Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1897-05-08
WHOPPED BY A BEAR.
HOW DEAD JOE ROBINSON GOT EVEN
WITH zEe WHITE.

Possum Hunter of Tcpnessee-A Licked
Rest In His Grave.
Folks Jest look upon q bar as a
Bar" said Zeb White, the possum hun
ter of Tennessee, one evening as we
roasted chestnuts in the kitchen fire
place, "but that's whar they make q
mistake. A bar is more'n bar. He
knows heap more'n half the folks
walkin around on these yere Cumber-
land mountings."
whats the story?" asked, know
ing he had one to tell
'Waal, it's about a bar what used
to hang around my cabin yere soon
after the wah. He was big feller.
seed him one evenin up tho road bit,
and he looked as big as a 2-y'ar-old
steer. He was the fust bar had seen
fur y 'ars, and Of co'se I was all up on
end to kill him. That same evenin l sot
OH the doorstep, smokin my pipe along
side the old woman, when the pcsky
bar walked right out into the open
within ten feet of us. He looked at us,
| and we looked at him. 1t was five min
its befo hitched back to git my gun,
and when I cum out with it he had
gone. The old woman sot thar, lookin
powerful solemn, and when I cum out
she sez to me:
'Zeb White, yo' jest let that yere
bar alone! Don't hunt fur hin and
don't shoot him if he Gums back
What's the matter?' sez I.
90 I don't like his ways While yo'
was arter yo'r gun he sot up, same rs
human bein. Looks to me like it was
the speerit Of dead man passed into
bar
"'Shoo! Whoever heard of sich
thing?'
"'But it's so. Member Joe Robin
son, who was killed doorin the wah2
Waal, that bar minded me of him,
and Joe Robinson was full Of tricks
I'm a-tellin Of yo', Zeb White, yo' let
that varmint alone or yo'll cum to
grief.
''Her words sort of skeercd me, >" said
the old man, ''and 1 put up the gun
and didn't go out. was feelin better
next mawnin, and arter breakfast I
shouldered my gun and started off.
went off up the mounting to beat up tho
laurel thickets, and it was about 'leven
o'clock whom stumbled over root and
pitched head first. l wasn't much hurt,
but broke my rifle, and sot down ON
stone to tinker it up. / was workin
away with my head down when heard
a sniff, and looked up to see that peslky
bar a-standin befo' me. Bein as the ole
woman had said he looked like Joe
Robinson, I looked at him powerfully
,lus.'
"And did he?" asked.
"Suah's yo'r BON he did, sab. Yes,
sab, any man as had ever knowed Joe
Robinson would say that his speerit had
passed into that bar. II was most the
same as photograph. He had q wink
to one eye, "a grin ON his face and his
lower lip hung down, and it was jest
like seein Joe Robinson hisself once
mo-"
And so you lit out?'
''No, sab, didn't. wanted to, but
the mint I riz up that bar knowed
what was arter and waltzed up to me
and took hold for wrassle. I used to
wrassle with Joe and down him every
time but he was different now as o
bar. He laid me plumb Oh my back in
no time. l got up and tried it ag'in, but
it was dead easy fur him. Why, was
just plaything fur him. He throwed
me down so easy that l got mad and
yells at him:
Joe Robinson, I'm KNOWN who
you ar even if yo' ar bar! Yo' kin
throw me down cause yo' got claws on
yo'r feet to stick into me, but believe
kin whop yo' the same as I did one
day befo' yo' was killed
'That's what said" remarked the
old man, "but I was made to wish I
hadn't. The bar held up his paws and
began to dance around, and purity soon
he gin me "a whack on the ear which
knocked me ten feet. I got up and went
fur him, but he knocked me jest rs far
the other way. Then l got whoppin mad
and sailed in. They used to say that l
was good fur any two men around yere,
but lickin bar and lickin two men is
heap different. At least it was SO
with that bar. l never got in on him
at all. He jest cuffed me this way and
that, and bime by he fetched me
whack which took all the fight outer me
and left me as limp as rag was
licked man, but I knowed it and was
ready to give up, but that bar wasn't
willin. He remembered the whoppin l
gin him when he was Joe Robinson,
ard he kept on cuffin me till tainted
dead away. When cum to my senses,
he sot thar GRIMM and chucklin, and
as soon as l lifted hand he cuffed me.
Yo' kin see how he tore my ears and
neck and scalp, and I've got heaps Of
claw marks on my shoulders. knowed
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