s great strength and dexterity in handling
the axe, and the deadly precision of his aim with the rifle, had given
him a reputation among his companions, and yet they were always talking
to him as if he were a boy, because he had not yet followed the
Red-skins on the war-path, nor fought a grizzly bear, which deed is
considered quite as honourable and more perilous.

Young Boone waited patiently for an opportunity, when one day he
witnessed a terrible conflict, in which one of these huge monsters,
although wounded by twenty balls, was so closely pursuing the trappers,
his companions, that they were compelled to seek their safety by
plunging into the very middle of abroad river. There, fortunately, the
strength of the animal failed, and the stream rolled him away. It had
been a terrible fight, and for many days the young man would shudder at
the recollection; but he could no longer bear the taunts which were
bestowed upon him, and, without announcing his intention to his
companions, he resolved to leave them and bring back with him the claws
of a grizzly bear, or die in the attempt. For two days he watched in
the passes of the mountains, till he discovered, behind some bushes, the
mouth of a dark cave, under a mass of rocks. The stench which proceeded
from it and the marks at the entrance were sufficient to point out to
the hunter that it contained the object of his search; but, as the sun
had set, he reflected that the beast was to a certainty awake, and most
probably out in search of prey. Boone climbed up a tree, from which he
could watch the entrance of the cave; having secured himself and his
rifle against a fall, by thongs of leather, with which a hunter is
always provided, fatigue overpowered him, and he slept.

At morn he was awakened by a growl and a rustling noise below; it was
the bear dragging to his abode the carcase of a buck. When he thought
that the animal was glutted with flesh, and sleeping, Boone descended
the tree, and, leaning his rifle against the rock, he crawled into the
cave to reconnoitre. It must have been a terrible moment; but he had
made up his mind, and he possessed all the courage of his father: the
cave was spacious and dark. The heavy grunt of the animal showed that
he was asleep.

By degrees, the vision of Boone became more clear, and he perceived the
shaggy mass at about ten feet from him and about twenty yards from the
entrance of the cave. The ground under him yielded to hi