The news & observer., 1905-12-31

could scare him away, if you didn't
want to have any truck with him, by
waving your hat and yelling: "Git.
Ephram." He said no grizzly Wuld
stand around a minute if you yelled
at him. Pa made up his mind he
would yell all right enough, if We
came up to a grizzly.
Well, we didn't sleep much that
night, cause pa kept practicing on
his yell to scare a grizzly, for fear he
would forget the words, and when
they called us in the morning pa was
| the poorest imitation of a man going
out to test his bravery that L ever
saw. While the Indians were getting
ready to go out to q canyon and turn
the dogs loose to round up a bear. pa
got a big knife and was sharpening it,
so he could rip the bear from Gene
sis to Revelations. After breakfast
the chief and the Carlisle Indian, and
the big game hunter, and the cow
man and / went out about two miles,
to the mouth Of the canyon, where il
was very narrow, and they stationed
pa by a big rock, right where the
bear would have to pass; the rest Of
us got up on d bench of the canyon,
where we could see pa be brave, and
the young Indians went up about a
mile, and started the dogs Well, pa
was sight as he stood there waiting
for the bear so he could cuff its ears.
and rip it open, right in sight of the
chief and skin it; but he was ner
vous, and we could see that his legs
tfemhled when he heard the dogs
bark up the canyon. I yelled to pa TO
think of Teddy Roosevelt, and Dam
iel Boone, and Buffalo Bill, and set
his teeth so they would not chatter
and scare the bear, but pa yelled
back: Never you mind. 1 will kill
my bear in my own way, but you can
make up your mind to have bear
meat for supper
Pretty soon the big game hunter
said: There he comes, sure's you are
born" and we looked up the canyon
and there was something coming, as
big as a load of hay, with bristles
sucking uD a foot nigh on its back,
and its mouth was open, and it was
loping right towards pa. Gee, but |
was proud Of pa, to see him sharpen
ing his knife on his boot leg, but
when the great animal got within
about a block of pa, the great father
seemed to have streak of yellow, for
he dropped his knife and yelled:
"Git, Ephraim,'' in a loud voice, but
Ephraim came right along, and
didn't git with any great suddenness.
When the bear got within about four
doors of pa, he saw the great father,
and stood up on his hind legs, Gn1
looked as big as a brewery horse. and
he opened i his mouth and said
"Woof," just like that. That was too
much for pa, who began to shuck his
clothes, and tfen started on q run to-
wards the mouth of the canyon. The
| bear looked around as much as to
say: "Well, what do you think of
| that?" and we watched pa sprinting
| toward the Indian camp like
scared wolf.
The big game hunter put few bul-
| lets in the bear where they would
do the most good, and killed it, and
we went down in the canyon ami
skinned it, and took the meat and
| hide to camp, where we found pa
under bed in a squaw's tepee. MAX
ing grand hailing signs Of distress,
and trying to tell them about his
killing a bear by letting it run after
him, so that it would tire itself out
and die of heart failure.
/ When we found pa he had come
| out from under the bed, and was look
ing at the hide of the bear to find the
place where he hit it with the knife,
as he said he could see that the only
| chance for him to- kill the bear was
| 10 throw the k1llIe al II from IL us
| tance, cause the bear was four times
as big as any bear he had ever killed.
| Pa took out a handful of gold pieces
and distributed them among the In
| dians, and told the Carlisle Indian to
| explain to the tribe that the great ia
ther had killed the bear by hypnot-
ism, and they all believed it except
| the chief who seemed skeptical, for
he said: "Great father heap brave
man like a sheep. Go play seVen-up
with squaws." Poor pa wasn't al
| lowed to talk with the men ali day,
| cause the old chief said h. was u
| squaw man. Pa says they don't seem
| to realize that man can be brave un-
| less he allows himself to be killed by
| a bear. but he says he will show them
| that great mind and a great heao
| is better in the end than fooliShncss
| Now they want pa to run q footrace
with the young Indians. as the re-
cord he made getting TO camp ahead
| of the bear is better than any time
| ever made on the reservation.