CHAPTER TWENTY.
I LOOK AT THE BEAR, AND THE BEAR LOOKS AT ME--I CLIMB UP AND HE TRIES TOCATCH ME, BUT I DODGE HIM AND ESCAPE--PROCEED ON--FIND A HOLLOW FALLENTREE, AND MAKE MY BED IN THE INTERIOR--PLEASANT SLEEP UNPLEASANTLYDISTURBED--MY FRIEND THE GRIZZLY AGAIN--I ESCAPE UP A TREE, AND BRUINOCCUPIES MY BED--WE TRY EACH OTHER'S PATIENCE--I WATCH FOR ANOPPORTUNITY OF ESCAPING, AND HE WATCHES TO CATCH ME.
The bear looked very fierce; but I felt desperately desperate, anddetermined not to be compelled by him to continue my voyage. So,grasping the branch, I gradually drew myself up by it nearly out of thewater. I got one knee on the bank; the bear gave a growl; then I gotthe other knee on _terra firma_; the bear growled again. I was not tobe intimidated. I had never let go my pole. I sprang to my feet andstood looking up at the monster. He growled more fiercely than ever, asif to warn me that I was intruding on his domains.
"Growl away, old Bruin," I exclaimed, "I do not fear you. Stop me fromgetting to the top of the bank you shall not."
I flourished my stick as I spoke. He took the movement as a challenge,and began to descend. The top was not nearly so steep as the place onwhich I stood. The bear got down tolerably well, growling as headvanced, and picking his way. My rifle was loaded, but I had everyreason to doubt that it would go off, after the ducking it had got,though the muzzle had not got under water. I flourished my pole,therefore, at the bear, and shouted at the top of my voice, but it didnot stop him. Just above me was a ledge. I climbed up to it, and therewaited the approach of the bear. The ground above was very steep andslippery. On he came, faster and faster. My shouts had enraged him,and he was eager to have a grab at me. I ran up a little way higher,and then turned as if I would spring back into the water. He was afraidhe should lose me, and forgetting his previous caution, he sprang on tocatch me.
As he did so I leaped nimbly on one side, and he toppled over, headforemost, souse into the water. I saw him struggling away to regain thebank; I did not stop to watch him, however, but sprang upwards with allthe agility I could exert, and did not stop till I had reached thesummit. Never have I gone through so many adventures for the sake of amouthful of water; I had not even, as it were, had enough, so Idetermined to keep down the stream for the rest of the day.
My clothes very quickly dried, which is not surprising, considering thatI had on only the remnants of my jacket, a shirt, and the upper part ofmy trousers. The legs were bound round my feet. The water, had,however, so much revived me that I began to feel a greater sensation ofhunger than I had before experienced. I had but one piece of my driedduck left. I nibbled a bit as I walked on, keeping the remainder forsupper. On what I was to breakfast was a question which, if my powderfailed me, might be difficult to solve. Sometimes I lost sight of thewater, but quickly regained it, and ever and anon returned, where thebank was practicable, to take a refreshing sip. As may be supposed, Itook care never to get out of the hearing of its pleasant sound. I didnot see the waterfall, and therefore concluded that I must have falleninto the stream a short way below it.
Night was now again approaching. I looked about in every direction fora spot in which I might pass it. At last I came upon a huge pine tree,which had been struck by lightning and lay prostrate on the ground. Thecentre part of the trunk was hollowed out something like a dug-outcanoe, and on examining it I bethought me that it would make apeculiarly comfortable abode for the night. I therefore set to work toclear out all the rubbish inside which might conceal any creatures, andI then collected some large sheets of birch-bark which lay stripped offsome neighbouring trees. This I placed over the top to form a roof, anda very comfortable sort of abode I considered that I had made. It was asafe one also, I thought, for no snake was likely to climb into it, norwas it probable that any wild animal would find me out. I now ate mylast piece of meat, and then went down to the river and took a heartydraught of water, and felt far more invigorated than I had been for along time.
This done, I returned to my hollow tree, crept in, drew the sheets ofbirch-bark over me, and went comfortably to sleep. Oh, how I did enjoythat sleep! I felt so much more secure than I had ever been at nightsince I commenced my wanderings. I awoke in the middle of the night,but it was to turn myself round and to think, how comfortable I was. Ihad, however, some causes for anxiety. How should I protect myself ifattacked either by savages or wild beasts? how should I procure food,and how should I defend my feet when all my bandages were worn-out,should I not succeed in finding my friends? The most pressing matterwas how to procure food.
Suddenly I recollected that I had once put a couple of fish-hooks in apocket-book which I carried with me. I could not sleep till I hadpulled it out and ascertained that they were there. A rod I should haveno difficulty in forming; but how to make a line was the puzzle. Atlast I remembered that my jacket was sewn together with very coarsestrong thread, and I thought that I could manufacture a line out of it.Having come to this satisfactory conclusion, I again went to sleep.
I had but a short time closed my eyes, when once more I was awoke by anoise, as if something was scratching on the outside of the tree inwhich I lay. What could it be? The scratching continued, and thenthere was a snuffing sound, as if a snout was smelling about in theneighbourhood. The noises were suspicious and somewhat alarming. I didnot like to move to ascertain what caused them, but I could not helpdreading that they were made by some wandering bear who had smelt meout, and was now trying to get a nearer inspection of me. Thescratching and the snuffing continued, and then I was certain that thecreature, whatever it was, was climbing up on the trunk. It had doneso, but it tumbled off again. Soon, however, it came close up to me. Icould contain myself no longer. I wished to ascertain the worst. Igently slid off the piece of bark above my head and sat upright. Ispeedily, though, popped down again. My worst suspicions wereconfirmed. It was a bear, and very likely the same bear from whom I hadescaped the day before. The moment he saw me he poked his snout over mynarrow bed-place, but I was too far down for him to get at me,notwithstanding all the efforts he made to effect that object. Still itwas not pleasant to have such a watcher over my couch, as I could nothelp dreading that he might possibly get his claws in and pull me out,and that at all events the moment I sat upright he would give me anembrace, but anything but a friendly one. The moon came out and shoneon his bearish eyes, and I saw him licking his jaws in anticipation ofhis expected repast. The very way he did this convinced me that he wasmy friend of yesterday.
