BEST CURE FOR UNAVAILING SORROW--MARY’S ADVENTURE WITH A BEAR--NOVEL
DEFENCE--PROTECTING THE TENT
It was natural that the youthful company should be much cast down by
this misfortune. But recent experiences had taught them many valuable
lessons, and had caused them to practise, more fully than they would
have otherwise, those wise maxims which had formed no small part of
their education. While Robert and Mary were yet anguished with their
sense of disappointment, Harold cheerfully remarked:
"I have often heard your father say, ’There are two kinds of ill that it
is worth no wise man’s while to fret about:--Ills that _can be_ helped,
for then why do we not help them? and, Ills that _cannot be_ helped, for
then what is the use of fretting?’ I have also heard him say that ’_the
best cure for ills that cannot be helped is to set about doing something
useful_.’"
"But what can we do more than we have already tried to do?" asked
Robert, in a questioning tone.
"Not much, I confess," was Harold’s reply; "yet we can be on the lookout
for something. Yes," he continued, pointing, as they walked, to one of
the turkey pens which they had not visited for several days, "there is
something now. Very likely that trap has caught, and possibly the poor
creature that is in it, is now suffering more in body for want of food
and water, than we are in mind. Let us go and see."
They turned aside accordingly, and found within the trap a fine young
hen in a half-famished condition. She scarcely noticed them until they
were within a few paces of her, and then ran with feeble steps around
the pen, twitting mournfully, but without strength to fly. Robert
proposed to let her go, saying that there would be no use in carrying
home a starved bird; but to this Mary objected. She was beginning to
believe with Harold that they were destined to stay a long time on the
island. "I think," said she, "we had better take her home, and make a
coop for her, and let her be the beginning of a stock of poultry. We
can get some ducks, too, I have no doubt, and that will be so nice."
The picture which she drew was so comfortable and pleasant, that they
agreed to put it into instant execution. They would make for her not a
coop merely, but a poultry yard and house, and stock it for her with
turkeys, ducks, and brant; and she and Frank should feed them every
morning on acorns and chopped venison, and then they would live like
princes. The only particular difficulty that suggested itself in the
case was, that wild turkeys cannot be tamed. There is such an innate
love of freedom in their very blood, that even those which are raised
from the egg by tame hens will soon forsake the yard for the forest.
These little pleasant plans (for after all it is _little things_ that
make life pleasant or unpleasant), occupied their minds, and soon
employed their hands; for immediately on their return home they
commenced upon Mary’s poultry house, and marked out also the limits of
the adjoining yard. This occupied them for the two remaining days of
that week, and it was not until the Monday following that they commenced
working upon their boats.
In the midst of that week, however, another incident occurred, which
threatened to be fearful enough in its consequences, and caused another
interruption to their work. Robert, Harold, and Sam, were engaged upon
the fallen tree; Mary was preparing their dinner, and Frank, having
found a large beetle, was employed in driving down sticks into the
ground, on the plan of the picket fence, "making," as he professed, "a
house for his turkey." He had begun to feel hungry; and as the odour of
the broiling venison floated to his olfactories, he suddenly became
ravenous. He left his beetle half penned, and was on his way to ask his
sister for a mouthful or two before dinner, when directly behind the
tent he saw a great black object approaching the spot where Mary stood.
He looked a moment, uncertain what it could be, then gave a scream.
"Run, sister! run!" he said. "Come here! Look! look!" She looked, but
saw nothing, for the tent intervened. As Frank said "run!" he set the
example, and reaching a small tree about six inches in diameter, climbed
it as nimbly as a squirrel, crying as he ran, "Come here! Come here!"
Mary was astonished. She was sure from the tones of his voice that he
was in earnest, yet she saw no danger, and hesitated what to do.
Observing him, however, climb the tree, calling earnestly to her, she
was about to follow, when in a moment it was too late. An enormous bear
came from behind the tent, snuffing the odour of the meat, and looking
very hungry. Almost as soon as it discovered her, it rose upon its hind
legs, seeming surprised to meet a human being, and came forward with a
heavy growl. Had any one been present to help, Mary would probably have
screamed and fainted, but thrown upon her own resources she ran to the
fire and seized a burning brand. Then another and very fortunate
thought came to her mind. The dipper, or water ladle, was in her hand;
and as she drew the brand from the fire, she dipped a ladle full of the
boiling, greasy water, and threw it into the breast, and upon the
fore-paws of the growling beast.
That expedient saved her life. The bear instantly dropped upon all
fours, and began most piteously to whine and lick its scalded paws.
Mary seeing the success of her experiment, dipped another ladle full,
and threw it in its face. The bear now uttered a perfect yell of pain,
and turning upon its hind legs, ran galloping past the tent, as if
expecting every moment to feel another supply of the hot stuff upon its
back.
All this time Frank was calling from his tree, "Come here, sister! He
can’t get you here! Come! come!" And Mary was about to go; but the
bear was no sooner out of sight, than she felt very sick. Beckoning
Frank to come to her, she ran towards the tent, intending to fire off
one of the guns, as a signal for the large boys to return; but ere
reaching the door her sight failed, her brain reeled, and she fell
prostrate upon the earth. Frank looked all round, and seeing that the
bear was "clear gone," sprang lightly from the tree, and ran to her
assistance. He had once before seen her in a fainting fit, and
recollecting that Robert had poured water in her face, and set him to
fanning her, and chafing her temples and the palms of her hands, he
first poured a dipper full of cold water on her face, then seizing the
conch, blew the signal of alarm, till the woods rang again.
