"Ain't the black bear a comic chap when he tries to be.

I declare I hev a real feller feelin' fur him.

I couldn't ever feel that way toward a panther.

They always look mean an' they always are mean, but I could hobnob right along with a jolly, fat black bear." "Yes," said Paul, looking dreamily far into the future.

"It's a pity they have to go." "Hev to go, what do you mean, Paul ?" interrupted Long Jim Hart, as he cracked a joint or two.
"Why," replied Paul, "all this country will be settled up some day, and how can bears and panthers and buffaloes roam wild on farms ?" Long Jim looked at him with eyes slowly widening in wonder.
"Paul," he exclaimed, "you do say the beatinest things sometimes! Now what do you mean by sayin' that all this country will be settled up?
Why, thar ain't enough people in the world fur that, an' thar won't never be." "Yes there will be, Jim," said Paul decisively, "although it will not occur in your time." "Not if I lived to be a hundred years old, Paul, or mebbe a hundred an' twenty, 'cause I'm a pow'ful healthy man ?" "No, not if you lived to be a hundred and twenty." Long Jim heaved a deep sigh of relief--he had the true soul of the woodsman.
"That's mighty relievin' an' soothin'," he said.