The Fisherman and the Bear
A Maine Tall Tale
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
One fine day an old Maine man was fishing and fishing on his favorite lake and catching nary a thing. Finally, he gave up and walked back along the shore to his fishing shack. When he got close to the front door, he saw it was open. Being of a suspicious nature, he walked to the door quietly and looked inside. There was a big black bear. It was just pulling the cork out of his molasses jug with its teeth. The molasses spilled all over the floor and the bear rubbed his paw in it, smearing it all over.
Well, the old man was not the timid sort. He went to the back of the shack, put his head in the window and gave a loud yell. The bear jumped and ran out the door. It was running strangely. The old man saw that the bear was holding up the foot covered with molasses so it wouldn't get dirty.
The bear ran to the lake shore. Standing on its hind legs, it held up the paw full of molasses. Soon all the flies and bugs and mosquitoes were swarming all over the sticky sweet paw. Then the bear waded into the water with his sticky paw full of bugs. It held the paw out over the water. Suddenly, a big trout came jumping out of the water trying to get to the flies. The bear gave it a swat and it flew to the shore and flopped there. Then another fish jumped into the air after the flies, followed swiftly by another. Every time a fish jumped after his paw, the bear cuffed it ashore. Soon it had a large pile.
Finally, the bear decided he had enough fish and waded to shore. The bear had caught a mess of fish any fisherman would envy. The old man had caught nothing. He watched that bear eat half a dozen trout, his stomach rumbling. All he had for dinner was some bread and what was left of the molasses. Finally the bear paused in his eating, and looked over to the bushes where the old man was hidden. The bear stood up and laid the remaining fish in a row. Then it walked away up the shore. It kept looking back at the bushes where the old man stood.
The old man crept out of the bushes and down to the shore. Sure enough, the bear had left six large trout for him. He looked over at the bear. It was standing at the edge of the wood watching. "Thanks a lot," the old man called to the bear. The bear waved the now-clean paw at the old man and disappeared into the thicket. "Well," said the old man, "That's the first time a bear has ever paid me for my molasses."
The old man never hunted bears again.
Comments
Lol , i like this story .... i wonder what old man made up this tall tale ?
Posted by: Karissa | October 16, 2010 04:37 PM
i like this one.. my family loves to fish so this story strikes home about sharing..!!! even the fish you caught
Posted by: steph | October 26, 2010 12:52 PM
its propbably nt 100% true but i like it,it has a lesson within it....nice one
Posted by: habib | October 31, 2010 04:06 AM
nice story....
Posted by: ebe | November 2, 2010 07:28 AM
awwwwwwwwwww the bear helped him!!!!!!!!!=)=)=)=)
Posted by: Anonymous | November 2, 2010 09:30 PM
lmao
Posted by: Anonymous | November 3, 2010 01:16 PM
pretty funny;)
Posted by: Anonymous | November 7, 2010 12:49 AM
that was cool! =D
Posted by: Anonymous | December 5, 2010 12:54 PM
ha ha funny, i wish i could write one too.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 7, 2010 05:12 PM
lol
Posted by: Anonymous | December 12, 2010 03:20 PM
Its rather silly becouse real bears dont really give there fish to hunters. And hunters dont watch bears eat fish.:-)
Posted by: Courtney | December 21, 2010 04:54 PM
lol pretty funny(=
Posted by: shadow | December 25, 2010 11:31 AM
it was cooooooooooooooooooool
Posted by: hi | January 6, 2011 01:29 PM
that was sooooo cute! and way funny! that Bear was super smart,I cant believe it
Posted by: Sassy | January 6, 2011 06:38 PM
awwwwww sooo adorible !
Posted by: STeph! | January 12, 2011 09:04 AM
that bear was sooo smart I bet that bear had a good meal
Posted by: nick | January 31, 2011 08:53 AM
i'm sure if the bear wouldn't have shared his fish that fisherman would have don the same thing the bear did to get his fish the next day
Posted by: justin | February 2, 2011 10:25 AM
Thats how we learned 'fly fishing'.
Posted by: Joe | February 6, 2011 12:55 PM
it was awesome!!!!!!!!! :)
Posted by: abraham | February 8, 2011 01:24 PM
Kool:) i bet now a days a bear would eat u and the fish.
Posted by: Michelle | February 13, 2011 06:32 PM
i like that the bear was nice its cute.
Posted by: kit | February 16, 2011 07:08 PM
I GUESS THIS STORY WAS GOOD LOL
Posted by: KING ANTHONY | February 22, 2011 09:45 AM
So adorable!!!!!!! Luv it!!!! Lol
Posted by: Emmy | February 22, 2011 11:34 AM
I like this story
Posted by: Anonymous | February 28, 2011 11:24 AM
that made my dad laff
Posted by: alex | February 28, 2011 05:39 PM
it was cool
Posted by: j | February 28, 2011 09:57 PM
I think that the story is really cute. Even though a bear would just attack the hunter, and not leave fish for him. :}
Posted by: Tala | March 1, 2011 09:16 PM
this story is the bomb diggity!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: mashayla | March 3, 2011 01:48 PM
Good story mate
Posted by: WE IS BEAST | March 4, 2011 02:11 PM
haha funny
Posted by: jacob bill | March 5, 2011 10:11 AM
loved it it was a awsome story right ????
Posted by: anahy | March 5, 2011 07:43 PM
lol,smart bear
Posted by: darkdiva | March 9, 2011 07:29 AM
awesome thats nice
Posted by: makenzie | March 11, 2011 02:40 PM
lol it is awsome
Posted by: Anonymous | March 16, 2011 09:59 AM
this story is sooooooooooooooo cool!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 16, 2011 07:08 PM
It's a really cute story:) If only animals really behaved that way.
Posted by: Ansley | March 17, 2011 09:45 AM
This is super cute (:
Posted by: Simone | March 20, 2011 09:15 PM
love this story!good moral! =)
Posted by: row | March 21, 2011 11:13 PM
thats cool
Posted by: Anonymous | March 22, 2011 03:32 PM
lol sooooooo awesome! the bear is super smart
Posted by: jerome rousseau | April 15, 2011 05:49 AM
wow funny..but how I wish the fisherman was also eaten by that voraceous bear..it could be more interesting
Posted by: ronbods | April 24, 2011 09:55 PM
That was awesome my grandpa gave a bear some malasas but shot it:(
Posted by: Casidy duerr | May 4, 2011 11:36 AM
OMG!that is too funny....I wonder how many people have put molasses on there feet so they can catch fish!
Posted by: deffy | May 17, 2011 01:46 PM
i luv it
Posted by: Anonymous | May 17, 2011 04:25 PM
if i were the bear i would eat the old man lol !
Posted by: maria | May 25, 2011 10:58 AM
Good one. My daughter like it as I read it to her.
Posted by: Scott | June 24, 2011 07:53 PM
wow good story
Posted by: Anonymous | June 25, 2011 01:09 AM