that wouldn't bring the bar out,
for bar don't like to be called ugly
names, we all knows, but this bar, it
seems, didn't have no feelings, praps
because he was young 'un, and
| when he'd cursed and talked to
him till he couldn't feel his
own tongue, he calculated it was
time to do something else: SO. like
me. in he goes; but, when he found
smaller bar than he 'spected, baby
bar what looked kind o. dazed and sor-
rowful, Joe said he didn't have the
heart to shoot and reckoned he'd let the
| little cove live, and stay there himself
| as we'll, for this ere cave was deal
| snugger and warmer than camp built
| out in the open, and that thar bar as
been there ever since.
''At furst Joe said the bar didn't like
the dawg. and fur while there was
some lively scrimmages, but since l
struck him the dawg and the bar have
been as good pards as him and me ave,
| and when they aren't stealing of the
grub from us, why, tell var. that the
| two on 'em are out huntin' of it up to-
| gether for all the world as If they was
two brothers.
Yes, boys, if any of var are kind O.
likely to be out that part yell find us
bout twelve miles east of Sykes trail
and some twenty west of the Stray Man
cabin. The creek we are off heads up
north. Yes, yell see the bar thar and
| the dawg, too.
"'Bout the chain? Oh, Joe strapped
that to one o. the animals hid legs so as
any one a-huutin' might catch on that
| the bar was tame one and somebody's
| propurty."