caragua. I took the left and Antonio the right of Preston. We advanced on horseback, moving up a hill with gentle slope, through an open grove of large oaks, and could now see the front of rock under which was the cave of the bear; when Preston gave the signal to halt. ous agility, climbing from branch to branch much higher than was necessary. With the breaking of the lasso, Preston's horse bounded away; but he presently succeeded in turning him, and coming close to the bear made the event of the battle sure with another ball through the enemy. out to me : "Shoot quick, and then take to a tree; the lasso is breaking." I ran to the left of the bear, came within ten feet of her, and aimed at the head. At the same instant she rose again, roaring; the lasso burst with a sharp sound; I fired wild, and turned to run, but the "She is coming," he said, in low voice, and beast fell along dead upon the ground; by sinat the same moment I saw both my companions gular good fortune my chance shot had sent a raise their rifles. The cave may have been one ball through her heart. Not trusting to appearhundred and fifty yards distant; an interval of ances, I rushed to the nearest tree and swung fifty yards between myself, Preston, and An-myself up by a depending branch with marveltonio, placed the bear as she approached under a cross-fire upon both flanks. I spurred my horse forward a few steps, and saw the huge beast coming slowly down the hill. We fired almost together. My horse trembled violently and snorted, but did not move until I had fired; but then wheeled suddenly and dashed off to the left, bringing my breast, after a run of sixty or seventy yards, in violent contact with the extreme branch of an oak, which brushed me from the saddle like a fly. At any other time the force of such a blow would have made me in-culty, because of the bruise on my chest. The sensible; but so intense was my excitement, I can not even remember how I rose to my feet. Glancing along through the oak openings, I saw Antonio swinging by his hands from a branch, up which he was deliberately climbing, his horse scouring away through the forest after mine. The bear, wounded in front and in both flanks, had fallen back upon her haunches not thirty paces from Preston, who had wheeled his pow-rate spring. We lifted our companion from the erful horse to the left flank, my own position, and was whirling the lasso, which the next moment flew over the head and shoulders of the bear, and in less time than it requires to read this was turned on the bole of an oak-tree a dozen paces from the bear, and Preston's horse pulling at it with frantic energy. When the hairy savage found herself encumbered by a noose, tightening sharply and powerfully around her body and forefect, she rose upon her hind legs with a tremendous roar and made a dash at Preston; but held back by the radius of the lasso, rolled over and over almost touching the hind legs of his horse, who looked back at the hairy avalanche near his heels, and made a terrified bound forward, drawing the bear of course nearer, perhaps within ten feet of the tree. Preston still, however, maintained the requisite control over his steed, and wheeling to the right rode around, making one turn of the lasso about the tree, turned the horse to a dead halt, and began reloading his piece. It was fortunately a breech-loading gun, and could be charged in a few seconds. Meanwhile a crash from the tree and another roar and bound of the hampered bear, who had lain quiet for a moment, to recover the strength which she was fast losing-the dark blood pouring from her mouth in torrents -showed that Antonio had not been idle. By this time, with some bungling, I had driven a charge home in the barrel of my own awkward, old-fashioned piece. Preston, in a sharp, clear voice, which even now rings in my ears, called When Antonio saw that the bear was dead, he gave a shout and dropped off his branch upon the ground like a ripe pear. Preston called to me to come down, which I did with some diffi pain of this bruise was severe, and followed me a long time after, but I did not feel it while ascending the tree. As we stood looking at the dead bear, Preston attempted to dismount, but found it impossible to do so, his right thigh being severely bruised by the lasso, which pressed upon it with the entire force of the horse in his last despe saddle, and laid him down fainting and helpless. Antonio then took his master's horse, and went in search of our runaway steeds. Meanwhile, leaving my friend somewhat relieved by a draught of rum and water from a hunting-flask, I went up to the rock, and found the three cubs sleeping quietly in a heap like kittens. Antonio came back in high spirits with the two horses