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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31414-h.zip b/31414-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..32f8193 --- /dev/null +++ b/31414-h.zip diff --git a/31414-h/31414-h.htm b/31414-h/31414-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..227b52a --- /dev/null +++ b/31414-h/31414-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3110 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bear Brownie, by H. P. Robinson, revised by Jane Fielding + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 65%; + margin-top: 5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + td.tdr {text-align: right;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + ins {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px dashed #dcdcdc;} + + .pagenum {/* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /*visibility: hidden;*/ + position: absolute; + left: 1em; + font-size: 10px; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + font-style: normal; + letter-spacing: normal; + text-indent: 0em; + text-align: right; + color: #999999; + background-color: #ffffff; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .mt {margin-top: 5em;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bear Brownie, by H. P. Robinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bear Brownie + The Life of a Bear + +Author: H. P. Robinson + +Editor: Jane Fielding + +Release Date: February 27, 2010 [EBook #31414] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAR BROWNIE *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Loriba and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I.</td> +<td>How I Tumbled Downhill.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">9</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II.</td> +<td>Cubhood Days.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III.</td> +<td>The Coming of Man.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">29</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV.</td> +<td>The Forest Fire.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">42</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V.</td> +<td>Kahwa.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">58</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI.</td> +<td>Life in Camp.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">72</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII.</td> +<td>The Parting of the Ways.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">92</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> +<td>Alone in the World.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">104</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX.</td> +<td>I Find a Companion.</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">119</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td><a href="#Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber's Notes</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<div class='center'> +<img src="images/i1-1.jpg" height="318" width="200" +alt="COVER" /> +</div> + + +<h1>Bear Brownie</h1> + +<h2><i>The Life of a Bear</i></h2> + +<h3><i>From Animal Autobiographies by H. P. Robinson</i></h3> + +<h4>REVISED BY</h4> + +<h2>JANE FIELDING</h2> + +<h5>NEW YORK</h5> + +<h5>A. L. CHATTERTON CO.</h5> + + + +<hr /> + +<h5>Copyright, 1913</h5> + +<h5>A. L. CHATTERTON CO.</h5> + +<div class='center'><img src="images/i1-2.jpg" height="500" width="371" +alt="FRONTISPIECE" /></div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>BEAR BROWNIE</h2> + + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">HOW I TUMBLED DOWNHILL.</span></h3> + + +<p>It is not easy for one to believe that he ever was a cub. Of course, I +know that I was, and as it was only nine years ago I ought to remember +it fairly clearly.</p> + +<p>It is not so much a mere matter of size, although it is doubtful if any +young bear realizes how small he is. My father and mother seemed +enormous to me, but, on the other hand, my sister was smaller than I, +and perhaps the fact that I could always box her ears when I wanted to +gave me an exaggerated idea of my own importance. Not that I did it very +often, except when she used to bite my hind-toes. Every bear, of course, +likes to chew his own feet, for it is one of the most soothing and +comforting things in the world; but it is horrid to have anyone else +come up behind you when you are asleep, and begin to chew your feet for +you. And that was Kahwa—that was my sister, my name being <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>Brownie—was +always doing, and I simply had to slap her well whenever she did.</p> + +<p>But, as I said, cubhood is not a matter of size only. As I look down at +this glossy coat of mine, it is hard to believe that it was ever a dirty +yellow color, and all ridiculous wool and fluff, as young cubs' coats +are. But I must have been fluffy, because I remember how my mother, +after she had been licking me for any length of time, used to be obliged +to stop and wipe the fur out of her mouth with the back of her paw. +Every time my mother had to wipe her mouth she used to try to box my +ears, so that when she stopped licking me, I, knowing what was coming +next, would tuck my head down as far as it would go between my legs, and +keep it there till she began licking again.