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“‘Enough,’ said I; ‘I’ve learned something here a’ready, and I’ll put it in practice.’

“Well, stranger, just one month from that time I killed a bear, and told its exact length before I measured it, by those very marks; and when I did that, I swelled up considerably I’ve been a prouder man ever since.

“So I went on, laming something every day, until I was reckoned a buster, and allowed to be decidedly the best bear hunter in my district; and that is a reputation as much harder to earn than to be reckoned first man in Congress, as an iron ramrod is harder than a toadstool.

“Do the varmints grow over-cunning by being fooled withby greenhorn hunters, and by this means get troublesome, they send for me, as a matter of course; and thus I do my own hunting, and most of my neighbors’. I walk into the varmints though, and it has become about as much the same to me as drinking. It is told in two sentences–

“A bear is started, and he is killed.

“The thing is–somewhat monotonous now I know just how much they will run, where they will tire, how much they will growl, and what a thundering time I will have in getting their meat home. I could give you the history of the chase with all the particulars at the commencement, I know the signs so well Stranger, I’m certain. Once I met with a match, though, and I will tell you about it; for a common hunt would not be worth relating.

“On a fine fall day, long time ago, I was trailing about for bear, and what should I see but fresh marks on the sassafras trees, about eight inches above any in the forests that I knew of. Says I, ‘Them marks is a hoax, or it indicates the d–t bear that was ever grown.’ In fact, stranger, I couldn’t believe it was real, and I went on. Again: I saw the same marks, at the same height, and I knew the thing lived. That conviction came home to my soul like an earthquake.

“Says I, ‘Here is something a-purpose for me: that bear is mine, or I give up the hunting business.’ The very next morning, what should I see but a number of buzzards hovering over my corn-field.’The rascal has been there,’ said I, for that sign is certain’; and, sure enough, on examining, I found the bones of what had been as beautiful a hog the day before, as was ever raised by a Buckeye. Then I tracked the critter out of the field to the woods, and all the marks he left behind, showed me that he was thebear.

“Well, stranger, the first fair chase I ever had with that big critter, I saw him no less than three distinct times at a distance; the dogs run him over eighteen miles and broke down, my horse gave out, and I was as nearly used up as a man can be, made on myprinciple, which is patent. .

“Before this adventure, such things were unknown to me as possible; but, strange as it was, that bear got me used to it before I was done with him; for he got so at last, that he would leave me on a long chase quite easy. How he did it, I never could understand.

“That a bear runs at all, is puzzling; but how this one could tire down and bust up a pack of hounds and a horse, that were used to overhauling everything they started after in no time, was past my understanding. Well, stranger, that bear finally got so sassy, that he used to help himself to a hog off my premises whenever he wanted one; the buzzards followed after what he left, and so, between bear and buzzard, I rather think I got out of pork.