Mr. Rust recently turned his cows into a field in which was also a wagon partly loaded with bean pods. One night he went out to milk his cows just after darkness had set in and found one missing. He searched over the near-by fields for several hours, but to no avail.
When morning came, the lost cow was found sleeping peacefully on the load of bean pods. The cow had climbed on the wagon, six feet from the ground.
Timber Inspector Slays Three Bears.
Mat Jordan, expert timber inspector, living in Turner, Mich., is the hero of the hour just now in that town and vicinity. Old residents, especially those who came from the East many years ago, declare that if Mat had lived in the good old pioneer days of which J. Fenimore Cooper so charmingly wrote, Mat would have made as interesting a story hero as did Natty Bumpo, the famous deer slayer, only Mat’s long suit is bears, no matter how many.
Mat was strolling through the woods near here with a double-bladed ax on his shoulder. He was there to look over some timber land, with a prospective dicker looming up in his speculative mind. While pausing to inspect a likely looking log that lay half concealed with dead brush, he heard a noise. Stepping toward the sound to investigate, he beheld a large black bear emerging from its den.
“Great siege guns!” exclaimed Mat, “this looks like war.”
It was war, and it started right away, for Mat swung his double-edged ax and soon had the enemy at his feet, registering its final kicks and last gasps. While he was surveying his conquered foe with a gleam of triumph in his weather eye, he suddenly had occasion to exclaim:
“Well, for the love of Mike, look who’s here!”
Two more bears, but young, half-grown ones, which were quickly dispatched and laid alongside their mother. The large bear weighed 175 pounds.
Mat went after help, and the carcasses were brought to town, where they were viewed by hundreds of persons all of whom were of the opinion that Mat Jordan is the champion bear slayer of Michigan.