One day there was a man, woman and their two children. They were getting ready to go to camp on the other side of the river from where they lived. When they got to the island on the other side of the river they unloaded their boat and put up the tent. Later in the evening they were all settled in their camp.

The next day the husband, John, went back to town to get his brother to help him build the smoke house. When they got lots of logs they went back to camp and started building the smoke house. A couple days later they were all done and John's brother Steve went back home. The next day John and one of his kids, Michael, went out fishing to cut dryfish and strips. When they got back to camp the wife, Mary, and her daughter, Donna started cutting the fish and hung them up on the pole lines. A couple of weeks later when the dryfish and strips were half done they started to smell really good.

One day when Mary was putting some of the dryfish away, she saw a bear swimming towards them. She called John and her two kids. They came over to her in the smoke house and asked what was wrong. She told them that there was a bear coming towards them. John looked at the river and saw the bear swimming across. He ran to their tent and grabbed his rifle. After he loaded his gun he shot close to the bear in the river. The bear turned around and headed back for awhile towards the other side of the river.

The bear stayed on the other side, but in the evening he again came back to their side to get food. At the time John was getting trees for the smoke house and Donna and her kids were in the tent cleaning up. When John brought the wood to the smoke house he saw the bear close by the land. He ran to their tent and howled, "There's a bear!" Everyone ran out of the tent while John went and got his rifle and put a couple of shells in the gun. When he shot the first time he missed, but the second try he shot the bear in the shoulder. But the bear was still coming! He reloaded his gun and shot again. This time he shot the bear in the head and it died! John and Donna went to check it. John shot it again to make sure it was dead. Then they brought it back to camp and skinned It. After it was skinned, John hung the fur up to dry. After it was dry they brought it home and used it as a rug.

The End

Theresa George