"That was a mighty clever move, thinks I, but a bag is an orkad thing
to portage when you're meanderin' up an' down a tree with a bear after
you. But the tump-line was on it, just as we carried it the day
before, so it wasn't as bad as it might 'a' been.

"Well, when I went up the east pine, the bear follered, an', as there
wasn't any too much room between me an' the bear, I crosses over into
the birch an' slides down its slippery trunk as tho' it was greased. I
hits the ground a little harder than I wanted to, but didn't waste no
time in lightin' out for the west pine, where the Injun was restin';
an' all the time the bear was tryin' to grab me coat-tails.

"It was just a case of up to the west pine, cross over and down the
birch; then up the east pine, cross over an' down the birch; then up
the west pine, cross over an' down the birch, till we got so dizzy we
could a hardly keep from fallin'. If you could just 'a' seen the way
we tore roun' through them trees, I'll bet you would 'a' done a heap o'
laffin'.

"The bear was mighty spry in goin' up, but when it came to goin' down
he'd just do the drop-an'-clutch, drop-an'-clutch act. That's just
where me an' me pardner had the advantage on the brute; for we just
swung our arms an' legs roun' that birch an' did the drop act, too;
but, somehow, we hadn't time to do the clutch, so our coat-tails got
badly crushed every time we landed.

"It was a kind of go-as-you-please until about the tenth roun', when I
accidentally drops the mail-bag on the bear's head, an' that makes him
boilin' mad; so he lights out after us as tho' he had swallered a