</p> + +<p>Yes, when I stop to think, I know, from many things, that I must have +been just an ordinary cub. For instance, my very earliest recollection +is of tumbling downhill.</p> + +<p>Like all bears, I was born and lived on the hillside. In the Rocky +Mountains, where my home was, there is nothing but hills, or mountains, +for miles and miles, so that you can wander on for day after day, always +going up one side of a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>hill and down the other, and up and down again; +and at the bottom of almost every valley there is a stream or river, +which for most of the year swirls along nosily and full of water.</p> + +<p>In the winter the whole country is covered with snow many feet deep, +which, as it falls, slides off the hillsides, and is drifted by the +winds into the valleys and hollows till the smaller ones are filled up +nearly to the tops of the trees. But bears do not see much of that, for +when the first snow comes we get into our dens and go half asleep, and +stay hibernating till springtime. And you have no idea how delightful +hibernating is, nor how excruciatingly stiff we are when we wake up, and +how hungry!</p> + +<p>The snow lies over everything for months, until in the early spring the +warm west winds begin to blow, melting the snow from one side of the +mountains. Then the sun grows hotter and hotter day by day, and helps to +melt it until most of the mountain slopes are clear; but in sheltered +places and in the bottoms of the little hollows the snow stays in +patches till far into the summer. We bears <a name="comes" id="comes"></a><ins title="as in original">comes</ins> out from our winter +sleep when the snow is not quite gone, when the whole earth everywhere +is still wet with it, and the streams, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>swollen with floods, are +bubbling and boiling along so that the air is filled with the noise of +them by night and day.</p> + +<p>Our home was well up one of the hillsides, where two huge cedar-trees +shot up side by side close by a jutting mass of rock. In between the +roots of the trees and under the rock was as good a house as a family of +bears could want—roomy enough for all four of us, perfectly sheltered, +and hidden and dry. Can you imagine how warm and comfy it was when we +were all snuggled in there, with our arms round each other, and our +faces buried in each other's fur? Anyone looking in would have seen +nothing but a huge ball of brown fluff.</p> + +<p>It was from just outside the door that I tumbled downhill.</p> + +<p>It must have been early in the year, because the ground was still very +wet and soft, and the gully at the bottom full of snow. Of course, if I +had not been a cub I should never have fallen, for big bears do not +tumble downhill. If by any chance anything did start one, and he found +he could not stop himself, he would know enough to tuck in his head and +paws out of harm's way; but I only knew that somehow, in romping with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +Kahwa, I had lost my balance, and was going—goodness knew where! I went +all spread out like a squirrel, first on my head, then on my back, then +on my tummy, clutching at everything that I passed, slapping the ground +with my outstretched paws, and squealing for help. Bump! bang! slap! +bump! I went, hitting trees and thumping all the wind out of me against +the earth, and at last—souse into the snow!</p> + +<p>Wow-ugh! How cold and wet it was! And it was deep—so deep, indeed, that +I was buried completely out of sight; and I doubt if I should ever have +got out alive had not my mother come down and dug me out with her nose +and paws. Then she half pushed and half smacked me uphill again, and +when I got home I was the wettest, coldest, sorest, wretchedest bear-cub +in the Rocky Mountains.</p> + +<p>Then, while I lay and whimpered, my mother spent the rest of the day +licking me into the semblance of a respectable bearskin again. But I was +bruised and nervous for days afterwards.</p> + +<p>That tumble of mine gave us the idea of the game which Kahwa and I used +to play almost every day after that. Kahwa would take her stand with her +back against the rock by our door,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> just at the point where the hill +went off most steeply, and it was my business to come charging up the +hill at her and try to pull her down. What fun it was! Sometimes I was +the one to stand against the rock, and Kahwa tried to pull me down. She +could not do it; but she was plucky, and used to come at me so +ferociously that I often wondered for a minute whether it was only play +or whether she was really angry.</p> + +<p>Best of all was when mother used to play with us. Then she put her back +to the rock, and we both attacked her at once from opposite sides, each +trying to get hold of a hind-leg just above the foot. If she put her +head down to pretend to bite either of us, the other jumped for her ear. +Sometimes we would each get hold of an ear, and hang on as hard as we +could, while she pretended we were hurting her dreadfully, growling and +shaking her head, and making as much fuss as she could; but if in our +excitement either of us did chance to bite a little too hard, we always +knew it. With a couple of cuffs, hard enough to make us yelp, she would +throw us to one side and the other, and there was no more play for that +day. And mother could hit hard when she liked. I have seen her smack +father in a way that would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> have broken all the bones in a cub's body, +and killed any human being outright.