after an hour's search, and presently building a fire of dry sticks, we roasted some jerked beef, and after a hearty meal, lay down to sleep about sundown, using our saddles for pillows. At daylight we awoke, and, after skinning the bear, secured the cubs and skin upon Antonio's horse, and helping Preston into the saddle went over to the old encampment. Here we packed the two other skins, and made the best of our way to the ranch, Antonio leading his own horse by the bridle. Preston was laid up by this accident, and during his confinement I had an opportunity of requiting some of his former attentions to myself. His conversation had always been intelligent and pleasing, but became varied and delightful while he was confined to his couch. Conversation, especially story-telling and the relation of characteristic anecdotes, is an art which flourishes in perfection only where there is leisure and the buoyancy of exuberant animal spirits. In remote and desert places we find few men of wit, and none of that class who make the merit of conversation depend on choice of words or oddity of expression. Mimicry, on the other hand, and the gift of describing in compact, | might fall unawares upon the grizzly, he called rough-hewn, picturesque sentences, are the tal-out to Pacheco to stop. ents of the Indian and the border man. With "He then went to the edge of the ravine, this, a cool manner in speaking of the most which was a water-way trenched in the soft frightful dangers, and a power of depicting nat-earth, and while he was looking over, the bank ural scenery by simple, unadorned description -saying no more than is required to place the objects before the eye-were the traits of conversation which, in Preston, held me motionless for hours of each day. caved in under his feet, and he fell into the gully. Fearing that the concealed enemy might choose that moment for attack, he rushed up the bank, and at the same instant looking back, saw the bear coming behind close upon his heels man and bear reaching the height at the same instant. Pacheco, who sat upon his horse on the other bank, and saw this movement, did not fire. He seemed to be paralyzed with fear. "Colonel Butts carried a gun with a hair-trig to set the trigger. The bear, as he turned upon her, seized the gun in her jaws and bit it, bending the barrel like a leaden rod. He jerked away the gun, however, and broke it over the head of the bear, who, at the same instant, seized his left leg in her mouth. Colonel Butts fell forward upon her, and seizing her wool with a strong grasp, the two rolled over and over down the bank of earth to the bottom of the He spoke often to me of Colonel William Butts, of San Luis Obispo, who had been wounded in a hand-to-hand fight with a bear, in the spring of 1853. Colonel Butts was educated in the office of Colonel Benton, of Missouri; entered the army, and served with dis-ger that required to be 'set' - a bad instrument tinction under Scott, and then passed into the for a hunter. Unfortunately, he had forgotten border service as a commander of mounted troops in the Indian territories. Growing weary of the half-idle life of the army, he removed to California, practiced law, owned a cattle-ranch at San Luis Obispo, and a newspaper at Los Angeles; keeping up the old habit of seeking danger for its own sake by an occasional bear-hunt. Preston was enthusiastic when he spoke of Butts, whom he regarded as a man, born soldier and hunter, with equal qual- | ravine. ities of action and command. He described him as of medium height, rather slight in person, with an eye betokening great courage and self-control. He had had eight or ten years' experience of war in Mexico and on the Plains, and knew the interior of the continent like a garden. "This man," said Preston, " if he be still living, is the best example of a Missourian I have met with. People of his kind are usually rough; but Butts is quiet, correct, and agreeable, both in manners and conversation. "On the 29th of March, 1853, Colonel Butts - then on his ranch at San Luis Obispo — -was making preparations for a voyage to San Francisco, and thence to the eastward. An old man, named Pacheco, who resembles Antonio in every particular except age, came into the house, and said that he had wounded an old she-bear, who had been known for several years in the neighborhood. She had made a spring at Pacheco, and caught his hand. Fearing to miss the steamer, Colonel Butts at first refused to go; but on the assurance of the old hunter that the bear was close at hand and badly wounded, he took his knife and rifle, and started on horseback to make a finish of the hunt. "They rode together to the summit of a hill near the ranch, but finding that the bear had gone