Harold Farley, of Bingham, Maine, is willing to take oath, “on a stack of Bibles,” that the man who says bears will not attack human beings are nature fakers of the worst sort. Harold was attacked by a bear one night and had to burn his shirt and nearly everything else he had on at the same to save himself from the critter’s quick lunch counter.
As the hero of this astounding yarn tells it, he was on his way to Preble & Robinson’s logging camp No. 4 in the Deadwater region, eight miles above Bingham, where he is employed as a chopper. He had been home for a change of underwear and had started at dusk for the eight-mile tramp through the woods to camp, carrying a lantern to cheer and light his way.
When within half a mile of camp Farley stumbled into a birch top that had fallen across his path, and as he stumbled in an immense bear stumbled out—a sort of superdreadnought bear—which gave one growl and one swipe, scaring Farley and putting his lantern out. Two more “woof, woof” remarks from the bear and Farley lit out for the nearest tree, up which he went with speed and agility that astonished both himself and the bear.
Now comes the brand-new and red-hot part of the story—good for moving pictures. Farley had climbed high, but the bear seemed bound to get him, and there wasn’t even time for prayers. There was time, however, for Farley’s wits, sharpened by peril, to get busy, and he thought of an old hunter’s remark that bears can’t
