and becoming valorous, ran a few steps down
the path and fired in the direction of the confused melee. The moment
after he discharged his musket, the back part of his head struck the
earth, and the gun made two or three end-over-end revolutions up the
path behind him. Never, perhaps, was such a rebound from overloading
known before. Joe now thought not of the bear, nor looked to see what
execution he had done. He thought of his own person, which he found
prostrate on the ground. When somewhat recovered from the blow, he
rose with his hand pressed to his nose, while the blood ran out
between his fingers. "Oh! my goodness!" he exclaimed, seating himself
at the root of a pecan tree, and rocking backwards and forwards.

"What's your gun doing up here?" exclaimed Sneak, coming down the
path. Joe made no answer, but continued to rock backwards and forwards
most dolefully.

"Why don't you speak? Where's the bar?"

"I don't know. Oh!" murmured Joe.

"What's the matter?" inquired Sneak, seeing the copious effusion of
blood.

"I shot off that outrageous musket, and it's kicked my nose to pieces!
I shall faint!" said Joe, dropping his head between his knees.

"Faint? I never saw a _man_ faint!" said Sneak, listening to the chase
below.

"Oh! can't you help me to stop this blood?"

"Don't you hear _that_, down there?" replied Sneak, his attention
entirely directed to that which was going on in the valley.

"My ears are deafened by that savage gun! I can't hear a bit, hardly!
Oh, what shall I do, Mr. Sneak?" continued Joe.

"Dod rot it!" exclaimed Sneak, leaping like a wild buck down the path,
and paying no further attention to the piteous lamentations of his
comrade.

Ere the bear reached the mouth of the glen, the hunters generally had
come up, and poor Bruin found himself hemmed in on all sides. He could
not ascend on either hand, the loss of blood having weakened him too
much to climb over the almost precipitous rocks, and he made a final
stand, determined to sell his life as dearly as possible. The dogs
sprang upon him in a body, and it was soon evident that his desperate
struggles were not harmless. He grasped one of the curs in his deadly
hug, and with his teeth planted in its neck, relinquished not his hold
until it fell from his arms a disfigured and lifeless object. He boxed
those that were tearing his hams with his ponderous claws, sending
them screaming to the right and left. He then stood up on his
haunc