down a ravine on the other side, they followed the trail. The brushwood and briers were almost impassable in the ravine. About half-way down the bushes forced them to the edge of a deep gully, which the horses could not get over. Colonel Butts then tied his horse and crossed the ravine, Pacheco forcing his way down through the bushes on the opposite side. After they had gone on a hundred paces or so, the Colonel reached an open space on the edge of the steep side of the gorge, and fearing they "The enormous weight of the animal drove the breath out of his lungs, and he became insensible; but was instantly roused by the surgical aid of Bruin, who retained her hold upon the leg, and now sat upon her haunches deliberately chewing and shaking it as a dog shakes a rat. Just as his senses began to return, the bear, who was suffering from the wound Pacheco had previously given her, let go the leg and walked slowly down the ravine. "Colonel Butts now called out to his terrified follower to fire, but he did not do this; and the wounded grizzly, exasperated afresh by the sound of a human voice, turned and came back. Raising himself and leaning upon his left hand, Colonel Butts drew a long huntingknife and awaited the second attack with sullen determination. The thought flashed over his mind that if he could cut out an eye of the grizzly, she would again retire, and Pacheco might by that time recover his aim and courage. The idea was a good one. As she advanced he struck at the right eye and cut it out. The enemy fell back, the eye hanging from the socket, and again turned and moved down the gully. A third time Colonel Butts called upon his follower to shoot, but without avail; and the bear, startled as before by the voice, wheeled and made another charge. "It is all over with me,' thought the hunter, 'unless I can cut out the other eye.' On came the bear, jaws open, and roaring. Again the knife smote sharply in the hunter's sinewy hand, but glancing upon the heavy brow of the beast, sank deep into the right side of the neck, and severed the carotid artery. The wounded brute pushed over and again seized the broken leg and craunched it; the blood spouted from the artery over the head and eyes of the hunter, blinding him so that he could not see to strike another blow. He fell back as if dead, passing his left hand over his eyes to wipe off the blood, and when he again opened them the bear had retired a few steps, faint, and bleeding from the mouth and throat. "His evil genius suggested to him to call again upon the wicked coward, Pacheco, commanding him to shoot; but the sound of the voice, as before, only animated the dying rage of the bear, who now made her final charge, but as she came on, her hind-quarters fell, through weakness. She pushed forward, moaning with fury, and Colonel Butts, animated by a shadow of hope in the midst of despair, put out both hands, and seized her by the thick wool on each side of the head. In this attitude she pushed him along over the ground two lengths or more, and staggered and crawled over him, when, with a long reach and vigorous repeated thrusts, he laid open her belly, striking in the knife to the handle, and drawing it forward until the bowels of the bear fell out and dragged along the ground. This was the last act of the bloody drama; the bear turned again, seized the back of his head in her mouth, biting away a portion of the scalp and the right ear, and then rolled over and died. "When the bear crawled over him the last time, Colonel Butts lost his sight with the torrents of gore that poured from the animal. Her huge weight, treading and dragging over him, exhausted his little remains of strength. "When Pacheco saw the bear fall and die, he got off his horse, came down into the ravine, took up the mangled and exhausted hunter, and bearing him to a spring, washed the blood from his face, so that he could see. Pacheco wished to leave him and go home for a litter, but Colonel Butts had still force enough left to cling to the saddle, and actually rode home in that condition. Six months after he was going about with a cane, but a wound from the bear's tooth had paralyzed the left side of his face; nor did the injured leg, so often broken, recover quite its natural solidity. Had not the bear been weakened with loss of blood, her last bite would have crushed the head of the hunter like an egg-shell." called to him to fire, his voice sounded clear and ringing, as if he were ordering a charge of cavalry. Of such stuff are hunters made." "Whose valor do you respect most-a Gérard's and a Butts's, or the courage of a bear?" "In beasts the body fights, in man the soul." A STRAY HOUSE. "HAVE you seen ary house going along here?" was shouted suddenly at me