The Farmington times and herald. (Farmington, St. Francois Co., Mo.) 1902-1905, 1905-02-03

| lie persevered for long time, and II
was only after score of futile ex.
perlments that he gave 1t I'D ana lay
down In the bushes, alternately lick
Ing his wound and glancinE resent
fully AT us up above him
Meanwhile the bees tina, had nc..
companied us in our flight forced
themselves upon our notice. Both Of
us had lost our hats. and the insects
had settled on our heads md faces
and necks, crawling about inquisitive-
~ and stinging at every opportunity.
Lancaster suffered worse than I did,
Tor unlike most bee-keepers, he had
never become hardened 10 stings.
We could sec the Bwarms on tho
bear. too but lie was armored in hide
and hair We tried to wrap our coats
about our heads. but It was not sue
cessful The venomous little creatures
seemed to discover the smallest loop
hole. and | had dozen crawling
about under my clothing. was in
mortal terror of being stung In the
eyes, but ! contrived to protect them.
The pain became agonizing It was
almost uncomfortable smarted all
| over from the sores of tiny poisoned
punctures, and the effect upon us Of
| the incecsant attack was maddenlng.
and really beyond any possible de-
| scription. We could not move. We
were standing on short dead branches
| and holding on to the charred trunk,
and II seemed that II could hardly
be worse to, be clawed by the bear.
| There vas really a certain danger
that We might be stung to death, and
| began to feel rising dizziness and
nausea from the amount of poison
had taken had to hold hard TO
avoid falling
Il cant stand this!" exclaimed Lam
caster I'D rather fight the bear!"
But ! did not think that lie really
meant It,
There was no use lighting the bees
We could only cover and wait for the
stings
Il simply can't stand this!" walled
poor Lancaster. Ave minutes later:
and the next moment he slid past me
and Jumped, wisely choosing the side
most remote from the bear A he
struck the ground he stumbled and
fell, and expected to see him In
stan y manglcd
Tho bear rose stlnly but alertly.
Instead Of making for his enemy, he
stood quite still. trembling violently,
It seemed to me. and shaking his
head with a sort of moan. Lancaster
righted himself and rushed OFF through
the bushes toward the tent. But there
seemed no longer any danger The
bear began to sway as he stood and
slowly slipped to his knees. and then
over upon his side
| venturCd to jump as Lancaster
had done The animal paid no atteu-
tlon. With some trepidation ven
tured near enough to regain my rife.
and AIRED a heavy bullet into his skull
al close range. But he did not stir.
and was no doubt already dead.
We spent the night chiefly In apply
ing hot water to our wounds. In spite
Of these efforts we were pair Of tor
rlble objects the next morning, but the
subsequent pain was not nearly 30
| great for some reason, rs | have
often suffered from far fewer stings.
was Obliged to stay in the woods
for week before again became pre-
sentRble for civilized society.
When we came to examine the
stincned corpse of the bear. we found
him lying in n great pool OF coagulated
blood. My first bullet appeared to
have cut large vein or artery In his
shoulder, 50 that he had been slowly
bleeding to death as he kept guard
upon us under the tree. He was in
poor fur, and his skin was so smeared
with blood that 1t was not worth TAX
Ing on. From sense of poetic JUS
tice we ate few slices from his hams,
but the meat was tough. In fact, we
got little return from his carcass for
the hundred dollars worth Of bees and
honey he had destroyed. But the
apiary remained undisturhed for the
rest Of that senson.-Youth Compan-
ion.