Year: 1879

ht NeNiA h9t Nfeak
Johnny, says she, catching bold OF him
whs, i the matterF


bear, be gasped out 81 sl last


Where i your little hrolheff was hei
next question


deus know said be, too much fright
ened to know anything just At thst time.
Where did you leave hlmi says she.


Then be seems to have gotten bis wits
together Htus. A bear took him said
he.


You can gpess wha, sort OF agony the
mother was ia.


O Johnny, tell me true Think
Where WAS i,s


IN The woods, be said Bear come
Along--l run.


She caught him up, and hurried him
into the weeds. She begged him 10 show
her were be was with bis little brother
when the bear came along. lie pointed
out two or three places. 10 Que OF them
the earth was soft. There were fresl
tracks crossing it-beAr tracks. There
was no doubt Of IL.


II was a terrible situation for the poor
woman. Whether to follow the bear and
Try to recover her child, or to 20 At once
for her husband, or alarm the nelghbors,
what TO do with Johnny meanwbile--al

that would have been bard enough for
her to decide, even II she bad had her
wits abont her.


She hardly knew what she did, but
just followed her instinct, and ran with
Johnny in her arms, or dragging him
after her to where her husband was chop.
ping,


Well, continued the one-eyed hostler,
need not try to describe what followed. /.
They went back TO the house, and Rush
took the rife and started on the track Of
the bear, vowing that he would not come
back, without either the child or the
bears head.


The news went like wilddre through
the settlement. In an hour and half a
dozen men witk their dogs we're on the
track with Rush. IL was so much trouble
for him to follow the trail that they sooD
overlook him with the help of the dogs.
But in spite OF them the bear got into the
Two of the dogs came up
with him, and one, the only one that
could follow a scent, had bis back broken
by stroke of bis paw After that it was
almost impossible to track him, aud one
after another the hunters gave up and re-
turned home.


At last Rush was left alone; but moth
ing could induce him TO turn back. lie
shot some small game in the mountains,
which he cooked for his supper, slept on
the gronnd, and started on the trail again
in the morning.


Along in the forenoon be came IN sight
Of the bear as he was crossing stream.
He had good shot at him as he was
the bank on the other side.


The bear kept on, but II was easier
tracing him after that by his blood.


That evening hunter, haggard, his
clothes all in tstters, found bis way to
back W oodsman's hut over in Whites val
ley. II was Rnsh. lie told his story in
A few words as he rested on a stool. He
had found no traces of bis child, but he
had killed the bear.


II was Old Two Claws. He had left
him on the hills, and came TO the settle
nent for help.


The hunt bad taken him a roundabout
and he was then not more than
miles from home. The next day gun in
hand, with the bear skin strapped to bis
back carcass had been given TO bis
friend, the ackwoodsman he started TO
return by an easier way through the
woods.


Ii was a sad revenge be had had, but
here WAS grim sort OF satisfaction in
ugying home the hide Of the terrible Old
fwo Claws.


AZ he came in sight Of bis log house,
,ut ran bis wife TO meet him, with, what
10 you suppose? Little Johnny dragging
II her skirts, and the lost child In her
arms.


Then for the fret time, the man drop.
ped bnt be didn't get dowu any farther
han bis kuees. He chung to his wife and
baby, aud thanked God tor the miracle.


Bat il wAsn't much OF miracle after
all.


Little Johnny had been playing around
he door, aud bad lost sight Of the baby
md may be forgot about him, when be
strayed into the woods and saw the bear.


Then he remembered all that be had
beard of the danger OF being carried of
md eaten, aud of course he had terri
bic fright. When asked about bis little
brother, and suppose be really imagined
bat The bear had got him.


Bot the baby had crswled into a snug
place under the side Of the rain trough,
and there be was fast asleep all the while
Then he woke up two or three hours
after, aud the mother heard bim cry, but
her husband was far away on the hunt.


True; lhis story I've told your added
the one eyed hostler, as some one ques
Toned him Every word Is


But your name Is Rush, Isn't III said.


The one eye twinked bumoronsly.


Ny name is Rosh. Ny uneIe's brother.
ln-lsw was my own father


Aud yoni exclaimed a bystander.


!, said The one eyed hostier, am the
very man who warn't eaien BY the bear
when was bsbyl


- -


Out on Michigan avenue 8 man near