through the darkness by some one whom I could not see. But before I had enough recovered from my surprise to answer, a boat drove upon the wet turf at my feet, and the speaker, the headmost of two stalwart oarsmen, half-turning upon his seat, eagerly repeated his odd question. A house is not the most perambulating thing in the world, yet the inquiry was both natural and to the point; and not long before I had seen "ary house" go past, and in a most undignified and tumultuous hurry too. "I say, mister! Have you seen ary house go past here?" "John Barnard, is that you?" I answered, now first recognizing the voice. "Mr. Truax ?" cried he, excitedly, knowing me in turn. "Yes, Sir, and Liflet." That is, his brother, Eliphalet Barnard. "I did see one," I continued, answering his question. "You don't say the old house is off?" "Yes. For God's sake jump in, Mr. Truax!" I remembered the rapids and the bridge far below, my knowledge of the river and boatman's skill and strength, the imminent risks into which the sturdy but inexperienced brethren were about plunging; and stepping lightly past them to the stern, I seated myself, took a steering oar, and, without a further word, we glided backward, turned short about, and with powerful, steady pulls, the sharp skiff shot away through darkness, rain, howling wind, and boiling, roaring, muddy flood-water. While we drive down the stream, I may briefly explain the emergency. The Connecticut River, on which we were afloat, was swelled by a flood-terrific, sudden, and extensive beyond any recorded in memory or history. The house in which the Barnards lived had stood in "Did you ever talk with Pacheco about this the level meadow which reached back a little fight?" way from the Great River, as the neighbors call it, upon the banks of a small brook, entering the river in the town of Suffield, Hartford County, and near the Massachusetts line. Their father was dead; and they, together with their sister-who, however, had only recently returned from some years' absence as pupil or teacher at various schools-were managing the farm, and "No; but Antonio has questioned him. He reports that Butts did not seem larger than an infant beside his huge antagonist, and that, when the brute fell upon him, he disappeared; nothing was visible but a writhing mass of blood and hair, in the midst of which Pacheco could only see the rapid gleams of the knife." "What excuse does Pacheco give for not caring for their old and bedridden mother. Infiring?" "A very shrewd one; that, if he had fired again and wounded the bear, his master would have had no chance for life; and that Butts's determination to kill the bear, at all hazards, was the cause of his extreme suffering and danger. He reports that each time the Colonel deed, the bodily and mental infirmities of old Mrs. Barnard might well be counted as the cause of our night expedition; for, as the young men soon informed me, she had obstinately refused to leave the house in which she had been born, and where all her life had been passed. It was to please her that they had foregone their even to an emotion so unaffected and powerful as that under which he spoke; but I could not help a considerable additional feeling of fear, which increased as I considered the character of these Cases. They were thriftless, half-outlawed wretches, such as haunt many country towns in Connecticut-rustic "short-boys"-living by hunting, fishing, and miscellaneous thefts by land and river. Seth, the younger and more dangerous, I remembered well as a kind of ogre of my boy purpose of removing her the previous day. An- | ticipating some possible danger-though not the frightful peril actually now upon their mother and sister-they had loaded the lower floor of their old-fashioned farm-house with stone, and as the water had surrounded them in the night, and ent off all access except by boats, they had again endeavored to remove the old lady. But she would not hear of it, saying that her death was at hand, and that she could not die except there. Nor would Miss Barnard, her youngest and dearest child, leave her mother, and the stout farm-hood—a ragged, dirty, villainous youth, always ers were fain to yield. As the only remaining precaution, they had departed in their boat to obtain ropes from a neighbor wherewith to anchor the old building to the strong maples near its doors; and being detained much beyond their expectations, they had returned to find the house absolutely gone, and the flood still rising with fearful speed. Coasting along the cove above the point upon which I was standing, in hopes that the house might be embayed in it, they had found me. I had been there some time, for the tempest and the flood together were too sublime a scene to be