BEAR AND FORBEAR;

OR, THE

YOUNG SKIPPER OF LAKE UCAYGA.

BY

OLIVER OPTIC,

Author of “Army and Navy Stories,” “Great Western Series,” “Onward and Upward Stories,” “Woodville Stories,” Famous “Boat-Club Series,” “The Starry-Flag Series,” “Young America Abroad,” “Lake Shore Series,” “Riverdale Story-Book,” “Yacht-Club Series,” and “The Boat-Builder Series.”

BOSTON:

LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.

NEW YORK:

CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.

[2]

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

WILLIAM T. ADAMS,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ELECTROTYPED AT THE

BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,

No. 19 Spring Lane.

[3]

TO

HELEN HAMLIN, FRANK HAMLIN, JARVIS L. CARTER, EDWARD STETSON, CHARLIE HAMLIN, ISAIAH STETSON, ADDIE HAMLIN, MARY STETSON,

AND “A THOUSAND AND ONE OTHER BOYS AND GIRLS” OF THE CITY OF BANGOR, WHO SENT ME A BLACK BEAR, IN TOKEN OF THEIR LOVE AND ESTEEM, ADMONISHING ME NOT TO EAT HIM, BUT TO INSTRUCT AND TO PRESERVE HIM FROM THE EVILS OF THIS WICKED WORLD,

This Book

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

Though I did not eat him, nor any part thereof, and his life was too short to permit him to profit by any instruction I might have been able to give him, yet he is preserved from “the evils of this wicked world” at the rooms of the Society of Natural History, and I hope my readers will profit by the story he suggested. O. O.

[4]

THE LAKE SHORE SERIES.

[5]

PREFACE.

“Bear and Forbear” is the sixth and last of the Lake Shore Series, and was one of the serials which appeared in Oliver Optic’s Magazine. The story itself is complete, and independent of its predecessors, though the characters that have been prominent in the other volumes of the series are again presented, to be finally dealt with according to their several deserts. The writer has endeavored to show that fidelity to duty prospers even in this world, and that evil doing brings pain and misery; and if he has awarded “poetical justice” to each, it will only make the contrast the more evident.

The author has endeavored to make a proper use of the Christian precept which forms the principal title; and he trusts that his readers, both young and old, will be able to deduce the moral from the story, and, profiting by it, be enabled to avoid such disagreeable ruptures as that which threatened the peace of the two communities in the story, but which the “two bears” happily prevented.

[6]

In closing this series, the author desires once more to thank his juvenile and his adult friends for the kind consideration they have always extended to him, and for the increasing favor bestowed upon his efforts to please and to instruct.

Harrison Square, Boston.

June 1, 1870.

[7]

CONTENTS.

[8]

[9]

[11]

BEAR AND FORBEAR;

OR,

THE YOUNG SKIPPER OF LAKE UCAYGA.

CHAPTER I. ON BOARD THE BELLE.

“Wolf, I am about ready to buy this boat, if you are about ready to sell it,” said Tom Walton, as we were sailing up the lake in the Belle.

“I’m quite ready to sell it to you, Tom,” I replied.

“You ought to own her by this time, Tom,” added Waddie Wimpleton, who was one of the party.

We were going up the lake to have a good time; in other words, it was vacation with me. When Tom Walton spoke, I was thinking of the events [12] of the past, as the sail-boat glided swiftly over the clear waters of Lake Ucayga. I was the general agent of the Union Line, which now included the Lake Shore Railroad and the Ucayga Steamboat. The two millionnaires, who had fixed their residences on opposite sides of the lake, at the Narrows, where it is only one mile wide, had been the most bitter enemies for years, taking up the hatchet after a long period of the most intimate and friendly relations. Major Toppleton had built the Lake Shore Railroad as a plaything for the students of the Institute established on his side of the lake, in order to give them a thorough and practical knowledge of railway business. The idea had grown on his hands till the road had become a very important channel of travel. Buying up the stock of the old steamers on the lake, he had obtained the control of them, and ran them in connection with the railroad. This movement gave Middleport, on the

major’s side of the lake, a very great advantage over Centreport, where Colonel Wimpleton resided.

