The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-07-13

den of some wolves, and he trampeu and
tramped. and wandered and wandered,
without having met With sight or
sound of wolf; and then suddenly snow
began fal:.ng.
"'It snowed,' my remarkable father
used to say, in relating, after his yig-
orous style, this adventure of his youth
1T showed as if the snow was being
dumped out of more than $4,000 four
horse park wagons!'
"But the brave child Reuben fought
his way homeward through the storm.
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 floundering 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
overhanging rocks. Into that opening
he crept without delay. The interior
was pitchy dark. but Reuben detected
sense of pleasing Toominess 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 soli-
tary occupant Of that sbeltering cleft.
Off to one side of the cavern he de-
tected bear. and at the other side lay
another They were both snocllng
away in their winter sleep.
~ knew there wasn't much danger
of the bears waking ZIP 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
nap myself, until the SNOW quit dump
ing and | could crawl out and dig my
way home
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 a 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
anchoiy, 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 home, but he might just as well
have been 400 miles away, 50 impass-
able was the barrier of snow that lay
before and around him. He gazed down
at the house of Pettfbone with moist
and wistful eye.
"'Home of my merry childhood he
exclaimed, as l, with moistened eye,
have heard him many and many time
say he did-'home of my merry child
hood. unless there comes rain soon
and melts these Implying banks OF
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 Mowers on my grave!
Saying which, the weather having
turned biting cold, Reuben Pettbone
crept back to ompanionship 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
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 DIS
winked since he had joined them in
the cave, and he hated 10 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, and then
closed 'em again. He shivered little.
sighed deeply, and with that sigh of
his, his companion bear passed into
widowhood and never knew it.
"Slicing a 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 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