quite as glad to part company as I was. I larned one thing, stranger,
that mornin', and it's this, never to try drownin' a bear by runnin'
him under with a dugout. It won't pay.'"




CHAPTER XIX.

SPALDING'S BEAR STORY--CLIMBING TO AVOID A COLLISION--AN UNEXPECTED
MEETING--A RACE.


"That story," said Spalding, "reminds _me_ of a bear story. I shall do
as the Doctor did, tell it as it was told to me. I did not see the
bear, but I know the man who was the hero of it, and his brother told
the story in his presence one day, and he made no denial. He at least
is estopped from disputing it, and we lawyers call that _prima facie_
evidence of its truth. It occurred a long time ago, when there were
fewer green fields in Oswego county and especially in the town of
Mexico, than there are now. The old woods stood there in all their
primeval grandeur. The waves of Ontario laved a wilderness shore, and
their dull sound, as they came rolling in upon the rocky beach, died
away in the solitudes of a gloomy and almost boundless forest. Here
and there a 'clearing' let in the sunlight, and the woodman's axe
broke the forest stillness as he battled against the brave old trees.
The smoke of burning fallows was occasionally seen, wreathing in
dense columns towards the sky. Civilization, enterprise, energy and
new life were just starting on that career of progress which has moved
onward till the wilderness, under the influence of their mighty power,