</p> + +<p>But to Kahwa and me both father and mother were very gentle and kind in +those first helpless days, and I suppose they never punished us unless +we deserved it. Later on my father and I had differences, as you will +hear. But in that first summer our lives, uneventful, were happy.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">CUBHOOD DAYS.</span></h3> + + +<p>When they are small, bear-cubs rarely go about alone. The whole family +usually keeps together, or, if it separates, it is generally into +couples—one cub with each of the parents; or the father goes off alone, +leaving both cubs with the mother. A cub toddling off alone in its own +woolly, comfortable ignorance would be sure to make all manner of +mistakes in what it ate, and it might find itself in very serious +trouble in other ways.</p> + +<p>Bears, when they live far enough away from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> man, have absolutely nothing +to be afraid of. There are, of course, bigger bears—perhaps bigger ones +of our own kind, either black or brown ("cinnamon," the brown members of +our family are called), or, especially, grizzly. But I never heard of a +grizzly bear hurting one of us. When I smell a grizzly in the +neighborhood, I confess that it seems wiser to go round the other side +of the hill; but that is probably inherited superstition more than +anything else. My father and mother did it, and so do I. Apart from +these, there lives nothing in the forest that a full-grown bear has any +cause to fear. He goes where he pleases and does what he likes, and +nobody ventures to dispute his rights. With a cub, however, it is +different.</p> + +<p>I had heard my father and mother speak of pumas, or mountain lions, and +I knew their smell well enough—and did not like it. But I shall never +forget the first one that I saw.</p> + +<p>We were out together—father, mother, Kahwa and I—and it was getting +well on in the morning. The sun was up, and the day growing warm, and I, +wandering drowsily along with my nose to the ground, had somehow strayed +away from the rest, when suddenly I smelled puma very strong.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> As I +threw myself up on my haunches, he came out from behind a tree, and +stood facing me only a few yards away. I was simply paralyzed with +fear—one of the two or three times in my life when I have been honestly +and thoroughly frightened. As I looked at him, wondering what would +happen next, he crouched down till he was almost flat along the ground, +and I can see him now, his whole yellow body almost hidden behind his +head, his eyes blazing, and his tail going slap, slap from side to side. +How I wished that I had a tail!</p> + +<p>Then inch by inch he crept towards me, very slowly, putting one foot +forward and then the other. I did not know what to do, and so did what +proved to be the best thing possible: I sat quite still, and screamed +for mother as loud as I could. She must have known from my voice that +something serious was the matter, because in a second, just as the +puma's muscles were growing tense for the final spring, there was a +sudden crash of broken boughs behind me, a feeling as if a whirlwind was +going by, and my mother shot past me straight at the puma. I had no idea +that she could go so fast. The puma was up on his hind-legs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> to meet +her, but her impetus was so <a name="terrific" id="terrific"></a><ins title="original had terriffic">terrific</ins> that it bore him backwards, without +seeming to check her speed in the least, and away they went rolling over +and over down the hill.</p> + +<p>But it was not much of a fight. The puma, willing enough to attack a +little cub like me, knew that he was no match for my mother, and while +they were still rolling he wrenched himself loose, and was off among the +trees like a shadow.</p> + +<p>When mother came back to me blood was running over her face, where at +the moment of meeting, the puma had managed to give her one wicked, +tearing claw down the side of her nose. So, as soon as my father and +Kahwa joined us, we all went down to the stream, where mother bathed her +face, and kept it in the cold water for nearly the whole day.</p> + +<p>It was probably in some measure to pay me out for this scrape, and to +give me another lesson in the unwisdom of too much independence and +inquisitiveness in a youngster, that my parents, soon after this sad +event, allowed me to get into trouble with that porcupine.</p> + +<p>One evening my father had taken us to a place where the ground was full +of mountain lilies. It was early in the year, when the green shoots<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +were just beginning to appear above the earth; and wherever there was a +shoot there was a bulb down below. And a mountain lily bulb is one of +the very nicest things to eat that there is—so sweet, and juicy, and +crisp! The place was some distance from our home, and after that first +visit Kahwa and I kept begging to be taken there again. At last my +father yielded, and we set out early one morning just before day was +breaking.