Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-04-13

Clements interest in watching for
bears that did not come nad nearly
vanished. He fell asleep at the front
end of the wagon. But his sister
maintained the vigil assiduously. She
could sleep through the days; Glenn
ent was obliged to work.
Bears came to the trees at the far
end of the row during the third night,
but they were not near enough to be
photographed. After this, Clement
refused to spend the night in the
wagon; he preferred his bed. But
Lucretia persevered. She had by this
time grown accustomed to her hid
ing-place in the wagon body. and she
ventured to remain there alone. Glenn
ent nlmself considered the place safe
enough for ner. He did not believe
that a bear would go near the wagon.
He slept with his window up, how
ever.
On either the fourth or fifth night
of her prolonged effort to "hunt with
camera" Miss Brooks fell asleep,
perhaps for an hour or two. A con-
siderable jar and rafting of the wag-
on walked her suddenly. She looked
out at the peep-hole. The night was
starlit, and it seemed to her that
those apple-trees were full of bears!
Branches were cracking and apples
were falling by the bushel! There
were loud champing sounds, cough
ing, snuff1ing, and all the riotous COM
motion of an ursine feast.
For the moment our amateur pho
tographer was not much alarmed, but
rather elated. This was just what
she had watched for. In nervous
haste she reached for her camera and
made ready to work the fiash-light.
Just then, however, the wagon was
Jared again, and she heard shut
fling noise close beside it.
Could this be Clement? But on
peering forth she saw a very large
animal within an arms length of the
peep-hole. It's great muzzle was
raised to sniff the carti
Miss Brooks gasped in terror
wnereupon the animal rose upon its
launches with a low growl. This
completed her CONSERVATION, for the
creature loomed up much taller than
the cart. It seemed to her to be
eight, yes, ten feet tall, and so near
that she smelled its breath.
She felt sure that at a stroke of
one of those big, dropping paws it
could have Knocked the cart body to
bits.
Miss Brooks did what most young
ladies would do under circumstances
SO startling-she screamed, or at
tempted to do so, but was so terrified
that she merely made faint sound.
The bear snuffed repeatedly and went
ambling round the wagon, evidently
investigating those little, gaspy
squeaks.
BY this time Clement had arrived
on the scene with his gun. He, too,
had been soundly asleep at the cabin,
but walked, having heard through the
open windows the sounds of ursine
activity in the orchard He jumped
up and putting his head out at the
window to listen, distinguished his
sisters little gasping cries.
My heart nearly Topped over" SO
Clement wrote in a letter, for
thought those bears were eating Lu-
cretia up! l grabbed my gun and
ran up there. At every step l could
hear the faint little squeak! 1t was
awful l didn't expect to get there
soon enough to save much of her!
There wasn't much left of her, to
judge by the sound!
Il ran along beside the log fence,
and tnen l saw that tremendous big
bear moseying round the wagon. Just
as l got there he swung round on
the upper side of it, so that he stood
clear of the body, and | cooked both
barrels and let go at him. | was wild
with fear, for l thought that bear
had eaten Lucretia. He looked big
enough to eat a whole family.
''The bear gave yell and ran. The
other bears left, too, when they heard
the gun. l could hear them leaping
out of the apple-trees, swarming
ever the log fence, coughing up ap-
pies, making a general stampede up
into the tall timber. But | didn't stop
to listen to them, | ran to the wagon.
Lucretia!' l exclaimed, with a
terrible sick feeling coming over me.
Speak, can't you? Are you alive
And with that Lucretia put her
head out Was that you wno fired,
Clem?' said She I am all right.
.She pretended to be SO calm and
not mite scared that / was a little
angry-I had been so frightened
about her That was a pretty noise
to make, anyhow said !. You
sounded like a little pig dying OF
colic!'
"Sne laughed at me. You have too
much imagination, Clem,' said she.
But | think you hit that bear;
seemed to hear something strike
himi"
THAT was the end of our adventure
for the night, and Lucretia said
nothing more about taking fiasn-light
pictures Of bears in apple-trees.
guess that she had had as much hunt
ing with a camera as she cared for.
..Of course, as every one knows, it
is easy to tell a great story as to the
size of bears seen in the night; but
in this case certain facts were OBJ
tanned later. In the latter part OF
october, a Cinnamon bear was
trapped less than ten miles from my
place, and we have little doubt that
it was the one | fired at. For this
bear had broken jaw which had not
healed, and four marks as of buck
snct in his hide.
@On account of his nearly useless
jaw he had grown very thin but the
hunters who trapped him estimated
his live weight at seven hundred.
None of the mountain men hereabouts
mad ever seen larger bear. They
kept him over in the Yosemite Val
ley in a log cage for several months.
His jaw did not heal, however, and
at last he grew so emaciated that it
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