LONG JERRY'S STORY
"Ol' man Bennett," began Jerry Todd, "warn't a native of this neck
o' woods. He come up from Jarsey, or some such place, and bringed his
fam'bly with him, and Sally Bennett. She was his sister, and as he
was a pretty upstandin' man, so was she a tall, well-built gal. She
sartain made a hit up here around Scarboro and along Rollin' River.
"But she wasn't backwoods bred, and the other girls said she was
timid and afraid of her shadder," chuckled Long Jerry. "She warn't
afraid of the boys, and mebbe that's why the other gals said sharp
things about her," pursued the philosophical backwoodsman. "You
misses know more about that than I do--sure!
"Howsomever, come the second spring the Bennetts had been up here,
Mis' Bennett, old Bill's wife, was called down to see her ma, that
was sick, they said, and that left Miss Sally to keep house. Come the
first Saturday thereafter and Bennett, _he_ had to go to Scarboro
to mill.
"You know jest how lonesome it is up here now; 'twas a whole sight
wuss in them days. There warn't no telephone, and it was more than
'two hoots and a holler,' as the feller said, betwixt neighbors.
"But Old Bill's going to mill left only Miss Sally and the three
little boys at home. Bennett had cleared a piece around the house,
scratched him a few hills of corn betwixt the stumps the year before,
and this spring was tryin' to tear out the roots and small stumps
with a pair o' steers and a tam-harrer.
"So, from the door of the cabin he'd built, Sally could see the
virgin forest all about her, while she was a-movin' about the room
getting dinner for the young 'uns. While she was at work the littlest
feller, Johnny, who was building a cobhouse on the floor, yelps up
like a terrier:
"'Aunt Sally! Aunt Sally! Looker that big dog!"
"Miss Sally, she turns around, an' what does she see but a big brown
bear--oh, a whackin' big feller!--with his very nose at the open door."
"Oh!" squealed Helen.
"How awful!" cried Belle Tingley.
"A mighty onexpected visitor," chuckled Jerry. "But, if she was
scar't, she warn't plumb stunned in her tracks--no, sir! She gave a
leap for the door and she swung it shut right against Mr. B'ar's
nose. And then she barred it."
"Brave girl," said Mrs. Murchiston.
"I reckon so, ma'am," agreed the guide. "And then she remembered
that Tom and Charlie, the other two boys, were gone down the hill to
a spring for a bucket of fresh water.
"There were two doors to the cabin, directly opposite each other,
and they'd both been open. The spring was reached from the other door
and Miss Sally flew to it and saw the boys just comin' up the hill.
"'Run, boys, run!' she screams. 'Never mind the water! Drop it and
run! There's a b'ar in the yard! Run! Run!'
"And them boys _did_ run, but they held fast to their bucket
and brought most of the water inter the house with 'em. Then Miss
Sally barred that door, too, and they all went to the winder and
peeped out. There was Mister B'ar snoopin' about the yard, and
lookin' almost as big as one of the steers.
"He went a-sniffin' about the yard, smellin' of everything like
b'ars do when they're forragin', s'archin' for somethin' ter tempt
his appetite. Suddenly he stood stock still, raised his big head, and
sniffed the air keen-like. Then he growled and went straight for the
pig-pen.
"'Oh, the pigs! the pigs!' squealed one of the boys. 'The nice pigs!
He'll eat 'em all up!'
"And there was a good reason for their takin' on," said Jerry, "for
their next winter's meat was in that pen--a sow and five plump little
porkers.
"'Oh, Aunty Sally,' cries one of the bigger boys, 'What shall we do?
What'll father say when he comes back and finds the pigs killed?'
"Ye see," continued Long Jerry, shaking his head, "it was a tragedy
to them. You folks livin' in town don't understand what it means for
a farmer to lose his pigs. Old Bennett warn't no hunter, and wild
meat ain't like hog-meat, anyway. If the b'ar got those porkers them
young 'uns would go mighty hungry the next winter.
"Miss Sally, she knew that, all right, and when the boy says: 'What
shall we do?' she made up her mind pretty quick that she'd got to
_try_ ter do sumpin'--yes, sir-ree! She run for her brother's rifle
that hung over the other door.
"'I'm goin' to try and shoot that b'ar, boys,' says she, jest as
firm as she could speak.
"'Oh, Aunt Sally! you can't,' says Tom, the oldest.
"'I don't know whether I can or not till I try,' says she. She felt
like Miss Ruthie did--eh?" and the long guide chuckled. "No tellin'
whether you kin do a thing, or not, till you have a whack at it.
"'Don't you try it, Aunt Sally,' says Charlie. 'He might kill you.'
"'I won't give him a chance at me,' says she. 'Now boys, let me out
and mind jest what I say. If anything _does_ happen to me, don't
you dars't come out, but go in and bar the door again, and stay till
your father comes back. Now, promise me!'
"She made 'em promise before she ventured out of the door, and then
she left 'em at the open door, jest about breathless with suspense
and terror, while Miss Sally sped across the yard toward the pig-pen.
Mister Ba'r, he'd torn down some of the pine slabs at one corner and
got into the pen. The old sow was singin' out like all Kildee, and
the little fellers was a-squealin' to the top o' their bent. The b'ar
smacked one o' the juicy little fellers and begun to lunch off'n him
jest as Miss Sally come to the other end o' the pen.
"His back was towards her and he didn't notice nothin' but his pork
vittles," pursued Long Jerry. "She crept up beside him, poked the
barrel of the Winchester through the bars of the pen, rested it on
one bar, and pulled the trigger. The ball went clear through the old
feller's head!
"But it takes more'n one lucky shot to kill a full grown brown
b'ar," Jerry said, shaking his head. "He turned like a flash, and
with a horrid roar, made at her, dropping the pig. His huge carcass
smashing against the pen fence, snapped a white-oak post right off at
the ground, and felled two lengths of the fence.
"But Miss Sally didn't give up. She backed away, but she kept
shootin' until she had put three more balls into his big carcass. He
sprung through the broke-down fence to get at her; but jest as he got
outside, the blood spouted out of his mouth, and he fell down,
coughing and dying. 'Twas all over in ten seconds, then."
"My goodness!" gasped Jennie Stone. "How dreadful."
"But wasn't she a brave girl?" cried Helen.
"Not a bit braver than Ruthie," said her twin, stoutly.
"I could almost forgive you for spoiling our taffy after that,
Master Tom," declared Helen. "Is that all the story, Mr. Todd?" she
added, as the long guide rose up to go.
"Pretty near all, I reckon, Missy," he returned. "Nobody didn't
never say Sally Bennett was afraid, after she'd saved Bill's meat for
him. And that ol' b'ar pelt was a coverin' on her bed till she was
married, I reckon. But things like that don't happen around here
now-a-days. B'ars ain't so common--and mebbe gals ain't so brave,"
and he went away, chuckling.