The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-01-18

pile. He was as drunk as lord. His
jag was too heavy for dancing, and the
sight of him made the three dancers in
the roadway stop to look at him. He
managed to get along 80 long as he
could lean against the side of the cider
press shed, but as soon as he reached
the end Of that he went sprawling into
the road in heap.
"Well, sir, the other bears tugged
and pulled and squealed and chartered,
but the old fellow was too far gone.
says to Sadie, Il wish old Deacon Mil
Ter could be here to see that old bear
and learn a lesson in temperance, for
that's the way he walters around in the
road after days visit to town. John
he wanted to fire right into the bears
and lay 'em ell out, but says, No, cir,
John. You don't shoot drunken bear
nohow. Let 'em have show for their
white alley Sadie says as how she
thought l was right, and she began
readin' us lecture on leavin' the pum-
mics where the bears could get hold OF
'em and learn bad habits. She said
she had been readin' just the day be-
fore about the white men coming into
this region and teaching the Indians
how to drink fire water and to chew to-
bacco, and now we were teaching the
bears things that were bad.
"Well, we had lots of fun watching
them tipsy bears. The youngsters were
just having lovely time until one of
them fell asleep and rolled down along
side the cider press like 'possum.
Then the other little devel set up such
pitiful bowling that one of the old
bears-his nanny, very likely - ran
up to him and cuffed his ears for GER
tain. The three dancing bears were
evidently better drinkers than the one
that had been laid out, for every little
while they would shamble back to the
pummie pile and wet their whistles,
and then they'd come back into the
road and dance. Ibad the hardest kind
of work to keep John from shooting
them, but at last l compromised with
him, by agreeing to let him tie the
hopeless old fellow who lay grooming in
the road. 1t took John about min
ute to run to the shed and get long
hay chain, with which to make Mr..
Bear a prisoner. The commotion on
top of the hill frightened the bears,
drunk as they were. When they saw
us coming toward them they gave the
drunken bear few jabs in the ribs, to
which he answered with 30 many
grunts, and then the three, followed by
the silly cubs, went stumbling and
squealing into the thicket. sss.-S s&.s
"When John and began to fasten
the chain around the old BEARS neck
he sort Of found out that something I'M
usual was going on, but he was just too
drunk to care very much, 80 in o few
minutes we had him prisoner and tied
to tree. We rolled him over out of
the road, and John and built fire so
as to watch him until daylight. Sadie
allowed as how she didn't propose to
see bear tricked into captivity in that
way, 80 she went back to the house,
scolding like mother-in-law.
"Well, long toward daylight old Mr..
Bear reused himself. When he heard
the chains rafting he acted too stupid
for anything. He sat up on his hun
kers, poked his paws into his eyes, and
then looked around sort OF like Rip
Van Wrinkle does in the play, as if he
was wondering how long he had slept.
Then he set eyes on John and L. He
tried to get away, but couldn't. Then
didn't he get mad. Say, hornets
,, nest is nothing to that old bear when
he saw that he was in trap, and We
were poking fun at him. We let him
rave for ten minutes, and then John up
and took him back of the left foreleg
with rifle ball. That fixed him. He
dropped in his tracks.-New York Sun.