Wild Western Scenes | Page 4

maintained its position, he soon concluded the noise to
have been only imaginary, and venturing quite close gave it a smart
blow with his whip. Instantaneously poor Joe was rolling on the earth,
almost insensible, and the dark object disappeared rushing through the
bushes into the woods. The noise attracted Glenn, who now approached

the scene, and with no little surprise found his servant lying on his face.
"What's the matter, Joe?" demanded he.
"Oh, St. Peter! O preserve me!" exclaimed Joe.
"What has happened? Why do you lie there?"
"Oh, I'm almost killed! Didn't you see him?"
"See what? I can see nothing 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