Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1899-07-20

and melts these IMPLYING banks oil
snow, these two now slumbering 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 gravel!
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, Macliinaw?
When l think of it ell 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 dog.
"As near as Reuben Pettibone could
calculate, three days passed in this way,
and he was getting hungry. Neither
of the bears had even so much as
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.
"'I 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, and then
closed EN- again. He shivercd 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
fire against the ledge, cooked the bear
meat, and, as he often and often re-
marked, soon put nature in a 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.
cit 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
dayl'
"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
in his misery that child was remark
able and found time for merry quips.
"'Smelt her old man cooking, | sup
pose,' said he, and then he turned over
and went to sleep. When Reuben Petit
bone awoke again he woke with start,
and saw the other bear standing over
him, her eyes glaring.
"'The general expression OF her
countenance,' Reuben used to say, gave
me the impression that she was con-
siderably het up. From what | could
gather from the appearance of things,
| should imagine that she had walked
up and took in the whole situation,
and concluded not to wait until spring
to chaw me. begun to reach for my
knife, when wolves begun to howl with
hair-raising ferceness, right at the
opening of the cave. The bear turned
and sprang at the opening, and out OF
the cave she went. Such yooping and
yelling and bowling and snarling and
munching and crunching as followed
her exit never heard before nor since.
l crept to the opening and peeked ost.
The old bear stood with her back
against the ledge, and the whole pack
of gaunt and hungry wolves was hurl-
ing itself upon her, trying to force her
down. She had scattered wolves to the
right and to the left, and the open
space in front of the cave was strewn
with their carcasscs. l grabbed my
gun and went out to the aid of the
bear. Between the two of us, we soon
had every one of the pack dead. Then
the bear bethought herself of her
grudge against me, and turned on me
with her ferceness at the boiling point.
was obliged 10 put a load of buckshot
through her head, and she tumbled
| dead among the wolves.
"Then Reuben wiped out his gun and
looked around on the battlefield. He
counted 20 dead wolves. Like n flash
he figured it up that with the bounty
on wolves at eight dollars a scalp be
hay lying at his feet just $232-the
amount of the mortgage on the Petit
bone clearing/and $32 to spare! More
than that, there were the two bears,
and their hides were worth $40 more:
Little Reuben just jumped and yelled
with joy, because now he could lift his
father out of the all-pervading dumps
and save his childhood's home. And
while he was jumping and yelling he
heard q noise behind him, and looking
round, what should he see tumbling out
of the opening in the cave but two
bear cubs that he hadn't known any
thing about.
'Twenty-nine wolves!' Reuben Pet
tibone was fond of telling me he shout
ed. "Thirty-two dollars more than
enough, besides two dead bears and two
live bears that hadn't seen! No more
all-pervading dumps Tor pap!
"And there wasn't either, and sup
pose that when that long-lost boy got
home with all those skins there was
the"
"Sinnemahone," said the man in the
red, blue, purple, yellow, green and
pink Mackinaw jacket, breaking in on
the narrative; land that tremendous
snowbank that shet this amazin' young
ster from gettin' home? Did the heat
O. that battle melt it off the face O the
mountain or did the dyin' kicks O them
wolves dig it up and scatter it like
chaff before the nOarin' hurricane? Or
was that sloshin' 12-year-old father o
your'n so burnin' with thirst arter the
battle that he jest fell to and gobbled
9. L.