University of Virginia Library

A BEAR STORY.

"What an infernal lie!" growled Daniel.

"Have my doubts;" suggested the somnolent Peter
Probasco, with all the solemnity of a man who knows
his situation; at the same time shaking his head and
spilling his liquor.

"Ha! ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha!" roared all the rest of
the boys together.

"Is he done?" asked Raynor Rock.

"How many shirks was there?" cried long John,
putting in his unusual lingual oar.

"That story puts me in mind," said Venus Raynor,
"about what I've heerd tell on Ebenezer Smith, at the

time he went down to the North Pole on a walen'
voyage."

"Now look out for a screamer," laughed out Raynor
Rock, refilling his pipe. "Stand by, Mr. Cypress, to
let the sheet go."

"Is there any thing uncommon about that yarn,
Venus?"

"Oncommon! well, I expect it's putty smart and
oncommon for a man to go to sea with a bear, all alone,
on a bare cake of ice. Captain Smith's woman used
to say she couldn't bear to think on't."

"Tell us the whole of that, Venus," said Ned,—
"that is, if it is true. Mine was—the whole of it,—
although Peter has his doubts."

"I can't tell it as well as Zoph can; but I've no
'jections to tell it my way, no how. So, here goes—
that's great brandy, Mr. Cypress." There was a gurgling
sound of "something-to-take," running.

"Well, they was down into Baffin's Bay, or some
other o' them cold Norwegen bays at the north, where
the rain freezes as it comes down, and stands up in the
air, on winter mornens, like great mountens o' ice, all
in streaks. Well, the schooner was layen at anchor,
and all the hands was out into the small boats, looken
for wales,—all except the capting, who said he wa'n't
very well that day. Well, he was walken up and down,
on deck, smoken and thinking, I expect, mostly, when
all of a sudden he reckoned he see one o' them big
white bears—polar bears, you know—big as thunder—
with long teeth. He reckoned he see one on 'em
sclumpen along on a great cake o' ice, that lay on the

leeward side of the bay, up agin the bank. The old
capting wanted to kill one o' them varments most wonderful,
but he never lucked to get a chance. Now
tho', he thought, the time had come for him to walk
into one on 'em at laast, and fix his mutton for him right.
So he run forrad and lay hold onto a small skiff, that
was layen near the forc'stal, and run her out and
launched her. Then he tuk a drink, and—here's luck—
and put in a stiff load of powder, a couple of balls,
and jumped in, and pulled away for the ice.

"It wa'n't long 'fore he got 'cross the bay, for it was
a narrer piece o' water—not more than haaf a mile
wide—and then he got out on to the ice. It was a
smart and large cake, and the bear was 'way down to
the tother end on it, by the edge o' the water. So, he
walked fust strut along, and then when he got putty
cloast he walked 'round catecorned-like—likes's if he
was drivin for a plain plover—so that the bear would'nt
think he was comen arter him, and he dragged himself
along on his hands and knees, low down, mostly. Well,
the bear didn't seem to mind him none, and he got up
within 'bout fifty yards on him, and then he looked so
savage and big—the bear did—that the captain stopped
and rested on his knees, and put up his gun, and he
was agoin to shoot. But just then the bear turned round
and snuffed up the captin—just as one of Lif's hounds
snuffs up an old buck, Mr. Cypress,—and begun to
walk towards him, slowly like. He come along, the
captin said, clump, clump, very slow, and made the ice
bend and crack again under him, so that the water come
up and putty much kivered it all over. Well, there

the captin was all the time squat on his knees, with his
gun pinted, waiten for the varment to come up, and his
knees and legs was mighty cold by means of the water
that the bear riz on the ice as I was mentionen. At
last the bear seemed to make up his mind to see how
the captin would taste, and so he left off walkin slow,
and started off on a smart and swift trot, right towards
the old man, with his mouth wide open, roaren, and his
tail sticken out stiff. The captain kept still, looken out
all the time putty sharp, I should say, till the beast got
within about ten yards on him, and then he let him
have it. He aimed right at the fleshy part of his heart,
but the bear dodged at the flash, and rared up, and the
balls went into his two hind legs, just by the jynt, one
into each, and broke the thigh bones smack off, so that
he went right down aft, on the ice, thump, on his hind
quarters, with nothen standen but his fore legs, and his
head riz up, a growlen at the captin. When the old
man see him down, and tryen to slide along the ice to
get his revenge, likely, thinks he to himself, thinks he, I
might as well get up and go and cut that ere creter's
throat. So he tuk out his knife and opened it. But
when he started to get up, he found, to his astonishment,
that he was fruz fast to the ice. Don't laugh:
it's a fact; there an't no doubt. The water, you see,
had been round him a smart and long while, whilst he
was waiten for the bear, and it's wonderful cold in them
regions, as I was sayen, and you'll freeze in a minit if
you don't keep moven about smartly. So the captin he
strained first one leg, and then he strained tother, but
he couldn't move 'em none. They was both fruz fast
into the ice, about an inch and a half deep, from knee
to toe, tight as a Jersey oyster perryauger on a mud
flat at low water. So he laid down his gun, and looked
at the bear, and doubled up his fists. `Come on, you
bloody varmint,' says the old man, as the bear swalloped
along on his hinder eend, comen at him. He kept
getten weaker, tho', and comen slower and slower all
the time, so that at last, he didn't seem to move none;
and directly, when he'd got so near that the captin
could jist give him a dig in the nose by reachen forrard
putty smart and far, the captin see that the beast was
fruz fast too, nor he coudn't move a step further forrard
no ways. Then the captin burst out a laughen, and
clapped his hands down on to his thighs, and roared.
The bear seemed to be most onmighty mad at the old
man's fun, and set up such a growlen that what should
come to pass, but the ice cracks and breaks all around
the captin and the bear, down to the water's edge, and
the wind jist then a shiften, and comen off shore, away
they floated on a cake of ice about ten by six, off to
sea, without the darned a biscot or a quart o' liquor to
stand 'em on the cruise! There they sot, the bear and
the captin, just so near that when they both reached
forrads, they could jist about touch noses, and nother
one not able to move any part on him, only excepten
his upper part and fore-paws."

