{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/adventures-with-bears",
 "title": "Adventures with Bears",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 90,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I bought of land two miles square,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I knew not it contained a bear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I never thought there would be any,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But alas, I found many;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bush was thick and mat and tangle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It made it a perfect jungle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But one mile square of good dry land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was enough for me to take in hand;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swamp I could reach but when frozen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then I saw bears by the dozen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thick as monkies in Africa,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many a strange trick I saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gamboling with the greatest ease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High up the trunks of the big trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While some were swinging from branches",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hanging on them with their haunches;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But quietly I then tilled my farm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bears at first done me no harm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till one night I was roused by dogs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And found a bear was at my hogs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He threw a pig across each shoulder",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there I was a sad beholder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But to the house I quickly run",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to procure my loaded gun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And as he could not run but slow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So heavy laden through the snow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I him full soon did overtake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his courage quick I did shake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For by the leg my good bold dog",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He bravely caught the thievish rogue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this move made him soon fork o’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To me at once the largest porker,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For moment squeeze it did pig stun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But up he rose and quick he run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bear now scared his only hope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To let at once the other pig drop,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shot the bear right through the eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And secured a valued prize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s nothing I love so to eat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In winter time as the bear’s meat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So a victory I soon won",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sold for high price grease and skin;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bears on honey love to thrive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One morn was wrecked my best beehive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That day I was to sell the honey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to raise some ready money,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But bear my views he did despise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And proudly carried off the prize;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That night I set a good spring gun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With rails I built for him a run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Open all way to hive of bees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He tried again a hive to seize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But all his efforts were in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sprung the gun and he was slain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the fact I felt quite funny",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It well repaid me for my honey;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One bear was playing on me joke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carrying off all my young stock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I set my trap, built round it fence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resolved he ne’er would get from thence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But at the first he did me hoax,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he was cunning as a fox,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He dug under and stole my bait,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I next sunk trap and sealed his fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My good iron trap again it caught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A great bear but it came to naught,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breakfast he had at my expense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he then showed wondrous sense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trap he picked up with greatest ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dashed it to pieces on the trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But blacksmith soon did it repair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I was bound to have that bear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I attached to trap a heavy clog,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It was like lifting a small log,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I drove in it some sharp iron spikes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which would cut deep each time he strikes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He tried again to steal my bait",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And break my trap at the old rate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he soon dashed out his own brains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His carcass it brought me great gains;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A neighbour man who would not work",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought that he did steal my pork,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But at last I found long black hairs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then I knew it was the bears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I put through barrels rods of iron",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So they a bear neck would environ,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rods together they would snap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I found him choked quite dead in trap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since then my strife with bears did cease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now many years I’ve lived in peace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}