s. Didn't know
anything about bear when I went into the country, exceptin' when I was a
youngster I'd seen a heap of cinnamons and that little black kind. And
they was nothin' to be scared at.

"Well, after we'd got settled down on our claim, I went up on the hill
lookin' for a likely piece of birch to make an ax-handle out of. But
it was pretty hard to find the right kind, and I kept a-goin' and kept
a-goin' for nigh on two hours. Wasn't in no hurry to make my choice, you
see, for I was headin' down to the Forks, where I was goin' to borrow a
log-bit from Old Joe Gee. When I started, I'd put a couple of sour-dough
biscuits and some sowbelly in my pocket in case I might get hungry.
And I'm tellin' you that lunch came in right handy before I was done
with it.

"Bime-by I hit upon the likeliest little birch saplin', right in the
middle of a clump of jack pine. Jest as I raised my hand-ax I happened
to cast my eyes down the hill. There was a big bear comin' up, swingin'
along on all fours, right in my direction. It was a bald-face, but
little I knew then about such kind.

"'Jest watch me scare him,' I says to myself, and I stayed out of sight
in the trees.

"Well, I waited till he was about a hundred feet off, then out I runs
into the open.

"'Oof! oof!' I hollered at him, expectin' to see him turn tail like
chain lightning.

"Turn tail? He jest throwed up his head for one good look and came a
comin'.

"'Oof! oof!' I hollered, louder'n ever. But he jest came a comin'.

"'Consarn you!' I says to myself, gettin' mad. 'I'll make you jump the
trail.'

"So I grabs my hat, and wavin' and hollerin' starts down the trail to
meet him. A big sugar pine had gone down in a windfall and lay about
breast high. I stops jest behind it, old bald-face comin' all the time.
It was jest then that fear came to me. I yelled like a Comanche Indian
as he raised up to come over the log, and fired my hat full in his face.
Then I lit out.

"Say! I rounded the end of that log and put down the hill at a
two-twenty clip, old bald-face reachin' for me at every jump. At the
bottom was a broad, open flat, quarter of a mile to timber and full of
niggerheads. I knew if ever I slipped I was a goner, but I hit only the
high places till you couldn't a-seen my trail for smoke. And the old
devil snortin' along hot after me. Midway across, he reached for me,
jest strikin' the heel of my moccasin with his claw. Tell you I was
doin' some tall thinkin'