he shot in the direction of the bear. As my
attention had been on the bear, I had not noticed Mr. Jacobs in
particular, but when I saw that he had entirely missed the bear, I
looked at him and he was shaking so from excitement, that he could
not have hit a barn, and drops of sweat stood all over his forehead.
He had a double barrel rifle, and as soon as he fired the first shot,
he advanced a few steps toward the bear and fired again, and at once
began to reload his gun, all the time going nearer to the bear until
I was afraid that he would get so close that the bear could reach
him. I had to caution him and tell him to step back, that he was
getting too close.

When Mr. Jacobs had one barrel of his gun loaded, he immediately
fired again, with the same results of the other two shots. I told him
to take my gun and try it, which he did with no better results. Mr.
Jacobs was all the time becoming more and more excited, and the sweat
was running off him like a man in the harvest field. I loaded my gun,
while Mr. Jacobs was loading his, and after Mr. Jacobs fired another
shot with no better results, I though that the fun had gone far
enough, and shot the bear.

After the bear was dead, Mr. Jacobs wondered why it was so hard to
hit a bear's head. "Just look at it," he said, "it is as large as a
dry goods box". As soon as the bear was dead, Mr. Jacobs wanted to
know if I would sell the bear. When I told him that I expected to
sell it, he asked what it was worth. I told him that I thought the
hide and meat would bring thirty or thirty-five dollars. He drew out
his purse and said, "I will take it." I told him that if he wanted
the bear, that we would call it twenty-five dollars, as he should
have something for his part in the game. He declared that the hunt
had been worth a hundred dollars to him.

We made a sort of a litter or drag rack with which we managed to haul
the bear down the hill to an old lumber road where it could be
reached with a team.

Not long after this I received a copy of the Williamsport Sun
containing the report of a monstrous bear captured by Mr. Jacobs in
the wilds of Cameron County. It was a bear story equal to the one the
prophet relates when the children called him Baldy.

When I got to camp I found Bill stretching a couple of mink skins. He
had also got a fox or two, and said that a bear had been in one of
the bear traps, but had escaped, leaving two toes in the trap. Bill
was considerably down