“On one condition, neighbour!”
“What is it?” anxiously inquired the other.
“If I let you loose from the bar, you’ll gi’ me up your odd steer.”
There was no help for it, and with a heavy sigh, the prisoner consented. “Stop!” cried he, ere the axe could fall; “this old brute has half plagued the life out o’ me, and I’d like nothing better’n the satisfaction o’ killin’ him myself. Jest you ketch hold here, and let me give him his death-blow.”
The second squatter, rejoicing beyond measure at having accomplished his long-desired purpose, unsuspiciously agreed, dropped the axe, cautiously grasped the sinewy shanks, and bent his strength to the momentary struggle. To his utter dismay, he beheld his neighbour quietly shoulder the axe, and walk away from the ground!
“Hold on!” he shouted; “ain’t ye goin’ to kill the bar?”
“Wal, not jest now, I fancy; I thought you might like to hang on a while?”
The tables thus turned, the deluded squatter had no resource but to make terms with his grimly gleeful neighbour, who at last consented to put an end to the wild beast’s life, if he might not only be released from the bargain he had just made, but, in addition, be himself the recipient of the odd ox. Sorely chagrined, the second squatter consented. But he was a little comforted at the idea of a slight revanche that had just entered his head. Watching his chance, as the other approached to deal the fatal blow, with a desperate effort he tore out the bear’s claws from the bark—setting the infuriated animal free—and then fled at full speed to his cabin, leaving the two original combatants to fight it out between themselves.
The particulars of the contest even tradition has not preserved—the sequel to the narrative only telling that half an hour later the first squatter, scratched and bloody, hobbled slowly up to the cabin, remarking satirically as he threw down the broken axe:—
“Thar, neighbour; I’m afraid I’ve spiled yer axe, but I’m sure I’ve spiled the bar. Prehaps you’d let one o’ your leetle boys drive that ere ox over to my house?”