tllV 61a&aifp Shrul Bf le Saaao

Age not guarantccd---Somc I hwe told for 20 ycarc---Some Lcrr A Colored Ananias

He was the Baron Munchausen of the colored quarters, and, with a goodly crowd of listeners he was telling one of his best. He was out in the big thicket, he said, when a huge black bear took after him. Spying a big pine tree a hundred yards away, he ran for it, with the bear in close pursuit. He got to the tree and was about six feet up the stump and climbing fast, and the bear was not more than twenty feet away, when his blood ran cold, for there on the other side of the tree and rushing at him with widespread jaws was a huge wildcat-as big as a big dog. The bear sprang at him from one side, just as the wildcat made his leap from the opposite direction. So he let go his hold on the tree and dropped down suddenly, and the bear and the huge wildcat met head-on right there on the tree trunk about ten feet from the ground; met there and went to fighting furiously, forgetting all about our hero. He continued his story:

"Yessuh, dat big bar an' dat e-nor.mus wile-cat dey jes' went t' fightiri'. Fit right on up de tree ! Sho did ! Went on up de tree jes bitin' an' clawin' an' growlin'. Went up inta de branches ! Kep' right on fightin' ! Nevah heed sich a noise in all mah bawn days ! Went on up twill Ah couldn't see 'em no mo' ! Went right on up de tree, an' whut you think? f nevah seed no sign of 'em nevah no mo'!"

"What?" demanded one of his listeners. "You mean t' tell me dat dem animiles fit up inta dat tree an' nevah wuz seen ergin?"

"Das jus' eggsackly whut Ah mean t' say," said the story teller. "BUT DE FUR FELL FO' THREE DAYS !"