I took my rifle, dropped down on one knee, fired and broke one of the cubs’ necks.  The mother bear ran to the dead cub and pawed it with her foot.  While she was thus engaged, I mounted my horse drew my pistol, rode up to where the mother bear and her two cubs were in a bunch and shot the other cub and broke this one’s back, and it looked for a few minutes as if I must run from the mother, as I did not want to kill her for the reason that I had no use for so much meat.  So I rode away a short distance and watched her a few minutes.  She pawed them over a few times and seemed to think that they were no more good and with a few low growls she trotted off into the brush, and I saw no more of her.

I then rode to the dead cubs and dismounted from my horse.  I picked them up and strapped them both on the back of my saddle and struck out to overtake the train, which I did just as they were going into camp.

When the wagon master saw me coming, he came to meet me, and when he saw the load on my horse’s back, he exclaimed, “Mr. Drannan, I would like to know if there is anything that you can’t do that you take a notion to do.  I had no idea that you would bring in a bear this evening than I had of doing so myself.  I was only joking when I suggested bear meat for supper.”

I answered, “Well, you had your joke, and you and the rest of us can have Bear’s Foot roasted for supper, and as I have wanted some bear meat for several days, I can please you and myself at the same time.”

The whole outfit was amazed when I spoke about roasting the bears’ feet.  They had never heard of such a thing before.  When I got all the feet roasted, I took one from the coals and told the men to help themselves.  They all gathered around me to see how I fixed it so I could eat it.  When I had it ready to eat, the wagon boss said, “Well, who ever thought of eating Bears’ Feet?  But it does look nice.”

He watched me eat a few minutes and then made the remark that, as I seemed to like it so well, he guessed he would try one, and it was not long before the boys all had a taste of Bear’s Foot.

After he had demolished a whole foot, the wagon boss said, “I have tasted almost all kinds of meat, but I must say that I never ate any meat as good as Bear’s Foot.”

Some of the boys asked me if I could get some more Bears’ Feet for supper the next night, and one said he would give me a dollar if I would get a big foot for him.

We got an early start on the road the next morning, and we traveled along all day without anything of interest taking place.

Along in the middle of the afternoon I told the boss that I guessed I would go and hunt some more huckleberries.  He said, “I would not exert myself to get any more meat today if I were you.  We have enough for supper that was left over from last night.”

“Yes, but I want some huckleberries, and I will pick enough for your and my supper if I can find them.”