</p> + +<p>We were not loitering on the way, but trotting steadily along all +together, and Kahwa and I, at least, were full of expectation of the +lily bulbs in store, when in a little open space among the trees, we +came upon an object unlike anything I had ever seen before. As we came +upon it, I could have declared that it was moving—then that it was an +animal which, at sight of us, had stopped stock still, and tucked its +head and toes in underneath it. But it certainly was not moving now, and +did not look as if it ever could move again, so finally I concluded that +it must be a large fungus or a strange new kind of hillock, with black +and white grass growing all over it. My father and mother had stopped +short when they saw it, and just sat up on their haunches and looked at +it; and Kahwa did the same, snuggling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> up close to my mother's side. Was +it an animal, or a fungus, or only a mound of earth? The way to find out +was to smell it. So, without any idea of hurting it, I trotted up and +reached out my nose. As I did so it shrank a little more into itself, +and became rounder and more like a fungus than ever; but the act of +shrinking also made the black and white grass stick out a little +farther, so that my nose met it sooner than I expected, and I found +that, if it was grass, it was very sharp grass, and pricked horribly. I +tried again, and again it shrank up and pricked me worse than ever. Then +I heard my father chuckling to himself.</p> + +<p>That made me angry, for I always have detested being laughed at, and, +without stopping to think, I smacked the thing just as hard as I could. +A moment later I was hopping round on three legs howling with pain, for +a <a name="hunch" id="hunch"></a><ins title="as in original">hunch</ins> of the quills had gone right into my paw, where they were still +sticking, one coming out on the other side.</p> + +<p>My father laughed, but my mother drew out the quills with her teeth, and +that hurt worse than anything; and all day, whenever she found a +particularly fat lily bulb, she gave it to me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> For my part, I could +only dig for the bulbs with my left paw, and it was ever so many days +before I could run on all four feet again.</p> + +<p>All these things must have happened when I was very young—less than +three months old—because we were still living in the same place, +whereas when summer came we moved away, as bears always do, and had no +fixed home during the hot months.</p> + +<p>Bear-cubs are born when the mother is still in her winter den, and they +are usually five or six weeks old before they come out into the world at +all. Even then at first, when the cubs are very young, the family stays +close at home, and for some time I imagine that the longest journey I +made was when I tumbled those fifty feet downhill. Father or mother +might wander away alone in the early morning or evening for a while, but +for the most part we were all four at home by the rock and the +cedar-trees, with the bare brown tree-trunks growing up all round out of +the bare brown mountain-sides, and Kahwa and I spending our time lying +sleepily cuddled up to mother, or romping together and wishing we could +catch squirrels.</p> + +<p>There were a great many squirrels about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>—large gray ones mostly; but +living in a fir-tree close by us was a black one with a deplorable +temper.</p> + +<p>Every day he used to come and quarrel with us. Whenever he had nothing +particular to do, he would say to himself, "I'll go and tease those old +bears." And he did. His plan was to get on our trees from behind, where +we could not see him, then to come round on our side about five or six +feet from the ground, just safely out of reach, and there, hanging head +downwards, call us every name he could think of. Squirrels have an awful +vocabulary, but I never knew one that could talk like Blacky. And every +time he thought of something new to say he waved his tail at us in a way +that was particularly aggravating. You have no idea how other animals +poke fun at us because we have no tails, and how sensitive we really are +on the subject. They say that it was to hide our lack of tail that we +originally got into the habit of sitting up on our haunches whenever we +meet a stranger.</p> + +<p>Very soon we began to be taken out on long excursions, going all four +together, as I have said, and then we began to learn how much that is +nice to eat there is in the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>You have probably no idea, for instance, how many good things there may +be under one rotting log. Even if you do not get a mouse or a chipmunk, +you are sure of a fringe of greenstuff which, from lack of sunlight, has +grown white and juicy, and almost as sure of some mushrooms or other +fungi, most of which are delicious. But before you can touch them you +have to look after the insects. Mushrooms will wait, but the sooner you +catch beetles, and earwigs, and ants, and grubs, the better. It is +always worth while to roll a log over, if you can, no matter how much +trouble it costs; and a big stone is sometimes nearly as good.