The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-08-05


He hadn't fought his way far before
he discovered that he had lost it, and
he had no more idea of where he was
going than if he had been tramping
across country on the moon. While
he was foundering about he ran up
against ledge of rocks, and at the
foot of the ledge he saw hole, an
opening protected from the snow by
oyerhanging rocks. Into that opening
he crept without delay. The interior
was pitchy dark, but Reuben detected
a sense of pleasing roominess within
the bosom of that wall of stone. The
opening by which he had entered was
not more than two feet wide, and con-
sequently little light cleaned through
from the outside, but by and by he
became used to the darkness, and then
he discovered that he was not the soil
tary occupant of that sheltering cleft.
Off to one side of the cavern he de-
tected bear, and at the other side lay
another. They were both snoozing
| away in their winter sleep.
81 knew there wasn't much danger
of the bears waking up for few weeks
yet, unless something unusual should
come along to disturb them,' Reuben
Pettibone used to say, so stretched
] myself down between 'em to take a
nap myself, until the snow quit dump
ing and I could crawl out and dig my
way home
i "My remarkable father never knew
how long he slept, but when he woke
dim rays of the sun were struggling
in at the caves narrow opening. Reu-
ben crept out of the hole and the sight
that met his gaze was amazing. Right
in front of the ledge was bare spot,
perhaps 20 feet square. On the right
of it and on the left of it the snow
was drifted more than 80 feet high.
From the far edge of the spot the snow
shot down, in one straight stretch,
more than mile. That astounding
slope of snow, Reuben invariably de-
clared, was all of so feet deep, and had
pitch to it like the roof of barn.
But the aggravating, not to say mel
ancholy, part of it all was that Reuben
Pettibone was standing on the steep
side of mountain, one end of that
tremendous snowbank at his feet, the
other end lying at repose among the
headwater clearings, the Pettibone one
being below him in full and painful
view. Reuben was but one short mile
from lone, but he might just as well
have been 400 miles away, so impass-
able was the barrier of snow that lay
before and around him. He gazed down
at the house of Pettibone with moist
and wistful eye.
"'Home of my merry childhood!' he
exclaimed, as /, with moistened eye,
have heard him many and many time
say he did-'home of my merry child
hood, unless there comes a rain soon
and melts these Implying banks of
snow, these two now slumberirg and
peaceful bears within will gorge them
selves on me, what time the spring
time comes, and no one will ever strew
sweet flowers on my grave!
Saying which, the weather having
turned biting cold, Reuben Pettibone
crept back to companionship with the
darkness and the bears, smuggling
down between the latter to keep warm.
Was that 12-year-old boy, Mackinaw
When | think of it all almost quite
agree with you and say: No, no! 1t
could not have been! 1t never could!
But the word of Reuben Pettibone
stands for it and doubt flies away like
a guinea hen scared by a dog.
'As near as Reuben Pettibone could
calculate, three days passed in this way
and he was getting hungry. Neither
winked since he had joined them in
the cave, and he hated to disturb either
of them. But even that enduring and
remarkable child had to eat, and So
on the fourth day, he resolved to act.
81 took out my knife my remark
able father always delighted to tell
me, felt as gently as passing zephyr
for the biggest bears throat, and, with
one gouge, slit him from stem to stern
The bear opened his eyes, looked up
as if he had half notion to get up
and see what was going on, snd then
closed 'em again. He shivered a little
sighed deeply, and with that sigh OF
his, his companion bear passed into
widowhood and never knew It,
"Slicing q choice cut from the dead
bear, Reuben took it outside, built q
fire against the ledge, cooked the bear
meat, and, as he often and often re-
marked, soon put nature in good
humor again Then the poor, lone
isolated, snowbound child turned his
longing eyes once more down across
that awful barrier of snow toward his
childhood's home.
ut is just as well, perhaps!' he said
bitterly, for tomorrow the mortgage
will close down, and the home would
be my home no more, even if got out
of this. Poor pap! How deep in the
all-pervading dumps he must be this
day!'
"Then Reuben crept back into the
cleft in the rocks. He noticed that the
other bear seemed uneasy in her mind
and was moving and granting. Even
L . a