We thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and called to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out earnestly, “O pray! O pray! no shoot; me shoot by and then;” he would have said bye and bye. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do, for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off, and we found that the bear was too cunning for that too, for he would not get out far enough to be thrown down, but clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and where the jest would be at last.
But Friday put us out of doubt quickly, for seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther—”Well, well,” said Friday, “you no come farther, me go, me go; you no come to me, me come to you;” and upon this he goes out to the smallest end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, and stands still.
“Well,” said I to him, “Friday, what will you do now? Why don’t you shoot him?”—”No shoot,” says Friday, “no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh;” and indeed so he did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty leisurely, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body of the tree, then with the same hinder end foremost he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind feet upon the ground, Friday stepped close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him as dead as a stone.
Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh, and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he falls a-laughing himself very loud.
“So we kill bear in my country,” says Friday.
“So you kill them,” said I; “why, you have no guns.”
“No,” says he, “no guns, but shoot great much long arrow.”
This was, indeed, a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew. The howling of wolves ran much in my head, and indeed, except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains, and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people, too.
We had one dangerous place to pass, of which our guide told us, if there were any more wolves in the country, we should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow defile or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to lodge.