The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-07-28
A UALF-HOUR
WITH "EPHRAIM."
Ey Franklin welles Calkirs.

During the late winter and spring
of 49," said my trapper friend, Il
was out alone "A couple of hundred
miles west of Laramie.
Il went up there in a light snow,
with my mule hitched to a travvy
that carried all my effects in a sixty
gallon cask-a big stout barrel which
had been fgaighted in at Fort Lara
mie.
THE mule was a Government ami
mai, all right but for a SPAWN on one
fore leg, which untitled him for the
heavy freight service. | had bid him
in at traders auction. Moses, as
called the beast, suited me better
than pony, and for eight years he
and the big barrel served my purposes
in the way of travel.
Moses was the most successful
forager / ever owned. When he
couldn't dig up grass, he could thrive
on willows or almost any kind of
brush, and he wasn't scared of any
thing on earth, alive or dead.
THAT winter, which was open and
mild, l built light pole shack up on
the side hill for myself, and an open
shed near the creek bank for Moses.
Il found the trapping prime. The
water in all streams was very low,
there having been no rains the year
before, and when March came in the
beavers began migrating down
stream, hunting for more water.
THAT made easy trapping, for
every shallow was runway where
you could set your traps between the
boulders just deep enough to catch
beaver by the hind legs. / took lot
of pelts, and was getting on finely
when the silvertips crawled out of
their winter quarters and made trou-
BILE for me.
For some days they took my beav-
er about as fast as could catch them.
Neither they nor any other four-foot
thieves ever trouble a trapper when
he is taking his catch in water deep
enough to drown his beaver.
II put in my time hunting bears
for three or four days, and killed four
within the range Of my trapping
ground.
"One morning, Just at daylight, l
met big fellow in the creek channel
within 200 yards of my shack
'Twasn't light enough for good
shooting, but the rascal was picking
the bones of one of my beaver, and
took chance at forty yards, and
fired at him. The result was that
barked 'Ephraim s. jaw, and instantly
had a mad grizzly charging after me.
zone shot was all carried in those
days. and I dropped my rife on the
rocks and ran for my shack. l was
light on my feet in the fifties, and
good at sprinting, otherwise should
never have beaten that lean old bear
I'm an uphill race. AS it was, /
slammed and latched my flimsy split
pole door in Ephraims face. Know
fng that wouldn't stand up against a
single stroke of his paw, I dived for
my barrel, the only hiding place
had. The big cask, with half head
in one end and a whole one in the
other, served me both as provision
chest and table.
Il whirled 1t over, tumbled out the
contents, and with a bowie knife in
my teeth, backed into it. l managed
to roll it so that the open end was
next to the WALL and in that refuge
awaited Ephraim's movements.
"The bear didn't smash in my
door, as I feared he would, but pro-
ceeded to climb up on my turkey pen.
The walls were laid up like a worm
fence, little notched at the joining,
and the cracks were stuffed with
moss. The roof, too, was covered
with light poles and with bark and
moss, weighted down by stones.
''The whole structure was not as
stout as good rail pigpen, but there
wasn't a tree big enough to climb on
that whole slope, just scattering
chaparral of small timber. and the
shack was my only refuge.
Sometimes a bear is afraid of
pen like that, especially if he has
ever been pinched in log trap, but
this one wasn't, as the books say, So
phisticated.
II heard the poles creak as he
mounted, and one of them, clawed
out of its joint, ratified en- end on the
ground.
When he came to heave himself
up on the roof the poles few apart
and the bear slumped in head first.
He was mad at finding himself Gagged
and the way he broke loose was dam
aging. Q" si:'
In less than a minute he knocked
the shack into sm'ithereens. D Then he
climbed out of wreck of poles and
began snuffing around the premises.
A, half-dozen or more poles lay criss-
cross over my barrel, and had high