When I got to the top ov the bluff the first…

chunk 836 · paragraph 926

back the two cubs come rushin’ by. I didn’t have a thing to defend myself with ’cept a pocket knife. But the old one didn’t care to tackle me. I felt considerably better when she and her two cubs passed on. I went down an’ got my drink, thinkin’ no more erbout the bears. When I got to the top ov the bluff the first thing I met was the old bear and her two cubs. My pony had strayed off 100 yards, an’ there I was with nothin’ to fight with, and the bear between me an’ my pony. As soon as I reached the top of the bluff the old bear made for me. The pony had laid down to waller, an’ had shaken off my lasso rope. Quicker’n I can tell it I grabbed the rope an’ started, the old bear after me. I knowed very well she’d soon catch me, an’ so I thought I’d try an’ outwit her. Ten feet from the edge of the cliff I noticed a small juniper tree. Running straight to the tree I tied one end of the rope ’round it, an’ then I let myself over the brink of the cliff. I was just in time to save my carcass. But I was in a ter- rible shape. The rope wouldn’t reach to the bottom of the precipice by forty feet, an’ to let all holds go an’ drop to the bottom was sure death. I reckon I must have hung there nearly an hour before I began to give under that my time had come at last. I couldn’t have held out near so long if it hadn’t been for a little hole in the rocks where I could stick my toes an’ rest my hands. I could hear the old bear and her subs sniffin’ round above me, but I