Then the two great men became rivals for the business of the lake; and the colonel built a large [13] and splendid steamer, to run in opposition to the railroad, which, by its great speed and elegant accommodations, had carried the day against the railroad. The students of the Wimpleton Institute were formed into a company, and nominally managed the affairs of the steamer, thus obtaining an insight into the method of conducting business in stock companies. I had been a kind of shuttlecock between the rival magnates, and had been successively employed and discharged by each. The war between the two sides of the lake had extended to the families of the principal parties, and the inhabitants of the large towns in which they lived. The two sons of the great men had been particularly hostile; but, having mended their ways, and, from vicious, overbearing, tyrannical young men, becoming kind, gentle, and noble, they buried the hatchet, and their relations were pleasant and friendly. By their indirect efforts, with some help from me, the feud between

the fathers had been healed, and they were now warm personal friends. The railroad and steamboat lines had been united, and were now running in connection with each other.

[14]

I am not disposed to say much about my own agency in bringing about this happy state of things, though I had labored patiently and persistently for years to accomplish the result. I was happy in the achievement, and not inclined to apportion the credit of it among those who had brought it about, except to award a very large share of it to the sons of the two magnates. The two lines had been running in connection about two months. As the general superintendent of the united line, I had gone over the entire route daily until everything worked to my own satisfaction, as well as to that of the traveling public. As captain of the steamer, I had been constantly employed all winter, and I felt disposed to play a few days. It was vacation at both the Institutes, and Tommy Toppleton had gone to one of the great watering-places with his father and mother, though the time fixed for their return had arrived. Waddie Wimpleton had accepted an invitation to spend a few days on a cruise with me up the lake. We intended to live on board of the Belle, and spend the time in fishing, sailing, and

rambling through the wild region.

[15]

I had bought the Belle at auction, at a time when I was out of employment, having been discharged by Major Toppleton from my situation as engineer on the Lake Shore Railroad. She had cost me a very small sum, compared with her value, and I intended to make my living by taking out parties in her. But, as I was very soon appointed to the command of the steamer, I employed Tom Walton to run her for me; and he paid me a portion of the receipts. He had done well for himself, and well for me, in her. Tom was a very honest, industrious, and capable fellow, and supported his mother and the rest of the family by his labor. I had told him I would sell the Belle to him at a fair price, any time when he wished to buy her. I had been rather surprised that he did not avail himself of this offer, for my share of the earnings of the boat had already paid me double the amount she had cost me.

“I think of going into the general navigation business,” said Tom, with one of his good-natured laughs; “and if I can buy her, I will do so.”

“You can, Tom,” I replied.

“My mother has been sick a good deal for the [16] last two years, and it took about all I could make to take care of the family, or I should have bought her before.”

“I’ll trust you, Tom,” I added.

“I don’t want anybody to trust me, except to keep the folks from starving. I didn’t mean to buy that boat till I had money enough to pay for her. I’ve got a little ahead now.”

“How much have you, Tom?” I asked.

“I haven’t enough to bust the Middleport Bank yet. You’ve used me first rate, Wolf, and I don’t mean to cheat you on this boat. After all, whether I buy her or not rather depends on what you ask for her.”

“You shall have her for what she will bring at auction.”

“What will she bring at auction?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t think I can buy her, then, for I know a man in town who will start the bidding at one hundred and fifty.”

“Do you? Well, I had no idea any one would give that for her,” I replied.

[17]

I saw that Tom was troubled, though he still kept his face alive with his usual smile. I would have given him the boat at once, only the offer to do so would wound his pride and hurt his feelings, for, poor as he was, he had the instincts of a gentleman.

“I shall make money by buying the boat, Wolf, and I want her badly, but not enough to run in debt for her,” added he.

“Suppose we do as Major Toppleton and Colonel Wimpleton did on the steamers.”

“What’s that?”

“Mark.”

“I’m willing to mark; but I’m afraid I can’t hit your figures, Wolf, for the Belle is a valuable piece of property. I ought to know that, if no one else does.”

“You write what you are willing to give, and I will write what I am willing to take. If my figures are lower than yours, they shall be the price of the boat, and the trade is completed.”

“Your figures?”

“Yes.”

[18]

“Why not my figures, if they are higher than yours?”

“If you give all I ask, that’s enough. If my figures are higher than yours, we will split the difference,” I continued, handing him a pencil and paper.

“That’s fair, so far as I am concerned; but don’t you cheat yourself, Wolf,” replied Tom, taking the paper and making his figures upon it, after considerable hesitation.

