UNKNOWN

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 31, 5 January 1884, Page 7

UNKNOWN

Whkn' .'i beav nntl abaW mo brought into coniact it ra.oly happens that tuo baby meets with the singular good iuck which fell to the lot of an American child, the daughter of a farmer of Gentile Valley, 1.T., whose adventure is thus recorded. The little girl, 18 mouths old, was playing near her mother, when the latter, who had absented herself for a moment, impswdl the child on returning to the spot where she had left it. She called, but no answer was made ; then she gathered the neighbours together, and a search was instituted for the missing infant. They went through the woods, seeking for the tracks of bears, believing the chid had been carried off by one of these animals, and, after some hours, came upon the trace of a huge bear, which was followed up until dark. No pigns of the baby, however, were visible. At daybreak the following morning, the father, with a party of men, renewed the search from the spot where it had ended the previous night, and ultimately discovered the baby, curled up in a quantity of weeds and grass, sleeping soundly. Its clothes were torn to shreds, and close beside the spot where it slept was tho warm bed of a large bear, which, it is conjectured, had ibandoned its resting-placo and its prey on the approach of the exploring party. By ■*ome miraculous chance, although the child !iad been carried three or four miles over rough places and through thickets, it had ••scaped without any injury excepting a few slight scratches.—" Standard."