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“What an infernal lie!” growled Daniel.

“'Have my doubts;” suggested the somnolent Peter Probasco,
with all the solemnity of a man who knows his situation;
at the same time shaking his head and spilling his
liquor.

“Ha! ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha!” roared all the rest of the
boys together.

“Is he done?” asked Raynor Rock.

“How many shirks was there?” cried Long John, putting
in his unusual lingual oar.

“That story puts me in mind,” said Venus Raynor, “about
what I've heerd tell on Ebenezer Smith, at the time he went
down to the north pole on a walen' voyage.”

“Now look out for a screamer,” laughed out Raynor Rock,
refilling his pipe. “Stand by, Mr. Cypress, to let the sheet
go.”

“Is there any thing uncommon about that yarn, Venus?”

“Oncommon! well, I expect it's putty smart and uncommon
for a man to go to sea with a bear, all alone, on a bare
cake of ice. Captain Smith's woman used to say she couldn't
bear to think on't.”

“Tell us the whole of that, Venus,” said Ned;—“that is, if
it is true. Mine was—the whole of it,—although Peter has
his doubts.”

“I can't tell it as well as Zoph can, but I've no 'jections to
tell it my way, no how. So, here goes—that's great brandy,
Mr. Cypress.” There was a gurgling sound of “something-to-take,”
running.

[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]

“Well, they was down into Baffin's Bay, or some other o'
them cold Norwegen bays at the North, where the rain
freezes as it comes down, and stands up in the air, on winter
mornens, like great mountens o' ice, all in streaks. Well, the
schooner was layen at anchor, and all the hands was out into
the small boats, looken for wales;—all except the capting,
who said he wan't very well that day. Well, he was walken
up and down, on deck, smoken and thinken, I expect, mostly,
when all on a sudden he reckoned he see one o' them big
white bears—polar bears, you know—big as thunder—with
long teeth. He reckoned he see one on 'em sclumpen along
on a great cake o' ice, they lay on the leeward side of the bay,
up again the bank. The old cap. wanted to kill one o' them
varmints most wonderful, but he never lucked to get a chance.
Now tho', he thought, the time had come for him to walk into
one on 'em at least, and fix his mutton for him right. So
he run forrad and lay hold onto a small skiff, that was layen
near the forc'stal, and run her out, and launched her. Then
he tuk a drink, and—here's luck—and put in a stiff load of
powder, a couple of balls, and jumped in, and pulled away for
the ice.

“It wa'n't long fore he got 'cross the bay, for it was a
narrer piece o' water—not more than haaf a mile wide—and
then he got out on to the ice. It was a smart and large
cake, and the bear was 'way down to the tother end on't, by
the edge o' the water. So, he walked first strut along, and
then when he got putty cloast he walked 'round catecornedlike—
like's if he was driven for a plain plover—so that the
bear wouldn't think he was comin arter him, and he dragged
himself along on his hands and knees low down, mostly.
Well, the bear did'nt seem to mind him none, and he got up
within 'bout fifty yards on him, and then he looked so savage

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and big,—the bear did,—that the captin stopped, and rested
on his knees, and put up his gun, and he was a goin to shoot.
But just then the bear turned round and snuffed up the captin,—
just as one of Lif's hounds snuffs up an old buck, Mr.
Cypress,—and begun to walk towards him, slowly like. He
come along, the captin said, clump, clump, very slow, and
made the ice bend and crack agin under him, so that the
water come up and putty much kivered it all over. Well,
there the captin was all the time squat on his knees, with
his gun pinted, waiten for the varment to come up, and his
knees and legs was most mighty cold by means of the water,
that the bear riz on the ice as I was mentionen. At last the
bear seemed to make up his mind to see how the captin
would taste, and so he left off walken slow, and started off on
a smart and swift trot, right towards the old man, with his
mouth wide open, roaren, and his tail sticken out stiff. The
captin kept still, looken out all the time putty sharp, I should
say, till the beast got within about ten yards on him, and then
he let him have it. He aimed right at the fleshy part of his
heart, but the bear dodged at the flash, and rared up, and the
balls went into his two hind legs, jist by the jynt, one into
each, and broke the thigh bones smack off, so that he went
right down aft, on the ice, thump, on his hind quarters,
with nothen standen but his fore legs and his head ris up, a
growlen at the captin. When the old man see him down,
and tryen to slide along the ice to get his revenge, likely,
thinks he to himself, thinks he, I might as well get up and
go and cut that ere creter's throat. So he tuk out his knife
and opened it. But when he started to get up, he found to
his extonishment, that he was fruz fast to the ice. Don't
laugh; it's a fact; there an't no doubt. The water, you
see, had been round him, a smart and long while, whilst he

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was waiten for the bear, and it's wonderful cold in them regions,
as I was sayen, and you'll freeze in a minit if you don't
keep moven about smartly. So the captin he strained first
one leg, and then he strained tother, but he couldn't move
'em none. They was both fruz fast into the ice, about an inch
and a half deep, from knee to toe, tight as a Jarsey eyster
perryauger on a mud flat at low water. So he laid down his
gun, and looked at the bear, and doubled up his fists. `Come
on, you bloody varmint,' says the old man, as the bear swalloped
along on his hinder eend, comen at him. He kept getten
weaker, tho', and comen slower and slower all the time, so
that, at last, be didn't seem to move none; and directly, when
he'd got so near that the captin could jest give him a dig in
the nose by reachen forrard putty smart and far, the captin
see that the beast was fruz fast too, nor he couldn't move a
step further forrard no ways. Then the captin burst out a
laughen, and clapped his hands down on to his thighs, and
roared. The bear seemed to be most onmighty mad at the
old man's fun, and set up such a growlen that what should
come to pass, but the ice cracks, and breaks all around the
captin and the bear, down to the water's edge, and the wind
jist then a shiften, and comen off shore, away they floated on
a cake of ice about ten by six, off to sea, without the darned
a biscuit, or a quart o' liquor to stand 'em on the cruise!
There they sot, the bear and the captin, jest so near that
when they both reached forrads, they could jest about touch
noses, and nother one not able to move any part on him, only
excepten his upper part and fore paws.”

