Wild Western Scenes | Page 4

this dark night but the flying clouds and yonder yellow sheet of water."
"Oh, I've been struck!" said Joe, groaning piteously.
"Struck by what? Has the lightning struck you?"
"No--no! my head is all smashed up--it was a bear."
"Pshaw! get up, and either drive on, or feed the horses," said Glenn with some impatience.
"I call all the saints to witness that it was a wild bear--a great wild bear! I thought it was a stump, but just as I struck it a flash of lightning revealed to my eyes a big black bear standing on his hind feet, grinning at me, and he gave me a blow on the side of the face, which has entirely blinded my left eye, and set my ears to ringing like a thousand bells. Just feel the blood on my face."
[Illustration: A dark encounter]
Glenn actually felt something which might be blood, and really had thought he could distinguish the stump himself when the wagon halted; yet he did not believe that Joe had received the hurt in any other manner than by striking his face against some hard substance which he could not avoid in the darkness.
"You only fancy it was a bear, Joe; so come along back to the horses and drive on. The rain has ceased, and the stars are appearing." Saying this, Glenn led the way to the wagon.
"I'd be willing to swear on the altar that it was a huge bear, and nothing else!" replied Joe, as he mounted and drove on, the horses now evincing no reluctance to proceed. One after another the stars came out and shone in purest brightness as the mists swept away, and ere long the whole canopy of blue was gemmed with twinkling brilliants. The winds soon lulled, and the dense forest on the right reposed from the moaning gale which had disturbed it a short time before; and the waves that had been tossed into foaming ridges now spent their fury on the beach, each lashing the bank more gently than the last, until the power of the gliding current swept them all down the turbid stream. Soon the space between the water and the forest gradually diminished, and seemed to join at a point not far ahead. Joe observed this with some concern, being aware that to meander among the trees at such an hour was impossible. He therefore inclined toward the river, resolved to defer his re-entrance into the forest as long as possible. As he drove on he kept up a continual groaning, with his head hung to one side, as if suffering with the toothache, and occasionally reproaching Pete with some petulance, as if a portion of the blame attached to his sagacious pony.
"Why do you keep up such a howling, Joe? Do you really suffer much pain?" inquired Glenn, annoyed by his man's lamentations.
"It don't hurt as bad as it did--but then to think that I was such a fool as to go right into the beast's clutches, when even Pete had more sense!"
"If it was actually a bear, Joe, you can boast of the thrilling encounter hereafter," said Glenn, in a joking and partly consoling manner.
"But if I have many more such, I fear I shall never get back to relate them. My face is all swelled--Huzza! yonder is a light, at last! It's on this side of the river, and if we can't get over the ferry to-night, we shall have something to eat on this side, at all events. Ha! ha! ha! I see a living man moving before the fire, as if he were roasting meat." Joe forgot his wound in the joy of an anticipated supper, and whipping the horses into a brisk pace, they soon drew near the encampment, where they discovered numerous persons, male and female, who had been prevented from crossing the river that day, in consequence of the violence of the storm, and had raised their tents at the edge of the woods, preferring to repose thus until the following morning than to venture into the frail ferry-boat while the waves yet ran so high.
There was no habitation in the immediate vicinity, save a rude hovel occupied by Jasper Roughgrove and his ferrymen, which was on the opposite shore in a narrow valley that cleft asunder the otherwise uniform cliff of rocks.
The creaking of the wheels, when the vehicle approached within a few hundred paces of the encampment, attracted the watch-dogs, and their fierce and continued barking drew the attention of the emigrants in the direction indicated. Several men with guns in their hands came out to meet the young travellers.
"We are white men, friends, strangers, lost, benighted, and hungry!" exclaimed Joe, stopping the horses, and addressing the men before he was accosted.
"Come on, then, and eat and rest with us," said