<TITLE>13. Par 44-47</TITLE>L-44 And then I was way up there with this woman, girl, twenty-two years old and I was thirty. And so we was up there. And Billy Paul, then was about six years old I guess, about his first year in school. Well, the little fellow was very small for his age and so she was taking care of him. And the ranger wasn't there.
It looked like kind of looked like it might come a storm, so I said, "Honey, before the ranger comes, and we're going to hunt bear. I'm going to slip down along some of these old choppings. A few years ago they chopped out some timber in here." And I said, "I'll--I'll go over here and I'll get us a deer and come back and we'll have some fresh venison."
And she said, "Well, don't be gone too long." Said, "I'll have your dinner ready."
And I said, "All right." And that night it'd been awful cold. We just had to put Billy right between us and hold him like that to keep from freezing. She'd never been in the woods before, and didn't know much about it, and she liked to froze sure enough, sleeping on pine needles.

L-45 So we went out the next day, and I took my little old rifle and walked down this way. Well, I thought I was too good of woodsman to ever get lost. So I--I'd been in the woods all my life. And, "Now you couldn't turn me around," I said. So I went down this way to the little choppings, turned back, seen a lot of deer tracks. They looked like they was all sharped toed and so forth being does. So I went on up over the mountain up this way.
I heard something moving in the bushes. I listened close. And I heard it had four feet moving, but it wasn't a hoof. It was a padded foot. I thought, "Wonder what that could be?" It was pretty dark, right in a bunch of evergreens. And I happened to look. And a--a lion crossed the path like that. And he was too quick. I didn't get a shot at him. I thought, "Well, I'll just slip on up this way and come down along the other side. And I'll be in below Hurricane Mountain all the time." And I said, "Then I can always look back to the tower, 'cause looked like it might come a storm pretty soon."

L-46 So I--I went on, and on, and on, this way. I thought I kept whiffing a--a bear somewhere, and I kept smelling for him. And I thought, "He's near here somewhere. He's probably staying ahead of me." So I kept walking on like that and watching the ground. And a person that ever hunted just don't walk through the woods with a gun on your shoulder. You watch the disturbance of the leaves and oh, there's lots of things to watch.
And so, and watching along close, not paying no attention to where I was going. I come up on a hill, turned down this way to the left. I thought, "Well, I'm just going right down a little ravine here," a lot of jagged places like that.

L-47 And I got down and slipping along real easy. I thought, "That bear's not far from here." And I found a big old cave. I slipped up over this cave to keep from coming right up to it, see if the bear was sleeping. So I come around this way, and there was an old empty cave. There was nothing in it. I thought, "Well, he's been there."
So I slipped back down the hill and went around again, come back. I seen some bushes across the canyon move. I watched it of course, 'cause a lot of time bears, ant eat. They love ants because it's sweet. They throw their paws on it and pick them up on it, then lick their claw.
So I watched close. There was a great big deer come out. And I thought, "Well, my. I'm a long way from home, but that's just the one I want." So I'd shoot the deer. I went around. I thought, "Well, now, I tell you what I'll do. I'll slip right back." I said, "Looky here. It's after one o'clock. Why," said, "she'll--she'll be waiting for me."


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