coming directly towards him. He was no hunter, and had with him no
weapon. He had heard strange stories of the ferocity of the bear when
her cubs were by her side, and to say that he was not horribly
frightened would be a departure from the strict requirements of truth.
He had heard, too, that a bear could not climb a small, straight tree,
and _he_ could. The question then was between climbing and running. He
was not much in a race, and he decided to climb; so selecting a
smooth-barked, perpendicular ash sapling, he started with might and
main towards the top. He went up, as he supposed, till he was out of
the reach of the bear, and held on, all the time keeping his eye on
the animal, and making as little noise as possible. The bear,
doubtless seeing that he was beyond her reach, passed on out of sight,
and after he remained till the danger was over, he concluded to come
down. He was astonished to find that his efforts to descend were
powerless. He seemed to have frozen to the tree. Upon looking around,
to his utter amazement, he found himself sitting on the ground, _with
both legs and arms locked fast around the, tree! He had not climbed an
inch, and the bear had not been aware of his presence in the woods!_

"That ash sapling was safe from that day. It stood then in the old
forest. The woodman's axe spared it. It stands now in the open field,
a majestic tree; its great trunk, eight feet in circumference, its
long arms covered with foliage, casting a broad shadow over the
pasture beneath, in which cattle and sheep seek for coolness and
ruminate in the heat of the summer days. It is pointed out as the tree
which the man who was frightened by a bear _didn't_ climb, and is
referred to as evidence of the truth of my story, as the Dutchman
proved the authenticity of his Bible, 'by the pictures.'"

"And that," said I, "puts _me_ in mind of a bear story, which has this
merit over both of yours--it is true. I can speak of it as a thing of
personal knowledge, occurring within my own personal experience. I
began the study of law in Angelica, the county seat of Alleghany
county, and as it was a good many years ago, it is fair to assume that
I was a good many years younger than I am now, and that the country in
that region was younger too. Everybody knows that Alleghany county is,
or used to be, a great place for whirlwinds and tornadoes. If they do
not, they may understand and be assured of the fact now. A few years
(less than t