lost; and even in the cold and utter darkness of the stormy March morning-for it was three o'clock-I was watching and enjoying; and, besides, I think I experienced some presentiment that my help would be needed. It was while upon this watch that I had seen the house-a dim, indefinite mass-glide swiftly past me, unrecognizable in the darkness, utterly silent, and presumably deserted. If I had supposed that it contained two helpless women I should hardly have remained there to study the sublime! Thus much I quickly learned of the case of the Barnards, and I endeavored to combat the unaccountable agitation which appeared in the voices of the strong farmers by counting the chances of a rescue. "It's full three miles to the bridge, and five to the Rapids; we must undoubtedly catch them above the bridge. Besides, the neighbors will hear them; I only wonder I did not." tormenting us, his cleaner fellows, and notorious for truancy and boyish wickedness. He had grown up into an evil and dangerous man; a long, lank, shambling, raw-boned fellow, with a small head, harsh features, deep-set dull eyes, a weather-beaten face, coarse straight hair, round shoulders, and a down look. Clad in dingy, ill-fitting gray garments, he and his brother prowled and prowled, seemingly all day and all night, in wood, on mountain, or in hidden meadow, on pond or stream, in sun or storm. They were always prowling, yet never seeming to have found any thing; and it was, perhaps, instinct more than proof, or the lack of other explanation, that charged upon them every theft and nameless mischief. They had been concerned in divers brawls, moreover, and were as little spoken to or dealt with as might be. This flood was such an occasion as was wont to be their harvest; and who could doubt that they had been out ever since the waters were up, catching timber and waifs-that they had espied the fugitive dwelling, explored it, and pocketed the money? What their treatment of the two women would be seemed more doubtful; for although the brutal, dogged villainy of the men was extreme, so that it could hardly be conceived that one of them should have admired the delicate beauty of Emily Barnard, both human nature and that very admiration justified the trust that the involuntary travelers would escape ill usage and be rescued. We had been half an hour afloat, driving headlong southward through impenetrable darkness and a roaring northeast storm of rain and wind. My thorough knowledge of the river had been useless; and it was only fortunate guessing that kept us in the current, under the double appre-impetus of the boiling flood and of the four strong arms of the brethren. "Twas rainin' and blowin' altogether too hard," said John, the elder of the brethren. "And, what's more, that's jest what's likely to be the wust on't. I don't like some neighbors." "What do you mean, John ?" I inquired, quite unable to comprehend the evident hension under which he spoke. "Them Cases live half a mile below us," he said; "they'll have the sarchin o' that house as sure as sunrise. There's three thousand dollars in my desk, but I don't care nothin' about that. I do'no as the man would do any thing wrong; but I tell ye, Squire, I do hate to have him any wheres near our Em. I wouldn't 'a mentioned it; you didn't know that Seth Case used to be round after her afore she went off. He come agin only t'other day, and I told him he might as well hunt after the moon. He went off dretful mad." It was only my knowledge of John Barnard's strong, steady good sense that gave any weight "We ought to see a light on Enfield Bridge," I said. "Heavens and earth!" groaned Eliphalet; "the house could never shoot the bridge with the water up here!" I was looking straight south, with straining eyes. Before I could answer, a vast black mass seemed to spring up within the abyss of the darkness before us. It was the Bridge. "Heads down!" I shouted; and, as our good fortune would have it we shot through like lightning, just touching a pier as we swept past. That touch, however, risked our lives, and caused the loss of two more by crippling our chase. It snapped the two starboard oars, which | if necessary. The house may not have shot the the rustic oarsmen had not unshipped, short off railroad bridge; and we may swamp on a pier. at the row-locks, and careened the crank skiff so Take the oars in when I tell you." that she shipped water on the other side. But a little more and our dangerous race would have ended under the black beams of the old tollbridge. We whirled helplessly through, and surged for a moment into the eddy behind a pier. "John, sit still. Hand your oar to Eliphalet. Lif, pull ashore; we must see the bridgekeeper, and get some oars." "Sure enough," said