Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-27
Capturing a Bear and a Bride

by Will s. Gidley


copyrighted, 1900: Daily Story Pub. Coz
In the first place, began Joe, l want
to say hat there never was a purifier gal
In Pike county than Matilda higgins
an no worse old crank than her father.
Well, l s'pose l kin overlook his failin's
now that I'm a emil of the family,
but it looked one spell as though l never
would be, and then Is when l discovered
his crankiness-hull streaks of it, with
mighty little film in tween
When l asked him if l might wait on
bis daughter Matilda with the prospect
pr marrying her in time he grunted once
Or twice to himself an then said sarcas-
.ic-like:
I'VE kin-pervided I don't ketch We
1T it,"
This was a back-hander an sorter
staggered me fer a minute, but when ]
come to ag'in I spoke up an seq:
What objections have We ag'inst me
rs a sutton fer yer daughters hand, Mr..
higgins? Hain't I as likely a young
man as yen find about these parts?"
"Mebbe We air." seq he, shettin' one
rye an squintin' with the other.
"Mebbe ye air, but We don't vote the
Same ticket / do, an besides yer IA
ther shot a dog wunst that belonged
to me-"
WELL" SEE T, 'if the dog didn't de-
serve shootin' 1 apologize. First l ever
heard of it anyhow, an I don't know
that we kin blame me fer what my ia
Their done without askin' my advice O
consent"
"Mebbe not" seq he, 'but all the
same I've alters noticed that tricks of
that kim run in families, an as said
before, yer politics an mine don't hitch"
Hang politics." seq I; 'IIl let Ma
tilda do the votin' after we git mar
ried if thatll suit We Anything fer the
sake of peace in the family"
[ thought this would fetch him; but
It didn't. He hemmed an hawed around
\ spell, an finally he thought of suthin'
else in the objection line an he spoke up
m seq:
There's a mortgage on yer place,
hain't they?"
st reckon there is" I acknowledged
"but I dunno that it's my fault. I found
1t there when the place come to me after
my fathers death, but I've ben hackin'
away at it an cuttin' a good slice off it
every year, an I expect to nave it all
paid up inside of the next three years."
DO. eh?" he grunted. "Well, we're
en'arter'n I thought We was, if that's the
ease"
S it is all right about Matilda then,
l s'pose?" said l, eagerly.
IF We did We s'posed wrong" he
w jest Xix we've heard a dog when
he thinks another one is goin' to git a
bone away from him. yes, stree. young
fellow. " s'posed wrong. I hain't
solnter give no man a quit claim deed,
mr. even a first mortgage on Matilda,
till he proves himself tosbe a man. Did
We ever kill a bear?"
He roared out this concludin' uues-
ton at me in tones that fairly made me
jump. I felt fer a minute almost as if
I had been shot or blown I'D with a
bomb or suthin' of tina sort: but when
l found it was only a conundrum he
had fired at me 1 rallied an said:
We'll. no, l can't say tina l have
ever Killed a bear, but if that is one
OF the requirments before l kin git
hooked up in double harness with Ma
tilda, all we've so to do is to bring on
Yer bear an I'll massacre him fer We
In a hurry
Il don't doubt in the least that We
would SEE old higgins, sneeringly,
~"pervided some one would ketch the
bear IN tie it's legs together an bring
it to yet so all ye'd have to do is to
knock i ton the head with a club an
NHi ~ III any eAeItlOl 10 speak OF
or danger to yerself. Anybody could
do that. But when We go an meet
yer bear, face to face, ih ne woods,
same as l used to do when l was a
young man. an down him in a fair
fight an bring him into camp-weI.
yell find that's different. Now. I don't
spose ye'd knuckle under fer a wood
chuck or a raccoon, mebbe, but it takes
q man to face a bear"
An when I've bagged one 7 got Ma
tilda, do II" seq I.
Yes, Stree, young man; I think I'm
purity tolerably safe in promin' vet that
But we've got to kill the bear in a fair
rough-an'-tumble fight-no shootin' at
1t from behind a tree or stump. When
We do that an deliver the carcass at nv
house, in good order an condition, as the
bills of ladin' say, I'll own up that yer a
man, an be ready to talk bizness to ye.'
All right; it's a bargain seq I. as
clipper as We please. But I didn't feel
half as clipper as I talked. In fact, !
felt darned blu over the prospect
ahead of me, cause in the first place
I knew bears were sighted around them
diggin's only about every five years,
an five years is a long time to wait fer
a gal If We love her right smart: an in
the second place. even if I met up with
a bear, it wasn't a dead certainty ex-
actiy which would git chawed up.
Bears were a little out of nv line
anyway. But I knew it was mo bear