"By jolly! that was rather a critical predicament,
Venus," cried Ned, buttoning his coat. "I should have
thought that the captain's nose and ears and hands
would have been frozen too."

"That's quite naytr'l to suppose, sir, but you see the

bear kept him warm in the upper parts, by being so
cloast to him, and breathen hard and hot on the old
man whenever he growled at him. Them polar bears
is wonderful hardy animals, and has a monstrous deal
o' heat into 'em, by means of their bein able to stand
such cold climates, I expect. And so the captin knowed
this, and whenever he felt chilly, he just tuk his ramrod
and stirred up the old rascal, and made him roar and
squeal, and then the hot breath would come pouren out
all over the captin, and made the air quite moderat and
pleasant."

"Well, go on, Venus. Take another horn first."

"Well, there a'nt much more on't. Off they went
to sea, and sometimes the wind druv 'em nothe, and
then agin it druv 'em southe, but they went southe
mostly; and so it went on until they were out about
three weeks. So at last, one afternoon"—

"But, Venus, stop: tell us, in the name of wonder,
how did the captain contrive to support life all this
time?"

"Why, sir, to be sure, it was a hard kind o' life to
support, but a hardy man will get used to almost"—

"No, no: what did he eat? what did he feed on?"

"O—O—I'd liked to've skipped that ere. Why,
sir, I've heerd different accounts as to that. Uncle Obe
Verity told me he reckoned the captin cut off one of
the bear's paws, when he lay stretched out asleep, one
day, with his jack-knife, and sucked that for fodder,
and they say there's a smart deal o' nourishment in a
white bear's foot. But if I may be allowed to spend
my 'pinion, I should say my old man's account is the

rightest, and that's—what's as follows. You see after
they'd been out three days abouts, they begun to grow
kind o' hungry, and then they got friendly, for misery
loves company, you know; and the captin said the
bear looked at him several times, very sorrowful, as
much as to say, `Captin, what the devil shall we do?'
Well, one day they was sitten looken at each other, with
the tears ready to burst out o' their eyes, when all of a
hurry, somethin come floppen up out o' the water onto
the ice. The captin looked and see it was a seal. The
bear's eyes kindled up as he looked at it, and then, the
captin said, he giv him a wink to keep still. So there
they sot, still as starch, till the seal not thinken nothin
o' them no more nor if they was dead, walked right up
between 'em. Then slump! went down old whitey's
nails into the fish's flesh, and the captin run his jackknife
into the tender loin. The seal soon got his bitters,
and the captin cut a big hunk off the tail eend, and put
it behind him, out o' the bear's reach, and then he felt
smart and comfortable, for he had stores enough for a
long cruise, though the bear couldn't say so much for
himself.

"Well, the bear, by course, soon run out o' provisions,
and had to put himself onto short allowance; and
then he begun to show his natural temper. He first
stretched himself out as far as he could go, and tried to
hook the captin's piece o' seal, but when he found he
couldn't reach that, he begun to blow and yell. Then
he'd rare up and roar, and try to get himself clear from
the ice. But mostly he rared up and roared, and
pounded his big paws and head upon the ice, till by-and-by

(jist as the captin said he expected) the ice
cracked in two agin, and split right through between
the bear and the captin and there they was on two
different pieces o' ice, the captin and the bear! The
old man said he raaly felt sorry at parten company, and
when the cake split and separate, he cut off about a
haaf o' pound o' seal and chucked it to the bear. But
either because it wan't enough for him, or else on account
o' his feelen bad at the captin's goen, the beast
wouldn't touch it to eat it, and he laid it down, and
growled and moaned over it quite pitiful. Well, off
they went, one one way, and t'other 'nother way, both
feel'n pretty bad, I expect. After a while the captain
got smart and cold, and felt mighty lonesome, and he
said he raaly thought he'd a gi'n in and died, if they
hadn't pick'd him up that arternoon."

"Who picked him up, Venus?"

"Who? a codfish craft off o' Newfoundland, I
expect. They didn't know what to make o' him when
they first see him slingen up his hat for 'em. But they
got out all their boats, and took a small swivel and a
couple o' muskets aboard, and started off—expecten it
was the sea-sarpent, or an old maremaid. They woudn't
believe it was a man, until he'd told 'em all about it,
and then they didn't hardly believe it nuther; and they
cut him out o' the ice and tuk him aboard their vessel,
and rubbed his legs with ile o' vitrol; but it was a long
time afore they come to."

"Didn't they hurt him badly in cutting him out,
Venus?"

"No, sir, I believe not; not so bad as one might

s'pose: for you see he'd been stuck in so long, that the
circulaten on his blood had kind o' rotted the ice that
was right next to him, and when they begun to cut, it
crack'd off putty smart and easy, and he come out
whole like a hard biled egg."

"What became of the bear?"

"Can't say as to that, what became o' him. He went
off to sea somewheres, I expect. I should like to know,
myself, how the varment got along right well, for it was
kind in him to let the captin have the biggest haaf o'
the seal, any how. That's all, boys. How many's
asleep?"