“From one bar preehaps we did, but from t’other grizzly you rescooed yurself; an’, young fellur, you must a fit a putty consid’able bout afore the vamint knocked under. The way you hev gin him the bowie ur a caution to snakes, I reck’n.”
“What! were there two bears?”
“Look thur! thur’s a kupple, ain’t thur?”
The trapper pointed in the direction of the fire. Sure enough, the carcasses of two bears lay upon the ground, both skinned, and partially cut up!
“I fought with only one.”
“An thet wur enuf at a time, an a leetle more, I reck’n. ’Tain’t many as lives to wag thur jaws arter a stan-up tussle wi’ a grizzly. Wagh! how you must have fit, to a rubbed out thet bar!”
“I killed the bear, then?”
“Thet you sartintly did, young fellur. When Bill an me kim on the groun, the bar wur as dead as pickled pork. We thort yur case wa’nt any better. Thur you lay a-huggin the bar, an the bar a-huggin you, as ef both on yur hed gone to sleep in a sort o’ friendly way, like the babbies in the wood, exceptin thet you wa’nt kivered wi’ leaves. But thur wur yur claret a kiverin the paraira for yurds round. Thur wa’nt as much blood in you as wud a gin a leech his breakfist.”
“The other bear?”
“She kum arterwards out o’ the gully. Bill, he wur gone to look arter the white hoss. I wur sittin aside you, jest hyur, when I seed the vamint’s snout pokin up. I knowd it wur the she-bar a-comin to see where ole Eph had strayed to. So I tuk up Targuts, an plummed the critter in the eye, an thet wur the eend o’ her trampin.