Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-03-27

CORNER TREE.
BY /. J. Ross, Watertown, S. D..
About thirty years ago I was up in
the lumber country north of st. Paul,
Minnesota, and while in a lumber
camp sitting by the fire some of the
boys made a proposal that some one
tell a story. Another N proposed
that the foreman of the camp tell a
story. The foreman's name was
Brewster if l recollect right, and al
though he said he was not much of
a story teller he said he would give a
ilittle experience he had with a bear.
The experience took place at a time
when he was u estimating timber
near where they were at work at the
present time.
The camp was located about one
mile east of their present logging
camp.
well, boys, to make a long story
| short, one morning the foreman of the
estimating party told me to go out
and see if l could locate a certain
corner stake that we couldn't find the
day before and that the rest of them
would come out in about an hour. I
under that log that l had ever seen,
at least he looked awfully big to me,
and the worst of it was he didn't seem
to be in a good humor either. He
seemed to be mad to think | had dis
turbed his repose. He loked up and
saw me and commenced to show his
teeth and growl. Well, you may just
bet your hat l didn't stop to introduce
myself to him and tell him who l was
and where l was from, because from
H. 1ol1r, M ls~a I lsl-S+ 4l,-Jr 4t.14
he was one that you could be friendly
with. l didn't stop to think very long
what | was going to do. The first
thing that came to my mind was to
climb a tree. | started to run down
| along the tree toward the roots and
the bear started to follow along on
the ground. | looked to the opposite
side of the log from which the bear
was on and about a rod from the tree
that | was standing on was a spruce
tree about a foot in diameter. 1t was
not just the kind of a tree | wanted
but ] didn't have much time to make
a choice, so ! made a bee line for the
tree, and it was a lucky thing for me
that | did. The bear tried to climb
over the log to come afte" ne, but |
suppose be had been laying aslep so
long under the log that he was kind
if stiff, SO he made a failure of it. |
was making as good time for the tree
as l could and although | never was
much of "a climber, the way / felt I
believe ] could have climbed a tele-
graph pole. When the bear saw he
couldn't climb over the log he started
arouni i and that gave me a little
more time to get to the tree. 1t was
about ten feet to the first limb and
the tree was smooth barked, but ]
went up like a squirrel and | can tell
you | vas not any too soon. Just as
I got to the first limbs the bear was
at the root of the tree and you bet [
: didn't lose on any time after | got to
the branches.
Il looked back down the tree and
saw what / was afraid of in the first
place, that / had chosen too big a
tree. A bear cant climb a small tree
as they are too small for the bear to
hug, but If the tree is large enough
he can stick his claws in and climb
right up, but j didn't have much time
to make a choice.
THE bear seemed to be making Just
as good time as / did. On up the tree
! went and the bear after me. / knew
that we would soon have to make a
halt. ] saw that there would be some
thing doing before very long. ] had
got up to a height of about thirty
feet and the bear was only ten or
twelve feet below me. ! knew / had
to do something to outwit the bear OF
! would be a goner. | happened to
notice Just then that there was a
! couple of limbs running OFT from the