</p> + +<p>Insects, of course, are small, and it would take a lot of ants, or even +beetles, to make a meal for a bear; but they are good, and they help +out. Some wild animals, especially those which prey upon others, eat a +lot at one time, and then starve till they can kill again. A bear, on +the other hand, is wandering about for more than half of the twenty-four +hours, except in the very heat of summer, and he is eating most of the +while that he wanders. The greater part of his food, of course, is +greenstuff—lily bulbs, white camas roots, wild-onions, and young shoots +and leaves. As he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> walks he browses a mouthful of young leaves here, +scratches up a root there, tears the bark off a decaying tree and eats +the insects underneath, lifts a stone and finds a mouse or a lizard +beneath, or loiters for twenty minutes over an ant-hill. With plenty of +time, he is never in a hurry, and every little counts.</p> + +<p>But most of all in summer I used to love to go down to the stream. In +warm weather, during the heat of the day, bears stay in the shelter of +thickets, among the brush by the water or under the shade of a fallen +tree. As the sun sank we would move down to the stream, and lie all +through the long evening in the shallows, where the cold water rippled +against one's sides. And along the water there was always something good +to eat—not merely the herbage and the roots of the water-plants, but +frogs and insects of all sorts among the grass. Our favorite +bathing-place was just above a wide pool made by a beaver-dam. The pool +itself was deep in places, but before the river came to it, it flowed +for a hundred yards and more over a level gravel bottom, so shallow that +even as a cub I could walk from shore to shore without the water being +above my shoulders. At the edge of the pool the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> same black and white +kingfisher was always sitting on the same branch when we came down, and +he disliked our coming, and <i>chirred</i> at us to go away. I used to love +to pretend not to understand him, and to walk solemnly through the water +underneath and all round his branch. It made him furious, and sent him +<i>chirring</i> upstream to find another place to fish, where there were no +idiotic bear-cubs who did not know any better than to walk about among +his fish.</p> + +<p>Here, too, my father and mother taught us to fish; but it was a long +time before I managed to catch a trout for myself. It takes such a +dreadful lot of sitting still. Having found where a fish is lying, +probably under an overhanging branch or beneath the grass jutting out +from the bank, you lie down silently as close to the edge of the water +as you can get, and slip one paw in, ever so gradually, behind the fish, +and move it towards him gently—gently. If he takes fright and darts +away, you leave your paw where it is, or move it as close to the spot +where he was lying as you can reach, and wait. Sooner or later he will +come back, swimming downstream and then swinging round to take his +station almost exactly in the same spot as before. If you leave your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +paw absolutely still, he does not mind it, and may even, on his return, +come and lie right up against it. If so, you strike at once. More +probably he will stop a few inches or a foot away. If you have already +reached as far as you can towards him, then is the time that you need +all your patience. Again and again he darts out to take a fly from the +surface of the water or swallow something that is floated down to him by +the current, and each time that he comes back he may shift his position +an inch or two. At last he comes to where you can actually crook your +claws under his tail. Ever so cautiously you move your paw gently half +way up towards his head, and then, when your claws are almost touching +him, you strike—strike, once and hard, with a hooking blow that sends +him whirling like a bar of silver far out on the bank behind you. And +trout is good—the plump, dark, pink-banded trout of the mountain +streams. But you must not strike one fraction of a second too soon, for +if your paw has more than an inch to travel before the claws touch him +he is gone, and all you feel is the flip of a tail upon the inner side +of the paw, and all your time is wasted.</p> + +<p>It is hard to learn to wait long enough, and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> know that at first I +used to strike at fish that were a foot away, with no more chance of +catching them than of making supper off a waterfall. But father and +mother used to catch a fish apiece for us almost every evening, and +gradually Kahwa and I began to take them for ourselves.