“By jolly! that was rather a critical predicament, Venus,”
cried Ned, buttoning his coat. “I should have thought that
the captain's nose and ears and hands would have been frozen
too.”

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“That's quite naytr'l to suppose, sir, but you see the bear
kept him warm in the upper parts, by bein so cloast to him,
and breathen hard and hot on the old man whenever he
growled at him. Them polar bears is wonderful hardy animals,
and has a monstrous deal o' heat in 'em, by means of
their bein able to stand such cold climates, I expect. And
so the captin knowed this, and whenever he felt chilly, he
jest tuk his ramrod, and stirred up the old rascal, and made
him roar and squeal, and then the hot breath would come
pouren out all over the captin, and made the air quite moderut
and pleasant.”

“Well, go on, Venus. Take another horn first.”

“Well, there a'nt much more on't. Off they went to sea,
and sometimes the wind druv 'em nothe, and then agin it druv
'em southe, but they went southe mostly; and so it went on,
until they were out about three weeks. So at last one afternoon.”—

“But, Venus, stop; tell us in the name of wonder, how did
the captain contrive to support life all this time?”

“Why, sir, to be sure, it was a hard kind o' life to support,
but a hardy man will get used to almost”—

“No, no; what did he eat? what did he feed on?”

“O—O—I'd liked to've skipped that ere.—Why sir, I've
heerd different accounts as to that. Uncle Obe Verity told
me he reckoned the captin cut off one of the bear's paws,
when he lay stretched out asleep, one day, with his jack-knife,
and sucked that for fodder, and they say there's a smart
deal 'o nourishment in a white bear's foot. But if I may be
allowed to spend my 'pinion, I should say my old man's account
is the rightest, and that's—what's as follows. You see
after they'd been out three days abouts, they begun to grow
kind o'hungry, and then they got friendly, for misery loves

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company, you know; and the captin said the bear looked at him
several times, very sorrowful, as much as to say, `captin
what the devil shall we do?' Well one day they was sitten,
looken at each other, with the tears ready to burst out o' their
eyes, when all of a hurry, something come floppen up out o' the
water onto the ice. The captin looked and see it was a seal.
The bear's eyes kindled up as he looked at it, and then,
the captin said he giv him a wink to keep still. So there
they sot, still as starch, till the seal not thinken nothen o' them
no more nor if they were dead, walked right up between 'em.
Then slump! went down old whitey's nails, into the fishes flesh,
and the captin run his jack-knife into the tender loin. The
seal soon got his bitters, and the captin cut a big hunk off the
tail eend, and put it behind him, out o' the bear's reach, and
then he felt smart and comfortable, for he had stores enough
for a long cruise, though the bear couldn't say so much for
himself.

Well, the bear, by course, soon ran out o' provisions, and
had to put himself onto short allowance; and then he begun
to show his naytural temper. He first stretched himself out as
far as he could go, and tried to hook the captin's piece o' seal,
but when he found he could'nt reach that, he begun to blow
and yell. Then he'd rare up and roar, and try to get himself
clear from the ice. But mostly he rared up and roared,
and pounded his big paws and head upon the ice, till bye and
bye, (jest as the captin said he expected,) the ice cracked in
two agin, and split right through between the bear and the
captin, and there they was on two different pieces o' ice, the
captin and the bear! The old man said he raaly felt sorry
at parten company, and when the cake split and separate, he
cut off about a haaf o' pound o' seal and chucked it to the
bear. But either because it wa'nt enough for him, or else on

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account o' his feelen bad at the captin's goen, the beast
would'nt touch it to eat it, and he laid it down, and growled
and moaned over it quite pitiful. Well, off they went, one
one way, and tother 'nother way, both feel'n pretty bad, I expect.
After a while the captin got smart and cold, and felt
mighty lonesome, and he said he raaly thought he'd a gi'n in
and died, if they had'nt pick'd him up that arternoon.”

“Who picked him up, Venus?”

“Who? a codfish craft off o' Newfoundland, I expect.
They did'nt know what to make o' him when they first see
him slingen up his hat for 'em. But they got out all their
boats, and took a small swivel and a couple o' muskets a board
and started off—expeoten it was the sea-sarpent, or an old
maremaid. They would'nt believe it was a man, until he'd
told 'em all about it, and then they did'nt hardly believe it
nuther, and they cut him out o' the ice and tuk him aboard
their vessel, and rubbed his legs with ile o' vitrol; but it was
a long time afore they come to.”

“Did'nt they hurt him badly in cutting him out, Venus?”

“No sir, I believe not; not so bad as one might s'pose;
for you see he'd been stuck in so long, that the circulaten on
his blood had kind o' rotted the ice that was right next to him,
and when they begun to cut, it crack'd off pretty smart and
easy, and he come out whole like a hard biled egg.”

“What became of the bear?”

“Ca'nt say as to that, what became o' him. He went off
to sea somewheres, I expect. I should like to know, myself,
how the varment got along, right well, for it was kind in him
to let the captin have the biggest haaf o' the seal, any how.
That's all boys. How many's asleep?”

p138-073

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