ost was heard
to stir.

Wolf-hunter was now in his glory, nerving his muscular frame for battle.
All of a sudden this mammoth bear and her two cubs were heard by
Wolf-hunter advancing rapidly for the cottage. The moments seemed to fly
more rapidly. The instant the bear appeared in sight Wolf-hunter raised
his gun. The bear, as quick as thought, raised on her hind legs and
struck at his gun, which, firing at the same instant that the bear's paw
struck it, had a tendency to lower the gun and carry away a part of the
bear's under-jaw. Wolf-hunter's gun became useless from the nearness of
the bear and quickness of her motion. He seized his tomahawk, but the
strength and power of the bear was such that it seemed of no avail.

Becoming heated with the strife, the God of Battle nerved his arm to
grapple with the monster of the woods in deadly strife. He dropped his
tomahawk and drew his long knife, keenly sharpened for such game. As the
hunter raised his left hand, and darted his knife with tremendous force
for the bear, it struck the loose skin on his neck, rolled the blow one
side, and passed the bear's neck, whilst the hot breath of the monster
came full in his face. It now became hurrying times. He raised his knife
once more, and made a thrust with all his power, and ripped the bear
open from his flank to his brisket, and sprang back with all his power,
and fell on the ground about ten feet from the bear. Whilst lying there
he heard the heavy report of two guns, which he took to be those of the
Indian chief and Esock Mayall, as the cubs passed them for the cottage.

The Indian chief had slightly wounded the young bear that passed him,
and, quickly loading his rifle, started to assist Wolf-hunter, where
there had been the constant growling and snarling of the old she-bear
after the first report of Wolf-hunter's rifle. The Indian chief soon
arrived on the spot, and found the bear sitting up on her hind legs,
with her life-blood ebbing away, and put an end to her misery by
shooting a ball through her head, and then asked Wolf-hunter why he lay
there in that condition, with that long bloody knife in his hand?
Wolf-hunter replied that he had but one hand he could use, and he laid
still, knowing that the bear would not touch him as long as he appeared
to be dead, and he further knew that the monster's life-blood was fast
ebbing away, and that she would soon be too weak to move. The Indian
chief had all this time been loading h