</p> + +<p>Then, as the daylight faded, the beavers came out upon their dam and +played about in the pool, swimming and diving and <a name="slapping" id="slapping"></a><ins title="original had slaping">slapping</ins> the surface +with their tails with a noise like that of an osprey when he strikes the +water in diving for a fish. But though they had time for play, they were +busy folk, the beavers. Some of them were constantly patching and +tinkering at the dam, and some always at work, except when the sun was +up, one relieving another, gnawing their way with little tiny bites +steadily through one of the great trees that stood by the water's edge, +and always gnawing it so that when, after weeks of labor, it fell, it +never failed to fall across the stream precisely where they wanted it. +If an enemy appeared—at the least sign or smell of wolf or puma—there +would be a loud ringing slap from one of the tails upon the water, and +in an instant every beaver had vanished under water and was safe inside +the house among the logs of the dam, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> door of which was down below +the surface.</p> + +<p>Us bears they were used to and did not mind; but they never let us come +too near. Sitting safely on the top of their piled logs, or twenty feet +away in the water, they would talk to us pleasantly enough; but—well, +my father told me that young, very young, beaver was good eating and I +imagine that the beavers knew that we thought so, and were afraid, +perhaps, that we might not be too particular about the age.</p> + +<p>As the dusk changed to darkness we would leave the water and roam over +the hillsides, sometimes sleeping through the middle hours of the night, +but in summer more often roaming on, to come back to the stream for a +while just before the sun was up, and then turning in to sleep till he +went down again.</p> + +<p>Those long rambles in the summer moonlight, or in the early dawn when +everything reeked with dew, how good they were! And when the afternoon +of a broiling day brought a thunderstorm, the delight of the smell of +the moist earth and the almost overpowering scent of the pines! And when +the berries were ripe—blueberries, cranberries, wild-raspberries, and, +later in the year, elderberries—no fruit, nor anything else to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> eat, +has ever tasted as they did then in that first summer when I was a cub.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">THE COMING OF MAN.</span></h3> + + +<p>Summer was far advanced. We had had a week or two of hot, dry weather, +during which we had wandered abroad, spending the heat of the days +asleep in the shadow of cool brushwood down by the streams, and in the +nights and early mornings roaming where we would. Ultimately we worked +round to the neighborhood of our home, and went to see if all was right +there, and to spend one day in the familiar place.</p> + +<p>It was in the very middle of the day—a sultry day, when the sun was +blazing hot—that we were awakened by the sound of somebody coming +through the bushes. The wind was blowing towards us, so that long before +he came in sight we knew that it was a bear like ourselves. But what was +a bear doing abroad at high noon of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> such a day, and crashing through +the bushes in that headlong fashion? Something extraordinary must have +happened to him, and we soon learned that indeed something had.</p> + +<p>Coming plunging downhill with the wind behind him, he was right on us +before he knew we were there. He was one of our cousins—a cinnamon—and +we saw at once that he was hurt, for he was going on three legs, holding +his left fore-paw off the ground. It was covered with blood and hung +limply, showing that the bone was broken. He was so nervous that at +sight of us he threw himself up on his haunches and prepared to fight; +but we all felt sorry for him, and he soon quieted down.</p> + +<p>"Whatever has happened to you?" asked my father, while we others sat and +listened.</p> + +<p>"Man!" replied Cinnamon, with a growl that made my blood run cold.</p> + +<p>Man! Father had told us of man, but he had never seen him; nor had his +father or his grandfather before him. Man had never visited our part of +the mountains, as far as we knew, but stories of him we had heard in +plenty. They had been handed down in our family from generation to +generation, from the days when our ancestors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> lived far away from our +present abiding-place; and every year, too, the animals that left the +mountains when the snow came brought us back stories of man in the +spring. The coyotes knew him and feared him; the deer knew him and +trembled at his very name; the pumas knew him and both feared and hated +him. Everyone who knew him seemed to fear him, and we had caught the +fear from them, and feared him, too, and had blessed ourselves that he +did not come near us.</p> + +<p>And now he was here! And poor Cinnamon's shattered leg was evidence that +his evil reputation was not unjustified.</p> + +<p>Then Cinnamon told us his story.</p> + +<p>He had lived, like his father and grandfather before him, some miles +away on the other side of the high range of mountains behind us; and +there he had considered himself as safe from man as we on our side had +supposed ourselves to be. But that spring when he awoke he found that +during the winter the men had come. They were few in the beginning, he +said, and he had first heard of them as being some miles away. But more +came, and ever more; and as they came they pushed farther and farther +into the mountains. What they were doing he did not know, but they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> kept +for the most part along by the streams, where they dug holes everywhere. +No, they did not live in the holes. They built themselves places to live +in out of trees which they cut down and chopped into lengths and piled +together. Why they did that, when it was so much easier to dig +comfortable holes in the hillside, he did not know; but they did. And +they did not cut down the trees with their teeth like beavers, but took +sticks in their hands and beat them till they fell!