Connecticut western news., 1901-08-08
} BILL CROSS AND ! HIS PET BEAR.
By JOAQUIN MILLER.


 When my father settled down at the foot of the Oregon sierras with his lit- tie family long, long years ago, it was 10 miles from our place to the nearest civilized settlement.
 People were very scarce in those days and bears were very plenty. We also had wolves, wildcats, wild cattle, wild hogs and good many long tailed and big headed yellow California lions. The wild cattle. brought there from Spanish Mexico. next to the bear were most to be feared. They had long. sharp horns and keen, sharp hoofs. Ma ture had gradually helped them out In these weapons of defense. They had grown to be slim and trim of body and were as supple and swift as deer. They were the deadly enemies of all wild beasts, because all wild beasts 1eyoured their young.
 When fat and saucy, in warm sum- mer weather. these cattle would hover along the foothills in bands, hiding In the hollows, and would begin to below whenever they saw a bear or wolf or even a man or boy, if on foot, crossing the wide valley of grass and blue camas blossoms. Then there would be musicl They would start up, with head and tails in the air, and broadening out left and right they would draw long, bent line, complete ly shutting off their victim from all approach to the foothills.
 If the unfortunate victim were man or boy on foot, he generally made escape up one of the small ash trees that dotted the valley In groves here and there. and the cattle would then soon give up the chase. But If it were wolf or any other wild beast that could not get up tree the case was different Far away on the other side of the valley, where dense woods lined the banks of the winding Willamette river, the wild, believing herd would be answered Out from the edge of the woods would stream right and left two long. corresponding. surging lines, bel lowing and plunging forward now and then. their heads to the ground, their tails always in the air and their eyes afiame, as if they would set fire to the long gray grass With the precision and discipline of a we'll ordered army they would close in upon the wild beast. too terrified now to either fight or fly, and. leaping upon him one after another with their long hoofs, he would in little time be crushed into an un- | recognizable mass. Not a bone would be left unbroken. It is mistake to suppose that they ever use their long, sharp horns in attack. These were used only iu defense, the same as elk or deer. falling on the knees and re- | ceiving the enemy on their horns. much | as the Old Guard received the enemy In the last terrible struggle at Water loo.
 | Bill Cross was a "tenderfoot" at the time of which write, and a sailor at that Now. the old pilgrims who had dared the plains in those days of 40, when towards did not venture and the weak died on the way, had not the greatest respect for the courage or en- durance of those who had reached Ore gon by ship. But here was this man, a sailor by trade, settling down in the interior of Oregon and. strangely enough. pretending to know more about everything in general and bears in par ticular than either my father or any oi his boys.
 | He had taken up a piece of land down in the pretty Camas valley where the grass grew long and strong and waved in the wind, mobile anC beautiful as the mobile sea.
 The good natured and self compla cent old sailor liked to watch the way
 ing grass. It reminded him of the sea l reckon. He would sometimes sit or our little porch as the sun went dowI and tell us boys strange. wild sea sto
 ries. He had travelled far and seer
 much. as much as any man can see ol
 water. and maybe was not a very bi,
 liar, for a sailor, after all The only
 thing about him that we did not lik
 outside of his chronic idleness was hi
 exalted opinion of himself and his un
 concealed contempt for everybody
 opinion but his own.
 Bill" said my father one day, "thos
 black Spanish cattle will get after tha
 red sash and sailor jacket of your
 some day when you go down in the val
 ley to your claim, and they won't leav
 grease spot Better go horseback o
 at least take gun when you go dow
 next time."
 "Pshawl Squire, l wish l had a
 many dollars as I ain't afeard of all th
 black Spanish cattle in Oregon. Why
 if they're so blasted dangerous how di
 your missionaries ever manage to driy
 them up here from Mexico. anyhowT'
 Still. for all that, the very next tim
 that he saw the old sailor setting ou
 at his snail pace for his ranch below
 slow and indolent as If on the deck c
 ship my father insisted that b
 should go on horseback or at least tax
 a gun.
 Pooh. poohl wouldn't be bothere D with horse or a gun. Say, I'm goin t :. bring your boys pet bear some day"
 And so, cooking his little hat dow
 over his right eye and thrusting his bi , hands into his deep pockets almost t
 the elbows, he slowly and lazily whis
 tied himself down the gradual slope c
 the foothills, waist deep in the wavin
 grass and delicious wild Towers, an
 soon was lost to sight in the great way
 ing sea.
 Two things may be here write
 down. He wouldn't ride horse, b.
 cause he couldn't and for the ser,