Publisher's Synopsis
Wake up, boys! Wake up! Tumble out, there! Quick! Big Reuben's into the pig-pen again!" Our bedroom door was banged wide open, and my father stood before us-a startling apparition-dressed only in his night-shirt and a pair of boots, carrying a stable-lantern in one hand and a rifle in the other. "What is it?" cried Joe, as he bounced out of bed; and, "Where is it?" cried I, both of us half dazed by the sudden awakening. "It's Big Reuben raiding the pig-pen again! Can't you hear 'em squealing? Come on at once! Bring the eight-bore, Joe; and you, Phil, get the torch and the revolver. Quick; or he'll kill every hog in the pen!" Big Reuben was not a two-legged thief, as one might suppose from his name. He was a grizzly bear, a notorious old criminal, who, for the past two or three years, had done much harm to the ranchmen of our neighborhood, killing calves and colts and pigs-especially pigs.
