Legends of the Shawangunk2 JR.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath ...

148 Legends of the Shawangunk.
across the shoulder of one of the party. The large bear was suspended from a pole and
carried by the other two. In this way they reached the road, a mile distant, just at dark,
where they met a team with an empty sled, on which they were permitted to deposit their
game. On reaching home, tired and hungry as they were, they would not eat until a steak
was cut from one of the bears and prepared for their supper.
Zephaniah and Nathan Drake, also of the town of Forestburgh, once had an adventure
with a bear. They were out hunting and the dogs had driven Bruin up a tree. The hunters
came up and saw the bear seated on a limb thirty feet or more from the ground, calmly
eyeing the dogs. Zephaniah quickly brought his rifle to bear upon the animal, when
Nathan meekly advised him to be careful and make a sure shot. “Why,” said Zeph., a
little vexed at the suggestion; “I can shoot the critter’s eye right out of his head.” The
ball, however, missed its mark, but it shattered the upper jaw so that the bear’s
ZEPHANIAH DRAKE AND THE BEAR.
nose and about half of its upper teeth turned up over its forehead. The bear fell to the
ground, and the dogs fell upon the bear. The bear caught one of the dogs between his
paws and attempted to crush it; when the other dog bit the black brute so viciously, that
he dropped the first dog and turned his attention to the other. Thus the battle went on
back and forth, the animals being so mixed up that the brothers dare not shoot, for fear of
killing their dogs.
Zephaniah finally sailed in with his hunting knife, when the bear left the dogs and
attacked his human assailant. The man retreated as the animal advanced upon him. His
heel caught in a laurel bush, down he went upon his back, with the bear on top, and the
dogs on top of all. For a brief period there was a lively tussle among the bushes. Every
actor in that drama was in earnest, as much so as though thousands were witnessing the
progress of the fight. From impulse Zephaniah threw up his hand to keep off his assailant
as much as possible, and thrust his finger into Bruin’s mouth. The bear’s jaws, torn and
mangled, as they were, closed on one of the fingers and crushed it.