TREEING A BEAR. 83

“Oh, Moses, Moses! Why don’t you
come? I’ve got a bear, I tell you.”

“Where is it, Hd?” shouted my brother
on the other side.

But Ed did not tell him, for he had not
yet got his foot from the bear’s mouth,
and was now too busy to do anything else
but yell and cry “Oh, Moses!’

Then my brother and I shouted out to
Ed at the same time. This gave him great
courage. He said something like “Con-
found you!” to the bear, and getting his
foot loose without losing the boot he kicked
the bear right on the nose. This brought
things to a standstill. Ed hitched along
a little higher up, and as the leaning trunk
of the tree was already bending under his
own and the bear’s weight, the infuriated
brute did not seem disposed to go further.
Besides, as he had been mortally wounded,
he was probably growing too weak to do
much now.

My brother got to the bottom of the
canyon and brought Ed’s gun to where I