Part 1 (2/2)
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EATEN BY A BEAR Aug 20, 1877
It is a very unheroic and even disagreeable epitaph That ”eaten by a bear” is intolerable It is grotesque And then I thought what an inadequate language the English is for compact expression It would not answer to put upon the stone simply ”eaten”; for that is indefinite, and requires explanation: it ht mean eaten by a cannibal This difficulty could not occur in the Ger by awould be in German!
HIER LIEGT HOCHWOHLGEBOREN HERR ---- ------
GEFRESSEN Aug 20, 1877
That explains itself The well-born one was eaten by a beast, and presumably by a bear,--an animal that has a bad reputation since the days of Elisha
The bear was coed that he could see the whites of my eyes All un, covered the bear's breast with the sight, and let drive Then I turned, and ran like a deer I did not hear the bear pursuing I looked back The bear had stopped He was lying down I then reun is to reload it I slipped in a charge, keeping my eyes on the bear He never stirred I walked back suspiciously There was a quiver in the hindlegs, but no other : bears often sham To make sure, I approached, and put a ball into his head He didn'tDeath had come to him with a merciful suddenness He was calht remain so, I blew his brains out, and then started for ho ed to saunter into the house with an unconcerned air There was a chorus of voices:
”Where are your blackberries?” ”Why were you gone so long?” ”Where's your pail?”
”I left the pail”
”Left the pail? What for?”
”A bear wanted it”
”Oh, nonsense!”
”Well, the last I saw of it, a bear had it”
”Oh, come! You didn't really see a bear?”
”Yes, but I did really see a real bear”
”Did he run?”
”Yes: he ran after me”
”I don't believe a word of it What did you do?”
”Oh! nothing particular--except kill the bear”
Cries of ”Gammon!” ”Don't believe it!” ”Where's the bear?”
”If you want to see the bear, youhi satisfied the household that so extraordinary had occurred, and excited the posthumous fear of soet help The great bear-hunter, who keeps one of the su-houses, received my story with a smile of incredulity; and the incredulity spread to the other inhabitants and to the boarders as soon as the story was known However, as I insisted in all soberness, and offered to lead them to the bear, a party of forty or fifty people at last started off withthe bear in nobody believed there was any bear in the case; but everybody who could get a gun carried one; and ent into the woods arainst all contingencies or surprises,--a crowd made up mostly of scoffers and jeerers
But when I led the way to the fatal spot, and pointed out the bear, lying peacefully wrapped in his own skin, soenuine excitee! and the hero of the fight well, I will not insist upon that But what a procession that was, carrying the bear hoathered in the valley to see the bear! Our best preacher up there never drew anything like it on Sunday
And I must say that my particular friends, ere sportsmen, behaved very well, on the whole They didn't deny that it was a bear, although they said it was sood with a rifle and a rod, admitted that it was a very fair shot He is probably the best salood hunter I suppose there is no person in America who is more desirous to kill a moose than he But he needlessly remarked, after he had examined the wound in the bear, that he had seen that kind of a shot made by a cow's horn