</p> + +<p>Yes, it was true about the fires they made. They made them every day and +all the time, usually just outside the houses that they built of the +chopped trees. The fires were terrible to look at, but the men did not +seem to be afraid of them. They stood quite close to them, especially in +the evenings, and burned their food in them before they ate it.</p> + +<p>We had heard this before, but had not believed it. And it was true, +after all! What was still more wonderful, Cinnamon said that he had gone +down at night, when the men were all asleep in their chopped-tree +houses, and, sniffing round, had found pieces of this burnt food lying +about, and eaten them, and—they were very good! So good were they that, +incredible as it might seem, Cinnamon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> had gone again and again, night +after night, to look for scraps that had been left lying about.</p> + +<p>On the previous night he had gone down as usual after the men, as he +supposed, were all asleep, but he was arrested before he got to the +houses themselves by a strong smell of the burnt food somewhere close by +him. The men, he explained, had cut down the trees nearest to the stream +to build their houses with, so that between the edge of the forest and +the water there was an open space dotted with the stumps of the trees +that had been felled, which stuck up as high as a bear's shoulder from +the ground. It was just at the edge of this open space that he smelled +the burnt food, and, sure enough, on one of the nearest stumps there was +a bigger lump of it than any he had ever seen. Naturally, he went +straight up to it.</p> + +<p>Just as he got to it he heard a movement between him and the houses, +and, looking round, he saw a man lying flat on the ground in such a way +that he had hitherto been hidden by another stump. As Cinnamon looked he +saw the man point something at him (yes, unquestionably, the dreadful +thing we had heard of—the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>thunder-stick—with which man kills at long +distances), and in a moment there was a flash of flame and a noise like +a big tree breaking in the wind, and something hit his leg and smashed +it, as we could see. It hurt horribly, and Cinnamon turned at once and +plunged into the wood. As he did so there was a second flash and roar, +and something hit a tree-trunk within a foot of his head, and sent +splinters flying in every direction.</p> + +<p>Since then Cinnamon had been trying only to get away. His foot hurt him +so that he had been obliged to lie down for a few hours in the bushes +during the morning; but now he was pushing on again, only anxious to go +somewhere as far away from man as possible.</p> + +<p>While he was talking, my mother had been licking his wounded foot, while +father sat up on his haunches, with his nose buried in the fur of his +chest, grumbling and growling to himself, as his way was when he was +very much annoyed. I have the same trick, which I suppose I inherited +from him. We cubs sat shivering and whimpering, and listening +terror-stricken to the awful story.</p> + +<p>What was to be done now? That was the question. How far away, we asked, +were the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> men? Well, it was about midnight when Cinnamon was wounded, +and now it was noon. Except the three or four hours that he had lain in +the bushes, he had been travelling in a straight line all the time, as +fast as he could with his broken leg. And did men travel fast? No; they +moved very slowly, and always on their hind-legs. Cinnamon had never +seen one go on all fours, though <i>that</i> seemed to him as ridiculous as +their building houses of chopped trees instead of making holes in the +ground. They very rarely went about at night, and Cinnamon did not +believe any of them had followed him, so there was probably no immediate +danger. Moreover, Cinnamon explained, they seldom moved far away from +the streams, and they made a great deal of noise wherever they went, so +that it was easy to hear them. Besides which, you could smell them a +long way off. It did not matter if you had never smelled it before: any +bear would know the <a name="man" id="man"></a><ins title="no hyphen in original">man-smell</ins> by the first whiff he got of it.</p> + +<p>All this was somewhat consoling. It made the danger a little more +remote, and, especially, it reduced the chance of our being taken by +surprise. Still, the situation was bad enough as it stood, for the news +changed the whole color and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> current of our lives. Hitherto we had gone +without fear where we would, careless of anything but our own +inclinations. Now a sudden terror had arisen, that threw a shadow over +every minute of the day and night. Man was near—man, who seemed love to +kill, and who <i>could</i> kill; not by his strength, but by virtue of some +cunning which we could neither combat nor understand. Thereafter, though +perhaps man's name might not be mentioned between us from one day to +another, I do not think there was a minute when we were not all more or +less on the alert, with ears and nostrils open for an indication of his +dreaded presence.