Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

Last week a man named Selden Hanscom, who lives in Chatham, Carroll county, rode to a neighbors to get two small pigs, carrying them home in a basket in his wagon. On the way home, at about 10 o’clock in the evening, he saw an animal beside the road which he at first thought was a very large dog. It turned out to be a black bear, which attempted to spring into the wagon between the forward wheels and the horse. Hanscom, finding that he had got to fight, seized hold of the bear’s head, and by chance happened to clutch into her nostrils. Being a very muscular man, he held his grip, the hind feet of the bear dragging on the ground, and thus they were dragged by the horse over twenty rods. Hanscom shouted for help but no one heard him. His strength failed him, and the bear making another spring, freed herself and fell outside the wagon, and Hanscom got away. The bear was accompanied by her cubs.-Manchester [N. H.} Mirror.