Now, if this bear had
been human, and we were accused of killing him, I would be regarded
in the eye of the law as equally guilty with you. I appeal to Spalding
if this is not so?"
"H----is right," replied Spalding, as he sent a column of smoke
wreathing upward from his lips. "Such is the law."
"We must buy this fellow off, Smith," said the Doctor, "we must buy
him off. He's an old hunter, known as such, and he'll take to himself
all the glory; and what is worse, the world will believe him. He'll
spread himself beyond all bounds. He'll shine beyond endurance upon
the strength of this bear. We must buy him off. It is against all
conscience, but there is no help for it. We must buy him off. There's
an impudence in this claim which reminds me of an anecdote related
by Noah."
"By Noah?" asked Smith, interrupting him, "Noah who?"
"What ignorance there is in this world, even in these days of
educational enlightenment!" remarked the Doctor to Spalding and
myself. "Now, here is a decently informed gentleman, claiming to be a
Christian man, to have studied the Bible, and don't know who Noah was.
Such an instance of human ignorance in these times, is shocking."
"Oh! I understand now," said Smith, "he was the gentleman who built
the ark. Well, go on with your anecdote."
"Well, as I was saying," the Doctor resumed, "this claim of H----'s
to a share of the glory of slaying the bear, reminds me of an
anecdote related by Noah soon after the subsidence of the flood, and
it shows that impudence is, at least, not post-deluvian in its origin.
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