“You needn’t worry about me, my dear fellow. Give your figures to Waddie. He shall stand between us,” I added, as I wrote my own valuation, and handed it to him.

“There is considerable difference in your estimates,” laughed Waddie. “What am I to do?—split the difference?”

“Not unless my figures are higher than Tom’s.”

“They are not, Wolf. Tom’s are a mile and a half higher than yours.”

“Then the boat is sold at my price,” I added.

“Cheap enough!” exclaimed Waddie.

“What are the figures?” asked Tom.

“You marked one hundred and fifty dollars, Tom, and Wolf marked fifty dollars. So the Belle is sold.”

[19]

“So am I,” said the skipper.

“Are you not satisfied?”

“No; I feel just as though I had been overreached. See here, Wolf Penniman; I didn’t mean to have you give me this boat.”

“I haven’t given her to you.”

“I supposed you would ask three or four hundred dollars for her.”

“I am satisfied, Tom. I have made money out of her, and now I get back all she cost me.”

“But don’t you think it’s an insult to the Belle to sell her for fifty dollars?” laughed Tom.

“If she does not complain, you need not.”

“Wolf, I don’t feel exactly right about it. I have a kind of an idea that you have taken pity on me, for a poor, miserable fellow as I am, and given me the boat.”

“No such thing, Tom!” I protested.

“Didn’t I say there was a man in town that would bid a hundred and fifty dollars on her if she was put up at auction?”

“I don’t know him, Tom; and I’m afraid he would not use her kindly. The Belle is yours.”

[20]

“I can afford to give you a hundred for her without busting the Middleport Bank. Don’t you think I’d better do it?”

“Certainly not, Tom. A trade is a trade.”

“But I feel just as though I had stolen her.”

“Don’t feel so, my dear fellow. I will give you a bill of sale when I can get something to write it with. It’s all right now, Tom. ‘Be virtuous and you will be happy,’ and your boat will sail all the faster for it.”

“I am happy, Wolf I have saved up about one hundred and fifty dollars. I thought that would almost buy the Belle. Now I’m just a hundred in. I’m going into the general navigation business, and I want some more boats, to let, and I’m lucky enough to have the capital to invest in them. I shall buy some row-boats, for there are lots of people that want to hire them.”

“I have no doubt you will do a good business letting boats, Tom. Rowing is a great art, and a healthy one. But have good boats. Don’t buy poor ones because they are cheap.”

“Not I, Wolf; my boats shall be first chop, ‘A, [21] No. 1, prime.’ But I suppose you gentlemen want some dinner—don’t you?”

“We do want some dinner, Tom,” I replied. “I make a business of attending to that matter every day.”

“Exactly so, Wolf. That’s just what you thought the last time you thought so.”

“Eating dinner I have always found to be a healthy amusement, and I intend to follow it up as long as I live, and can get any dinner to eat,” I replied.

“You will always get it, Wolf, for you are a rich man now; and you will die worth a million, if you don’t die before you have a million. Now, if you will take the helm, you shall have a beefsteak and some baked potatoes, first chop, A, No. 1, prime, in about half an hour, more or less, but rather more than less.”

I took the tiller, and Tom went into the cuddy to prepare the meal. In half an hour, more or less, we had the beefsteak and baked potatoes, smoking hot, done to a turn, and just as nice as the best hotel in the country could furnish.

[22]

CHAPTER II. A NEW ACQUAINTANCE.

We left Middleport early in the morning, and when we dined, we were above Priam. We intended to land at a point near the residence of my old friend Captain Portman, to enable me to call upon him. We arrived at this point early in the afternoon. Waddie was not acquainted with my friend, and did not care to call upon him; but he decided to take a walk on shore, and we proceeded together till we came to the entrance to Captain Portman’s grounds. He was a wealthy gentleman, who had chosen this wild region for his residence, for he was a genuine lover of the beauties of nature, and enjoyed them as much in the winter as the summer.

The country was exceedingly wild and rugged. The rocks rose in precipitous steeps at times, and [23] there was a profusion of cascades and cataracts. One might follow a stream through the depths of the primeval forests, and find it leaping from the precipices a dozen times in a single mile. In the midst of this magnificent scenery Captain Portman had built his mansion, selecting a rugged steep for its site; and here Nature and Art had joined hands to increase the loveliness of the place. Half a mile from his house, on the road to Priam, was the Cataract House—a hotel which had received its name from a grand and beautiful waterfall in the vicinity. At this house, during the summer, many wealthy people boarded.

