other--my friend for the fields, and the bear for the deep woods--and
each as anxious as fear could make him to put a 'broad belt of
country' between them. My friend dropped his basket, as he leaped from
the log; it was no time to stop for a basket; a limb caught his hat
and pulled it off; he had not time to stop for his hat. The truth is,
he was in a hurry, and something more than a hat or a basket was
required to stay his progress towards home."

"The Squire's story," said Cullen, as he knocked the ashes from his
pipe, and commenced shaving a fresh supply of tobacco with his
jack-knife, and depositing it in the palm of his left hand, "the
Squire's story reminds me of an adventer Crop and I met with, over
towards St. Regis Lake, a good many year ago; and I'll state the
circumstances of the case, as the Judge would say. It was an adventer
that don't happen often--leastwise, not in the same way. It made me
understand some things that I hadn't much idea of before. Let me tell
you, Judge, if you don't want a fight with an animal that's got long
claws and sharp teeth, don't come close upon him onawares, or may be
there'll be trouble. Give him time to think, and ten to one he'll take
to his heels. Most animals have more confidence in their legs than
they have in their teeth and claws, and they'll be very likely to use
'em, if you'll give 'em time to consider. But if you find a painter,
or a bear, takin' a nap in your path, and don't want to have a clinch
with him, wake him up before you get right onto him, or he'll be very
likely to think he's cornered, and them animals have onpleasant ways
with 'em when they're in that fix.

"Wal, as I was sayin', Crop and I was over on St. Regis Lake, layin'
in a store of jerked venison, and trappin' martin, and mink, and
muskrat, and huntin' wolves, and sich other wild animals as came in