shammin'. An' when that ugly brute hauls off an' hits me agen, I
decides then an' there that there's no occasion to sham it. But just
as soon as I makes up my mind I'm dead, the bear leaves me; an' when I
can no longer hear him breathin', I peeps out of a tiny little hole,
and sees the big brute maulin' me old friend the Injun. Then I takes
another peep roun', an' don't see no escape 'cept by way o' them three
trees, so I just jumps up, an' lights out like greased lightnin' for
the nearest tree. After me comes the bear gallopin'. I guess that was
the quickest runnin' I ever done in all me life. I just managed to
climb into the lower branches o' the west pine as the bear struck the
trunk below me.

"When I stops for breath in the upper branches, I sees the old bear
canterin' back agen to have another go with me pardner.

"Just as soon as I was safe, the whole performance struck me as bein'
pretty funny, an' I couldn't help roarin' out and a-laffin' when I saw
the beast maulin' Old-pot-head's son, an' him tryin' for all he was
worth to play dead.

"Thinks I, I'll make me old friend laff. So I starts in to guy him,
an' he begins to snicker, an' that makes the bear mad, an' he begins to
roll the Injun. Then, you bet, I couldn't make him laff no more; for,
what with shammin' dead, an' bein' frightened to death into the
bargain, I don't think there was much laff left in him.

"You know how bears will act when they sometimes comes across a handy
log? Well, that's just what the beast was doin' with Old-pot-head's
son--it was rollin' him over an' over. The very next second it rolls
his feet into the fire. Down the tree I slid, like snow down a