When we reached the road which leads from Hitaca to Priam, Waddie turned to the right and I turned to the left. I was about to enter the rustic gateway which opened into the estate of Captain Portman, when I was startled by a succession of shrill screams. I saw Waddie spring into the woods which bounded the road on the left. The voice of the person in distress—for I supposed no one would scream unless in distress—was that of a female. Of course I was interested; and, turning [24] from the gateway, I rushed down the road, and followed Waddie into the woods.

I had made such good time that I overtook my fellow-voyager before he reached the scene of the adventure. The trees were very large, and the grove had been cleared up on the ground for the convenience of the visitors at the Cataract House, so that we could see some distance; and we soon discovered the person who had uttered the terrific screams. She was a young lady, elegantly dressed, and apparently not more than seventeen years old.

“Help! Help!” she cried, as she stood apparently paralyzed.

But we could see nothing to alarm her, though we discovered a young gentleman in the distance “making tracks” in the direction of the hotel.

“What is the matter with her?” asked Waddie.

“I don’t see anything to frighten her.”

“I do,” added Waddie, as we stepped forward, and discovered a small black bear, which a huge tree had before hidden from our view.

“A bear!” I exclaimed.

The creature stood up on his hind legs, and was [25] reaching forward with his right fore paw towards the young lady, while the left was dropped at his side. For my own part, I do not remember that I had ever even seen a bear before, and I confess that I did not like the looks of him. Whether Waddie shared my feeling or not I do not know; but he quickened his pace, and soon placed himself by the side of the interesting sufferer. Neither of us had a club, knife, or other weapon, and we were not in condition to face a wild beast.

“Save me!” gasped the young lady.

“I will conduct you to the hotel, if you please,” said Waddie, hardly noticing the bear, which still sat upon his haunches, with his right paw extended towards the terrified maiden.

“O, dear me! I cannot move,” sighed she.

Waddie took her by the arm, and supported her. As they moved off, the bear followed.

“He’s coming!” cried the lady; and, afraid that the awful monster would pounce upon her behind, she halted and faced him again.

The moment they stopped, Bruin stood up on his haunches again, and held out his paw as before. I [26] came to the conclusion that if he intended to eat any one up, he would have begun before this time, and I ventured to place myself between him and the lady. This brave movement on my part seemed to afford the lady some relief; but she clung to Waddie as though she expected to be devoured, brown silk dress, laces, ruffles, and all. The bear looked at me a moment, as I stood about a rod distant from him. Dropping upon all fours again, he cantered towards me. I was inclined to beat a retreat, but somehow the animal did not seem to be as ferocious as wild beasts have the credit of being, and, though it required no little resolution on my part, I decided to stand my ground.

The bear was about the size of a full-grown Newfoundland dog, but broader across the back, and much heavier, weighing, I judged, over a hundred pounds. He opened his mouth as though in the act of laughing. I had had no experience with wild animals, but I had an idea that they howled and made a “general row” when they were savage, and intended to do mischief. After the first sight of the bear, my courage gradually increased, and I [27] am happy to say that I did full justice to my valor on this occasion. I did not run away. The bear came close to me, and then erecting himself again, he extended his right paw as before, looking up into my face as pleasantly and cunningly as though he had been a playful child.

The fellow evidently means something by his action; but I was not sufficiently skilled in bear nature to comprehend him. He was not savage, and did not exhibit the slightest intention to use the fine rows of elegant teeth which he displayed. This assurance was very comforting to me. I retreated two or three paces as a strategic movement, in order to develop the further intentions of the enemy, if he was an enemy. The rascal followed me, again stood up, and presented his paw.

“Don’t be afraid, miss. He will not hurt anything,” said I, as the young lady was again alarmed by the last move of the bear. “He is quite harmless.”

“I am afraid he will bite me!” gasped she; and she would not have suffered any more if she had already been bitten.

[28]

“Shall I leave you, Wolf?” asked Waddie.

“Yes, certainly; the bear is as harmless as a kitten,” I replied.

“Allow me to conduct you to the hotel,” added Waddie, gallantly. “I suppose you are staying at the hotel.”