Judge — December 24, 1904 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

kin then ever put flowers on my lonely grave." Then the weather turned off cold- er than Greenland. The young un crept back into the cave an’ snuggled down betwixt the two bears to keep warm. As nigh as he could calculate, three days passed in this way, an’ he was git- tin’ toler’ble hungry. Neither one o” them bears had even winked an eye since he jfined ‘em in the cave. But that unprecedented boy had to eat, an’ on the fourth day he concluded he'd do it. “«T took out my knife ‘so he told folks afterwards an’ so he tells “em to- day—* felt for the biggest bear's throat, an’ with one gouge an’ a swoop I slit him from stem to starn, The bear opened his eyes, looked up as if he had half a mind to git up an’ see what was goin’ on, an’ then closed ‘em ag'in, He shivered a little, sighed, an’ with that sigh he left his mate a widder, an’ she never knowed it.’ “Uncle David sliced a choice bit from the dead bear, took it out- side, built a fire ag'in the ledge, cooked the meat, an’ soon put natur’ in toler'ble good humor ag'in. Then he turned his longin’ eyes down across that stretch o' snow that barred him in towards his childhood’s home, that was so near an’ yit so fur. “But maybe it’s jest as well,’ says he. ‘To-morrow ‘s the day before Christmas, an’ the mortgage ‘ll be shet down; so it won't be my childhood's home no more, even if I git out o' here,’ he says. ‘ How deep in the all-pervadin’ dumps poor pap must be this day “Then Uncle David crept back in the cave ag'in. Before long he noticed that other bear was seemin’ uneasy in her mind, the way she sort o° give little kicks an’ grunted. “ «Smelt her old man cookin’, maybe,’ says that amazin’ boy; an’ he turned over an’ went to sleep. “When he woke ag’in he woke with a start, an’ seen other bear standin’ over him, her eyes blazin’ like coals o” fire. « «The general expression of her countenance,’ says Uncle David when he tells about it, «give me the impression that she was consid- er’ble het up. She had woke up, took in the whole doin’s, an’ con- cluded not to wait till spring to chaw me." “Then that wonder of a child begun to reach for his gun, when right in front of the openin’ there riz the hair-raisin‘est howls of wolves that had ever riz in them woods before. fer the openin’ an’ went out. ‘The bear turned an’ sprung Sech a yoopin’ an’ yellin’ an’ howlin’ an’ snarlin’ an’ munchin’ an’ crunchin' as follered was enough to skeer Injins, but that boy went to the openin’ an’ peeked out. The bear stood with her back ag‘in the ledge, an’ the whole pack o' ga’nt an’ hungry wolves was throwin’ themselves ag’in her, tryin’ to force her down, She had scattered wolves right an’ left in the open space till it was thick with carcasses. That youngster grabbed his gun an’ went out to help the bear, an’ betwixt the two of ‘em they soon had every wolf dead. Then the bear thunk of her grudge ag'in the boy, an’ turned onto him with her mad ‘way up to the bilin’ p'int, an’ he had to tumble her with a load o' buckshot through her head. She fell dead amongst the wolves. “Wipin’ his gun, Uncle David looked round on the battle-field. There was twenty-nine wolves piled around. Like a flash he figured it up that the bounty on ‘em at eight dollars a scalp would be jest two hundred an’ thirty-two dollars—the size o' the mortgage on the clear- in’ an’ thirty-two dollars over! More than that, there was the two bears, an’ their hides was worth forty dol- lars more! That boy jumped an’ hollered fer joy, ‘cause now he could lift the mort- gage, drive away the all-pervadin’ dumps, an’ they'd have the merriest Christmas on the Beckendarter clearin’ that was ever knowed in all that deestrict or any other! While he was jumpin’ fer joy he heerd a noise behind him. He turned an’ seen two little cub bears that hadn’t their eyes hardly open yit come totterin’ out o' the cave. «Twenty-nine wolves!’ he hollered. *Two hundred an’ thirty-two dollars! Thirty-two dollars more than the mort- “The bull pack threw themselves ag’in her." gage! Besides two dead bears an’ two live ones I didn’t see! It'll be a merry Christmas at our house now, an’ no more all-pervadin’ dumps !' he hollered. An’ when that astoundin’ young- ster laid them things down at that clearin’ that afternoon, an’ they all got through their weepin’ fer joy, maybe they didn’t have a merry Christmas, too !" The Pochuck chronicler paused and gazed at ‘Kiar with a look that said plainly enough that he would like to know what the landlord thought of that after his outbreaks of skepticism. The landiord took time to drop these re- marks, * An’, Solomon, as to that tremen- dous snow-bank that had shet your Uncle David out from gittin’ home? Did the heat o' that battle melt it off the face o’ the mountain, or did the dyin’ kicks o° them wolves dig it up an’ scatter it like chaff before a roarin’ hurricane? Or was that amazin’ youngster so burnin’ up with thirst after the battle that he jest fell to an’ gobbled all that snow before he could cool that ragin’ an’ consumin’ fever down ?” For a moment the Pochuck narrator looked as if he had come away from home and forgotten something and was on the point of go- ing back after it, but only for a moment. smiling] “Can't git along without hearin’ some more about that amazin’ twelve-year-old, eh?" said he.“ Well, ‘Kiar, while he was still fight- in’ that battle with the wolves he discovered somethin’. If he hadn't there wouldn't been no p'int in his jumpin’ fer joy. He discovered that the surface o' the snow was a hard crust o’ glarin’ ice. Before the bear had give its last dyin’ kick the youngster had his plans all made. Soon as he got through jumpin’ fer joy he begun to carry the plan out. He tied the two dead bears together with strips cut from his moccasins ; then he tied the wolves to the bears with thongs cut from the straps of his powder-horn an’ his buckskin breeches. He drug the lot of ‘em to the edge o' the glarin’ an’ slippery slope 0° snow, took a bear cub under each arm, laid down amongst the wolves an’ bears, an’ pushed ‘em over the slope. Then he came forward “He heerd a whizz, a whoo, an’ a skee-wosh, an’ that youngster of all youngsters never knowed another thing till he come to a-settin’ in the kitchen at home. The folks had heerd somethin’ comin’ down the mountain like an avalanche, an’ found the long-lost boy in the back yard mixed up with a tremendous passel o' wolves an’ bears. Soon as he opened his eyes an’ see the weepin’ an’ skeert folks around him he hollered out, “Merry Christmas to ye all, an’ to ding blazes with the all-per- Jin’ dumps! The mortgage is lifted with them twenty-nine wolves an’ thirty-two dollars to spare, to say nothin’ of the four bears, an’ two of them alive at that!” * An’, ‘Kiar,” said the Pochuck chronicler with a bland smile, «it them folks didn’t lay out to have the far-reachin’est an’ highest old time that Christmas, an’ had it, too, that was ever knowed either before or since, then Uncle David Beckendarter has forgot the recollection of his boyhood days an‘ is only dreamin’ !" ‘Kiar filled the biggest glass he had with hot stuff and handed it to Mr. Cribber, and it was no sooner made ‘way with than ‘Kiar filled him another and said, “Solomon, if I had time I'd feed you on them till you come to think that you was that amazin’ twelve-year-old, whizzin’ an’ whooin’ down that icy mountain on a stack o° wolves an‘ bears twenty foot high, an’ every one of ‘em alive an’ pawin’ an’ clawin’ an’ chawin’ at you like a thousand-toothed corn- sheller ata nubbin. By jing, I would !" But Solomon only smiled, and by and by went away, satisfied that if no one else on earth was having a merry Christinas he was. And his fancies chimed and rhymed until he felt like a walking cathedral belfry outonalark. Every tree he passed seemed a glistening Christmas-tree; and as they swayed to and fro in the frosty breeze they discoursed melodies that breathed the spirit of the world’s red-letter day. comicbooks.com