The Ursine Imbroglio

SEPTEMBER, 1934. ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Arizona TALES ANIMAL STORIES 1.---The Ursine Imbroglio By L. C. BOLLES.

TELL ME SOME ANIMAL STORIES, Uncle Pete," I urged the cattleman. "If I go out in this kind of weather I know I shall have to change tires and help other people's wives change tires and all that sort of thing. And don't spare the plot on account of sticking too closely to cold facts. The story's the thing!"

"Well," said Pete, grinning, "I guess the story that old Abijah Dodd told the lady tourists was an animal story, being it was about a bear. You know that feller was a character-guess he could not help it. His surname was Dodd and his parents christened him Abijah and early in life somebody figured out to call him "By Dodd"; and By Dodd he stayed. So he grew a long moustache and made his principal profession tellings lies, running a grocery and tourist camp as a side line. Somehow he would get people to ask him questions and beg him to tell his experiences, and then he would cut loose.

"'Bout that bear story; it was three women from Massachusetts or Maryland or some state like that, who got to asking about hunting out here in the wild West, and he told them some approximate facts, being kind of busy and wanting to check up his bank account, maybe. I see he was getting a little impatient, and stuck around. Then:

"Did you ever shoot a bear, Mr. Dodd?'

"Lord, yes! We used to eat bear meat regular. But the worst time I ever had with a bear was the time we run out of ammunition, Mike Hennessy and I. We was out of meat and took a day off and did a heap of walking; but all we saw was squirrels and rabbits. Finally we shot an antelope and hung it up in a tree. Then it was getting late and we discovered we had only one cartridge between us. It was in Mike's rifle.

"And of course, right then a black bear stepped out right in front of us and coming toward us.

"Mike', I says, 'don't you dare to miss that b'ar! So Mike ups and, as he was always excitable, he missed the bear clean. So I seen it was nothing to do but grab onto him and hold him. I dived in and me and the bear sure went around and around for about ten min utes; and then I got a half Nelson and a body scissors on him and got him down.

"Now, Mike, for God's sake,' I says, 'Run to camp and get the axe and we'll kill him with that! But hurry up! I can't hold him forever!' "It was only about a half mile to camp, and old Mike legged it up the trail pretty fast. But the minute he got there he remembered how durn hungry he was, and grabbed a piece of bread and a piece of meat and stuffed them in his mouth. He started chawing, and picked up the axe, and set it down again. It wouldn't take him but a min ute to finish eating. But all his life he always had a smoke right after eating, so he began to fill his pipe absent mindedly. Then he found a match, and by the time he had scratched a half dozen matches and had his pipe going, he forgot about me and sat down. But after a bit, as he was puffing away, he suddenly remembered the whole thing, and in his excitement he jumped up and started down the trail; but in such a hurry he plumb forgot the axe.

"So here he came, just as I was about give out, and I says, 'Mike, for God's sake! Where is that axe?' "My God, I forgot it,' says Mike.

"Well, I can't hold this critter another half hour,' I says, 'so you hold him a while and I'll get the axe.' "Well, we had a hell of a time, begging your pardon, in changing holds. The bear got plumb impatient and disagreeable, and we sure plowed up the ground trying to get foot holds, but we finally did change. So I trotted to camp. But I was so dumb weak by then I grabbed a piece of meat, and then my eye lit on the mail, that someone had brung during the day.

"I never did much corresponding, and was not such a hand for reading, even; but we was getting some kind of a farmer's journal and there was one of them there, now, installment stories running in it, about the gentleman from Ohio or something like that, and I was plumb interested in it. So what do I do but pick up the paper and start reading that story. It was my habit, you see, to pick up something and read a few minutes after eating, to kind of give my digestion a chance. Anyhow, I read that story, and then darned if I didn't go to sleep, being so weak and exhausted."

"I have a suspicion, so I inquire: 'Do you think the country will really change hands and be Democratic for a period of years now, 'By?' "Well, it might at that. Looks like we are due for a change.'

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