Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-11-21
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY.
Mrs. Jacks Bear Story

slack has always said that my phys
IcaI courage first attracted him. The
way OF it was this: We arrived mt Fort
whoOp Up at dusk-Aunt Pyncheon.
Cousin Tom and with tents. blan-
kets and Il small arsenal of rifles and
ammunition.
My aunt from the back seat OF the
blackboard surveyed the surroundings
and said decisively, Please to have
some one take me To my hotel
"'Yes. dear: we will hail Il passing
cab and go ut once replied.
"Just then tall. lean man rose. APP
parently from the adobe and sage of
the trail He wore frieze OF gray felt
which had once been hat, held to-
gether by Il rattlcsnake band, and a da-
do OF cartridge belt. hunting knife and
pistols.
I'm the runner for the Commercial
House. he announced. gathering his
wreck of sOmbrero skillfully in one
hand.
"'YOu must have run Il long way
said. sweeping the vacant horizon with
my eye But the military barracks oc-
cupied the small valley not quarter
or u mile distant. and as we neared 1t
the strains of military band fiOated
out upon the air.
THE next day we had established
what we hoped wuuid prove TO be our
permanent camp, on the eastern slope
OF Mount Head. From there you can
count seventeen mountain ranges, and
you might have visited them all with
out meeting any one else on a like pill
grimage.
so il was a surprise to US. when we
returned To camp one night. TO be wink
ed at by strange campfire half way
down the mountain. This did not please
me. | had gone there for sport and soli-
tude. The one argues the existence of
the other. The fire had winked from
the same spot for week, when we
moved on To regions more remote and
savage, where bear tracks hOneycomb-
ell the ground and elk appeared and
vanished through the aisleS Of pine,
tossing their great antlerS like the
branches of an oak forest.
Il had been out all day. and, oddly
enough. seen nothing but Il pOrcupne,
which waddled across my trail. fear
and defiance ludicrously compounded
in his bristiing quilts and hurried gait.
| The sunsets in the ueighborhood OF
Fort Whoop Up are magnificent. Every
night the fires burn over CrowfOot and
Tail Creek Moose Jaw and Flathead.
The peaks of Brown. Hooker and Rack
go from pink and crimson into gray,
but gray without hint of coldness-
ashes OF roses. you might call it-and
then in an instant only the light from
the stars marks the spot where late the
| splendor shone.
II declare, that sounds like poetry"
/ Mrs. Jack interrupts herself TO exclaim,
except that it needs something to go
before il:
''Tum ti-tum-d tum ti-tum.
Where late the splendor shone.
att won't do in such shape. 1t re-
minds one of a militia company with
out a drum major"
Never mind the circle around Mrs.
Jack interposes impatiently. I'VE are
anxious to hear the story
Il never could write poetry" Mrs.
Jack concludes after more mental fun
bling for something to complete the
couplet. We'll, l stood overlooking the
valley. Darkness was creeping up
Mount Head as the tide comes up the
sands, only noiselessly. Nature has too
much to do out there in the great north
west to make Il fuss over anything.
suddenly l heard a cracking in the
bushes below me. A mountain sheep?
Perhaps a grizzly. How my heart
| thumped. | was on my knees in an IN
slant, with my rife at full cock. My
eyes met a curious spectacle. Two bear
cubs were in the act of climbing a
small pine tree which looked suspl-
ciously top heavy. Something dark lay
along the trees tOpmOst branch - a
shape which resolved itself into the fig
ure OF man dressed in "A gray Norfolk
jacket, knickerbockers, golf stockings
| and canvas shoes. The she bear sat at
| the foot OF the tree with the air of one
to whom time is no object. One OF the
cubs would climb little way. and as
the tree shook Ominously | was ire
sistibly reminded or the story of the
old hunter In a like predicament. who,
as the bear neared the slender branch
upon which he hung, cried: You idiot,
don't come out herei You'll break the
branch and kill us both"
Il am very wary of attacking bear
with cubs. Jack says my courage on
this occasion amounted to foolhardi-
ness. for without an instants hesita-
ton l aimed at the foremost cub. Then
| saw a rifle at the foot Of the tree.
Having distracted the mother and her
little ones. the owner of the rife slip
ped down the tree and helped me to
fight. I don't know how 1t would have
all ended IL two OF my guides had not
Joined us
"They credited me with bringing the
old bear down. II l did, Mrs. Jack
comments naively. lit was a pretty
shot or course Jack-I Diean the man
| In the tree-insisted that L had finished