up an' torn down that I'd blush every time I'd ketch the bear lookin'
at me. An' every time we ran 'long the groun' from one tree to
another, me an' me pardner had to use both hands on our garments in
order to keep up our--er--respectability. However, the bear didn't
have the laff on us altogether, for he had gone up an' down them trees
so often an' so fast that he had worn all the hair off his stomach.

"After a while we all gets tuckered out agen; an' while we rests in the
trees me an' me pardner talks about the weather, lettin' on that there
ain't no bear anywheres nigh. So the time passed. As we didn't
recollect just how much grub we had at the start, or how much water
there was in the pool first off, we couldn't for the life of us reckon
just how long we'd been there. Neither me nor Old-pot-head's son would
care to take our oaths whether we'd been there a night an' half a day,
or half a dozen nights an' days; the night time an' the day time was so
mixed up together that we hadn't time to separate 'em. We were sure,
tho', that our grub was givin' out, the water was dryin' up, an' death
was gettin' good an' ready for us.

"We was in such a terrible tight place that I begins to think o' takin'
off me shirt an' flyin' it from the top o' the tallest pine as a signal
o' distress; for we was worse off than if we'd been shipwrecked. Talk
about bein' cast adrift on a raft! Why, it wasn't in it with bein'
fixed the way we was. We just stayed in one spot with no chance of
ever driftin' to'rds help. As long as the bear kept tab on us there
wasn't no sign of our ever gettin' a wink o' sleep. And more, besides
starvin' to death, we had to face bein' frozen; for our clothes was all
wore off, an' winter was comin' on mighty fast.

"At last, when me an' Old-pot-head's son had about given up hope, an'