deal about the Grizzly,
and coming across the plains I talked to my comrade, Green, about what
I should do if I should get a chance at a bear. I was a pretty good
shot, and thought it would be no trick at all to kill a bear with the
Mississippi rifle that I brought home from the Mexican war.

"One day I went out with a man named Willis, who was a good hunter, and
in the hills back of Sonora we found plenty of bear sign. In fact we
could get through the thick brush and chaparral only on the trails made
by bears, and we had to go carefully for fear of running upon a Grizzly
at close quarters. Although it was evident that we were in a bear
country, we hadn't seen anything to shoot at when we emerged from the
brush into an open space about fifty yards in diameter.

"Willis said that he was sure bears were close around us, if we could
only see them, and I proposed to climb a tree on the other side of the
clearing and get a good view of the surrounding thickets. If I should
see bears I was to make a noise and try to scare them out of their
hiding places.

"I started across the opening, but before I reached the tree I saw a
huge Grizzly coming toward me through the brush. He looked much larger
and uglier than I had expected, and it struck me that the proper thing
for me was to get into that tree before shooting. I got to the tree
all right enough, but found that I couldn't climb it and take my rifle
up with me. Willis saw my difficulty and shouted to me that I couldn't
make it, and so I abandoned the attempt and ran back toward him.

"The bear was following me, and Willis started back into the brush. I
called to him not to do that, but to stand in the open and wait for me.
He halted, and when I got alongside we both turned and raised our
rifles. When the bear saw that we were standing our ground, he
stopped, looked at us a moment and then turned and shuffled back into
the brush. He was so big and looked so formidable that we concluded to
let him go unmolested, rather relieved, in fact, that we were let out
of the scrape so easily.

"We made our way back to camp with some caution and decided that we
would get up a crowd and go bear hunting the next day. When we told
our adventure, Green was very hilarious at my expense and kept
reminding me of the brave things I had said coming across the plains.
He was so everlastingly tickled with his joke that he sat up all that
night to guy me about my running away from a be