ot at something, but thought
it must be a deer. I thought that I ought to shout and scare it away,
for I thought that Bill had come back on purpose to beat me out of
the sport, and I guessed right. Bill said after he had started to
camp it seemed to him that he had done wrong in leaving me to watch
alone, and that I would kill a bear. So he turned back and got there
just in time so as not to frighten the bear away, as well as to shoot
it, which was a yearling and weighed about 125 pounds, with a fine
pelt.

Bill apologized for the little trick. Said he would never do anything
of the kind again. He never did. A good reason being that another
opportunity never occurred. But later I will tell how I got the laugh
on Bill. The next morning Bill took the saddles of the bear to
Emporium and sold the meat, but he said that bear meat was not at a
premium in Emporium. I think he got about $6.00 out of the saddles.
While Bill was gone to Emporium I took two bear traps and went on to
a ridge where I thought would be the most likely place to catch a
bear, as there was considerable beach timber on that ridge in places.
Beach nuts last long after chestnuts are gone, and bear would be
likely to work in this timber. As we had not got all of our small
traps out yet, Bill said that if I would finish setting the rest of
the small traps, he would put in the most of his time hunting deer,
as the leaves were now pretty well off from the undergrowth, so that
the woods were now quite open. This I agreed to, as I knew Bill to be
a good deer hunter, while I was a little skeptical as to some of his
trapping methods.

Well, as the busy season was with us now, it was an early breakfast
and a late supper day after day. Yet we were able to keep up the pace
from the natural stimulating desire for sport, being anxious to know
what the results of the next day would be. We were having the usual
success of the average hunter and trapper who, as Bill said, if
willing to get a move on, our supply of meat and game was never
lacking, for I always shot at small game when hunting deer. Bill said
that he did not like to come into camp empty handed, so he would
shoot a grouse or a squirrel whenever a chance occurred. We had no
snow up to this time, so that deer hunting was a little dull, and
Bill said that he would take a line of traps, either on Baley Run or
on the Conley, as I liked. I said, take your choice, Bill, so he said
he would go to Conley Run, which