et.

Whilst we were at mass, a serious mishap occurred to young Murphy. A
juvenile damsel, whose cognomen was "sugar-plumb," and being the only
eligible maiden for matrimony, I was assured by a hospitable dame, one
Mrs. Bennett, "that she was the forwardest gall in the Mission," through
some silly, childish freak, frightened my friend's horse, so that the
restive animal broke the halter, and made long strides over the plain. A
couple of drunken Indians started in pursuit, but having a quarrel on
the way, one plunged his cuchillo up to the haft in his companion's
thigh, which brought him, deluged in blood, from the saddle. We found
this poor devil and conveyed him to town; but of the runaway horse and
saddle, which was worth half-a-dozen Indian lives, or horses, we could
learn nor see nothing. We made but a short stay in Puebla, and an hour
before the sun sank for the day, we put foot in stirrup, and a long
swinging gallop of seven leagues soon carried us to good Mr. Murphy, and
a good supper.

The following morning I arose with the lark, took a long pull at the
milk-pail, volunteered a little surgical advice to an Indian _vacuero_
who being thrown from his horse, was suffering under a badly-contused
thigh; he had bound the limb tightly with strands of hide, and was doing
a new principle of local bleeding by puncturing the flesh with sharp
stones--a mode of treatment very much in vogue with the natives. Under
guidance of Dan, we mounted capital horses, and sallied out for a
bear-hunt. Entering a gentle rise of the hill sides to the southward, we
wound around the grain-covered slopes for two hours, seeing but a few
stray deer, and a herd of wild horses; and although the traces of Bruin
were everywhere visible, we were on the point of turning our steps
homeward, when my companion grasped me by the shoulder, pulled me back
to the horse's flanks, and whispered, "Thar's one! lie low, Captin! lie
low!" It was a large he bear, walking about a little bowl of a valley
below us, in the laziest, hoggish manner possible, going from side to
side, rooting and tearing up the earth by wagon loads, in his search for
ground-rats--his course being directly towards us. We dismounted,
hitched horses to the lower branches of an oak, a few yards in our rear,
divested ourselves of all but knives and rifles, taking the precaution
to keep a bullet in our mouths, that they might slip easily down the
guns in case of emergency, then crossing to the