“No tree along the trail where the bear chase you?”
“O yes,” said Sam, “plenty of them. But I was afraid to take time enough to try and climb up into one of them.”
This answer, which Sam gave in all honesty, was too much for the Indians, and the look of disgust that passed over their faces was a study. However, the one who had asked the question about the tree spoke up and said:
“No good climbing a tree. Bear better climber than any hunter. Tree only good for you to fight bear at the bottom. Put back against tree. Black bear rise up and come to hug you to death. He then never bite or tear. Only hug. He try to squeeze the life out of you. So with good knife, and your back against a tree, keep cool. Let bear come, and when he stand up on his hind legs and try to hug, you just give him your good knife straight in the heart. Bear fall over dead. You not hurt at all. All needed, keep cool all the time. No brave white boy with good knife and plenty trees must ever run away from black bear any more.”
Thus he went on in his broken English to Sam’s mortification, and he found that in using his good legs, that had often carried him in first in many a race at school, he had gone down very much in the estimation of the Indians, who think it is simply foolishness, as well as cowardice, if armed with anything like a decent knife, to refuse to give battle to a bear from the trunk of the nearest tree. Thus the boys were getting points and learning lessons by experience in reference to hunting.
Mr Ross did not chide the lad, but thought that it would have been better if, when he discovered the fresh track of the bear, he had immediately returned to the camp for assistance. The fact is, Mr Ross was very thankful that nothing worse had happened.
Frank and Alec listened with intense interest to Sam’s account of his race back to the camp with the bear at his heels, and both declared that they would have done likewise. Later on we will find that they were able to successfully adopt the Indian methods, much to their delight.