John; and, obeying my readier commands, we succeeded with considerable difficulty in reaching the shore and making fast at one side of the high embanked road. As we stepped into the carriage-way, the old bridge-keeper came from his door with several lanterns. "Good-morning, Mr. Hall," I said. "Do you know of any body's going down the river in the night?" The old man looked up at me in surprise, all haggard and worn, his hard features strangely lit up in the flickering unsteady gleam of his half dozen lights. "Why, Mr. Truax! I shouldn't 'a thought of findin' you here! How are ye, Mr. Barnard? Any body goin' down the river? Somethin' went down, and somebody along with it, I reckon. It waked me, I tell ye! It must have been a house; it was ten thousand chances agin it; but it must have struck plump in the middle of the long arch and went through as if the rotten old timbers had been twine string. I do'no how that break's a-goin' to be fixed; I've hung up those lights three times a'ready; they blow straight out." "Did you hear any one scream ?” "Yes, Sir. It was that woke me. But I couldn't see nothin' on 'em when I come out. They're ten mile off by this time; and there's the Rapids too." John Barnard groaned. "The Barnard's house is gone, Mr. Hall; and old Mrs. Barnard and Em in it. We're afraid those Cases are after it; and we just broke two oars in the bridge. Can you lend us a couple?" The old man would have stopped to wonder and question; but we very quickly got the oars, and unceremoniously dashed off to our boat again, sprang in, put off, and once more were speeding down the wild roaring river, faster and faster; for here the channel narrows, converging toward the contracted passage called, Enfield Rapids. As we approached the head of the shoot the dim roar of the struggling flood came threateningly back to us against the shrieking of the wind; I thought of the railroad bridge below; the chance was undoubtedly ten to one that we should get by; but we might not. We swept into the foaming waves of the western or main channel, for the river is here split by an island. "Sit steady, boys; and get ready to drown, At thirty miles an hour we went sweeping down the slant, and almost before I had done speaking the lofty bridge rose before us. "In oars!" and safe, thank God, we floated past it. "Now then, boys, pull. We must catch them above Hartford. We have no business to expect that the house will escape two bridges there, even if it has come through this." I would have exchanged places with one of the brothers; but they refused, saying that I knew the river best, and must steer; and for some time the long steady oar-strokes drove us swiftly on in silence and darkness. Now, a dim and hardly perceptible lifting of the close black curtains of the stormy night indicated the coming of the morning: slowly, slowly, the sphere of vision grew wider around us, through gray, cold mists steaming thinly upon the surface of the flood. We had passed the lower end of the canal and the village at Windsor Locks, and the mouth of Farmington River; and now I could see indistinctly, as we shot along, quite from point to point of the main stream. "There 'tis, boys!" For at last I saw the old roof wet into blackness, and all the upper story of the old white house, majestically sailing along far before us. The brothers turned and gazed eagerly upon it; and, with no words, but with glad faces, bent once more, unwearied, to their oars. "There's a boat fast to the north bedroom window," I said; "an old blue affair with a yellow streak. It's Seth Case's boat, for a thousand!" "And at mother's window!" added John, in a troubled voice. The darkness, or some other impediment, must have delayed them more than it had ourselves, or they would have departed before that. What the precise delay was, however, we never knew; it was the second link in the fatal chain which had begun with our accident and stoppage at Enfield Bridge; and it was none too long. For, as we rapidly neared the floating house, a wild scream rang from within. John Barnard's grave features grew white, and gathered and set into a fearful expression of vindictive anger, and, biting his lip until the blood sprang, yet with no sound except a sort of deep growl, he so lifted at the stout oars that I could almest swear that the two tremendous strokes which drove our bow hard against the clapboards lifted the skiff fairly from the water. As the last stroke was given John Barnard dropped the oars, turned, and saying to me, what was, doubtless, a wise direction, "Stay in the boat, Mr. Truax, and be ready for us," he cried out, "Come on, Liflet!" and springing past his brother to the bow, he caught the side of the window as the boat's stern struck the |