This soon brought the others. Harold came rushing into the tent, and by
the time that Robert arrived, he had loosened Mary’s dress, and was
rubbing her hands and wrists, while Frank fanned her, and told the tale
of her fighting the bear with hot water. The boys were powerfully
excited. Harold’s eye turned continually to the woods, and he called
Mum, and patted him with one hand, while he helped Mary with the other.
"Let me attend to her now," said Robert. "I see by your eye that you
wish to go. But if you will only wait a minute, I think sister will be
sufficiently well for me to go with you."
"I am well enough now," she faintly replied. "You need not stay on my
account. Do kill him. He can’t be far away. Oh, the horrible"--she
covered her eyes with both hands, and shuddered.
"But will you not be afraid to have us leave you?" asked Robert.
"No, no; not if you go to kill that terrible creature. Do go, before he
gets away."
Sam had in the meantime hobbled in, and the boys needed no other
encouragement. Frank showed them the direction taken by the bear, and
they set out instantly in pursuit. Mum had already been smelling
around, and exhibiting signs of rage. Now he started off on a brisk
trot. They followed him to a moist, mossy place, where the bear
appeared to have rolled on the damp ground, and drawn the wet moss
around it to alleviate the pain of the fire; then to another low place,
where he showed by his increasing excitement that the game was near at
hand. Indeed, they could hear every minute a half whine, half growl,
which proved that the troubled beast was there in great pain, and
conscious of their approach. But it did not long remain. Seeming to
know that it had brought upon itself a terrible retribution, by
attacking the quiet settlement, it broke from the cover, and ran to a
large oak, in the edge of the neighbouring hammock, and when the boys
arrived, they found it climbing painfully, a few feet above ground. Its
huge paws convulsively grasped the trunk, and it made desperate efforts
to ascend, as if confident that climbing that tree was its only refuge,
and yet finding this to fail it in its time of need. Both boys prepared
to shoot, but Harold beckoned to Robert.
"Let me try him in the ear with a rifle ball, while you keep your
barrels ready in case he is not killed."
He advanced within ten paces, rested his rifle deliberately against a
tree, took aim without the quivering of a muscle. Robert saw him draw a
"bead sight" on his victim, and knew that its fate was sealed. There
was a flash, a sharp report, and the heavy creature fell to the earth,
like a bag of sand, and the dark blood, oozing from ears and nose,
proved that its sufferings and its depredations were ended for ever.
"He will give us plenty of fresh pork, the monster!" said Harold,
endeavouring to quell his emotions, by taking a utilitarian view of the
case, and, in consequence, making a singular medley of remarks, "What
claws and teeth! I don’t wonder that Mary fainted! She is a brave
girl!"
"Yes, indeed," replied Robert; "there is not one girl in a thousand that
could have stood her ground so well. And that notion of fighting with
hot water--ha! ha! I must ask where she got it. It is capital. Only
see here, Harold, how this fellow’s foot is scalded; this is the secret
of his climbing so badly."
Mary’s hot water had done its work effectually. The bear was terribly
scalded on its paws, breast, face, and back of its head. The boys bled
it, as they did their other game, by cutting through the jugular vein
and carotid artery; but wishing to relieve Mary’s mind as soon as
possible, they returned to inform her that her enemy was dead.
"And pray tell me, sister," said Robert merrily, after recounting the
scene just described, "where did you learn your new art of fighting
bears?"
"From cousin Harold," she replied.
"From me, cousin!" Harold repeated. "Why, I never heard of such a thing
in my life. How _could_ I have told you?"
"You said one day," Mary continued, "that wild beasts are afraid of
fire, and that they cannot endure the pain of a burn. Now when I took
up the brand to defend myself, according to your rule, I remembered that
_hot water_ hurts the most, and that moreover I could _throw_ it. But
if you had not mentioned the one, I should not have thought of the
other."
"I think you deserve a patent," said Harold, patting her pale cheek.
"You have beat the whole of us, not excepting Robert, who was a perfect
hero in his day; for he conquered a panther with duck-shot, but you have
conquered a bear with a ladle. Why, cousin Mary, if ever we return to a
civilized country we shall have to publish you for a heroine."
She smiled at these compliments, but remarked that she was not heroine
enough to covet another such trial; for that she was a coward after all.
"And you, Master Frank," said Robert, whose pleasurable feeling excited
a disposition to teaze, "you climbed into a tree."
"Indeed I did," replied Frank, "as fast as I could, and tried to get
sister Mary there too. But she would stay and fight the bear with hot
water. Sister, why did you not come?"
"I did not know why you called," she answered. "I did not see anything,
and did not know which way to run."
"I think, cousin," remarked Harold, "that if you had run when Frank
called, you would have saved yourself the battle. The bear was after
your meat, not after you; and if you had only been willing to give up
that dinner, which you defended so stoutly, he would probably have eaten
it, and let you alone."
With this lively chatting, Mary was so much cheered, that she joined
them at dinner, and partook slightly of the choice bits that her brother
and cousin pressed upon her. The afternoon was spent in preparing the
flesh of their game. They treated it in every respect as they would
pork, except that the animal was flayed; and they found the flesh well
flavoured and pleasant. The parings and other fatty parts were by
request turned over to Sam, who prepared from them a soft and useful
grease. The skin was stretched in the sun to dry, after which it was
soaked in water, cleansed of all impurities, and rubbed well with salt
and saltpetre (William had put up a quantity), and finally with the
bear’s own grease. After it had been nicely cured, Harold made a present
of it to Mary, who used it as a mattress so long as she lived upon the
island.
Warned so impressively to protect their habitation against wild beasts,
the boys spent the rest of the week in erecting a suitable enclosure.
They planted a double row of stakes around the tent and kitchen, filling
up the interstices with twigs and short poles. The fence was higher
than their heads, and there was a rustic gateway so contrived that at a
little distance it looked like part of the fence itself.