Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

56. The Indian Foray. bones of the ill-starred horses which, tethered and helpless, had been devoured by wolves and coyotes. They also found evidence that some wretched hu- man being had also met his doom in a similar man- ner, and their bitterness toward the untutored sav- age increased to the day of reckoning when the debt might be settled. Life on the ranch soon drifted back into the chan- nel it had occupied previous to the advent of the bronzed raiders. Karl never wearied of teaching the companion a strange fate had sent to him the varied duties ap- pertaining to this wonderful life on the prairies. They occasionally had a day off, when, with the faithful Winchester and Karl’s gun as a good sec- ond, they scoured plain and coulee for such big game as might not be deemed unworthy the notice of such ambitious Nimrods. Thus the boy who, previous to his Western trip, had never bagged anything larger than duck or rabbit, perhaps with a Canada wild goose or a Vir- ginia red fox to top the pile, now found antelope, wolves, coyotes, and even a bear falling before his gun. The last-named gave the boys about as severe . a shake-up as any one ever experienced and came out alive—indeed, Karl was caught unawares and, as a last resort, had to take to a tree just as Cuth- bert had done. Unfortunately, neither of them was armed, Karl’s revolver being with his belt, hanging on a tree in camp, while the Virginian had dropped the Win- chester in his mad haste to clamber beyond the reach of the bear, at which he had hastily fired on sight ere Karl’s warning shout could restrain him. A wounded bear is usually an ugly customer, par- ticularly when he belongs to the cinnamon species. connicloookks.conn