Page 13 - A Hero of Ticonderoga

sweet, had slipped behind his ears. His frantic efforts to get rid of his
self-imposed muzzle were so funny that, after their first moment of

bewilderment, the two spectators could but shout with laughter.

Now upreared, the blindfolded bear would strike wildly at the kettle with
his forepaws; then, falling on his back, claw it furiously with his hinder
ones; then, regaining his feet, rush headlong till brought to a sudden stand

by an unseen tree trunk. Recovering from the shock, he would remain
motionless for a moment, as if devising some new means of relief, but

would presently resume the same round of unavailing devices, with the
constant accompaniment of smothered expressions of rage and terror.

But there was little time for laughter when a precious kettle and a fat bear
might at any moment be lost by the fracture of one and the escape of the

other. Seth had no weapon but his axe, but with this he essayed prompt
attack, the happy opportunity for which was at once offered. In one of his
blind, unguided rushes, the bear charged directly toward the camp, till his

iron-clad head struck with a resounding clang against the great boiling
kettle. As he reeled backward from the shock, half stunned by it, and

bewildered by the unaccustomed sound that still rang in his ears, Seth was
beside him with axe uplifted.

Only an instant he deliberated where and how to strike; at the skull he
dared not with the axe-head, for fear of breaking the kettle, and he disliked

to strike with the blade further back for fear of disfiguring the skin. But this
was the preferable stroke, and in the next instant the axe-blade fell with a
downright blow, so strong and well aimed that it severed the spinal column

just forward of the shoulders. The great brute went down, paralyzed beyond
all motion, to fall in a helpless heap and yield up his life with a few feeble

gasps.

"Oh, father," cried Nathan, the first to break the sudden silence, with a

voice tremulous in exultation, "to think we’ve got a bear. Won’t mother and
Marthy be proud? and won’t Job think we’re real hunters?"