I had outwitted him once, and I determined to try and outwit him again.I saw that near me was a tree with short branches, reaching close downto the ground. I thought that if I could climb up it, I might get outof the reach of my persecutor. Mustering all my strength, I suddenlystarted up, shrieking out at the top of my voice, and flourishing mystick, which I brought down with all my force on the bear's head. Bruinso little expected the assault that, without attempting to attack me, heturned round and trotted off to the distance of forty yards or so, whenhe stopped and looked very intently at me. I seized the moment of myemancipation to climb up the tree near me.
The bear, the instant he saw me take to flight, uttering a deep growl,sprang eagerly back to the foot of the tree; but I was beyond his reach.What, therefore, was my dismay to see him put his huge arms and legsround the trunk and begin to ascend. Up he came, and as he advanced, Iascended higher and higher. Every now and then he looked up at me, andperformed the to me unpleasant ceremony of licking his jaws. He was acautious brute, for, as he got higher, he felt the boughs and shookthem, to ascertain if he could trust his weight on them. I at last wasobliged to retreat along a wide extending bough, from which I could justreach my enemy's head as he came near me. I shouted and banged awaywith all my might, which so much annoyed him that he gave up the chase.The moment I saw him hesitate I redoubled my blows, and at last,infinitely to my satisfaction, not liking the treatment he wasreceiving, he began slowly to descend the way he had come up. I shoutedand poked
at him, but nothing would hurry him.
At last he reached the bottom, but instead of going away, he sat himselfdown to watch me. Then we were just like the fox and the crow in thefable. I the crow, and he the fox, only he wanted to get me instead ofthe cheese. I sat on my bough flourishing my stick at him, and at lasthe grew tired of watching me; but he did not go away--not he. Myastonishment was not small, to see him crawl into the bed-place I hadleft, and quietly roll himself up and go to sleep. He must have slept,however, with one eye open, for whenever I commenced descending from mybough, he popped up his head as much as to say, "You had better not, orI'll be after you," and then down he laid again. As I could not havemade much progress in the uncertain light of the moon, I climbed into aforked branch of the tree, and tying my arm to a bough that I might nottumble off, I tried to get a little more sleep. It was not very sound,for the recollection that the bear might possibly take it into his headto pay me a visit kept me wakeful. I felt certain that the rascal musthave known that my powder was wet, or he would not have been soimpudent. Once or twice I thought that I would try and make my rifle gooff, and I withdrew the charge of small shot, and put a bullet ininstead. At last I took aim and pulled the trigger, but no reportfollowed.
I was thankful that I had not had to depend on my weapon for my life.Bruin just lifted up his head when he heard the snap, but seeing that Iwas safe, lay down again, and began either to snore, or to pretend tosnore, for the cunning rogue was up to any trick, I was certain of that,to deceive me. For half an hour or more after this I lay quiet, and Ihad great hopes that Bruin had really gone to sleep. The country to thewest along the banks of the stream appeared, as far as I could see bythe moonlight, pretty clear. I thought that I might make good somedistance before the bear awoke.
Down I crept very cautiously, for fear of making the slightest noise,from my lofty perch. I had got to one of the lower forks of the tree,and was considering whether I could not drop without much noise to theground, from a branch which projected below me, when a low growlproceeded from my recent bed-place, and the ogre lifted up his head withone eye still shut, but with the other turned towards me in the mostmalicious manner--at least, so I thought. I cannot quite vouch for thislast fact; but that was my impression at the time. I was in a mostuncomfortable position, so that I had to move one way or the other. Ibegan by moving downwards, and he then rose more, and gave anothergrowl. I then climbed up again, and as I ascended higher and higher, hegradually lay back till his head was concealed inside the hollow of thetree. Still, when I leaned forward, I could see his snout sticking up,and could just catch the twinkle of his wicked eye turned towards me--Imean the eye which, awake or asleep, as it seemed to me, he always keptopen.
Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that I did not sleep verysoundly, still I did go to sleep, with my arms twined tightly round twoneighbouring boughs. I longed for daylight, which might enable me totake some active measures one way or the other. At last, as I lookedout beyond the tops of the neighbouring trees, I could see a pale pinkand yellow hue suffusing the eastern sky, and the light crept forward,as it were, on one side, while the forest on the other remained shroudedin darkness. Not as in our own land, however, did the birds welcome thecoming sun with a full chorus of song. They were not altogether silent;but even in that spring time of the year they only exhibited theirpleasure by a faint untuneful twittering and chirping. Bruin was, Ifound, an early riser. I saw first one leg come out of his bed-place,then another, as he stretched them forth; then up went his arms, and Iheard a loud yawn. It was rather more like a grunt. Then he began togrowl, and to make all sorts of other strange noises, and finally helifted up his head and gradually sat upright on his haunches. He winkedat me when he saw that I was safe up the tree, and I fancied that henodded his head, as much as to say, "Stay a bit, I'll soon be up toyou." Then he turned one leg out of the bed-place and then another, andthen he walked up to the tree, and sat himself down under it, and beganto growl.
Dick Onslow Among the Redskins Page 20