</p> + +<p>Though Cinnamon thought we could safely stay where we were, he proposed +himself to push on, farther away from the neighborhood of the hated +human beings. In any emergency he was sadly crippled by his broken leg, +and—at least till that was healed—he preferred to be as remote from +danger as possible.</p> + +<p>After he was gone my father and mother held council. There was no more +sleep for us that day, and in the evening, when we started out on our +regular search for food, it was very cautiously, and with nerves all on +the jump. It was a trying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> night. We went warily, with our heads ever +turned up-wind, hardly daring to dig for a root lest the sound of our +digging should fill our ears so that we would not hear man's approach; +and when I stripped a bit of bark from a fallen log to look for beetles +underneath, and it crackled noisily as it came away, my father growled +angrily at me and mother cuffed me from behind.</p> + +<p>I remember, though, that they shared the beetles between them.</p> + +<p>I need not dwell on the days of anxiety that followed. I do not remember +them much myself, except that they were very long and nerve-racking. I +will tell you at once how it was that we first actually came in contact +with man himself.</p> + +<p>In the course of my life I have reached the conclusion that nearly all +the troubles that come to animals are the result of one of two +things—either of their greediness or their curiosity. It was curiosity +which led me into the difficulty with Porcupine. It was Cinnamon's +greediness that got his leg broken for him. Our first coming in contact +with man was the result, I am afraid, of both—but chiefly of our +curiosity.</p> + +<p>During the days that followed our meeting with Cinnamon, while we were +moving about so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> cautiously, we were also all the time (and, though we +never mentioned the fact, we all knew that we were) gradually working +nearer to the place where Cinnamon had told us that man was. I knew what +was happening, but would not have mentioned it for worlds, lest if we +talked about it we should change our direction. And I wanted—yes, in +spite of his terrors—I wanted to see man just once. Also—I may as well +confess it—there were memories of what Cinnamon had said of that +wonderful burnt food.</p> + +<p>Some ten or twelve days must have passed in this way, when one morning, +after we had been abroad for three or four hours, and the sun was just +getting up, we heard a noise such as we had never heard before. Chuck! +chuck! chuck! It came at regular intervals for a while, then stopped and +began again. What could it be? It was not the noise of a woodpecker, nor +that which a beaver makes with its tail. Chuck! chuck! chuck! It was not +the clucking of a grouse, though perhaps more like that than anything +else, but different, somehow, in quality. Chuck! chuck! chuck! I think +we all knew in our hearts that it had something to do with man.</p> + +<p>The noise came from not far away, but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> wind was blowing across us. +So we made a circle till it blew from the noise to us; and suddenly in +one whiff we all knew that it was man. I felt my skin crawling up my +spine, and I saw my father's nose go down into his chest, while the hair +on his neck and shoulders stood out as it only could do in moments of +intense excitement.</p> + +<p>Slowly, very slowly, we moved towards the noise, until at last we were +so close that the smell grew almost overpowering. But still we could not +see him, because of the brushwood. Then we came to a fallen log and, +carefully and silently we stepped on to it—my father and mother first, +then I, then Kahwa. Now, by standing up on our hind-feet, our +heads—even mine and Kahwa's—were clear of the bushes, and there, not +fifty yards away from us, was man. He was chopping down a tree, and that +was the noise that we had heard. He did not see us, being too intent on +his work. Chuck! chuck! chuck! He was striking steadily at the tree with +what I now know was an axe, but which at the time we all supposed to be +a thunder-stick, and at each blow the splinters of wood flew just as +Cinnamon had told us. After a while he stopped, and stooped to pick +something off the ground.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> This hid him from my sight, and from Kahwa's +also, so she strained up on her tiptoes to get another look at him. In +doing so her feet slipped on the bark of the log, and down she came with +a crash that could have been heard at twice his distance from us, even +if the shock had not knocked a <a name="woof" id="woof"></a><ins title="original had Wooff">"Woof!"</ins> out of her as she fell. The man +instantly stood up and turned round, and, of course, found himself +staring straight into our faces.</p> + +<p>He did not hesitate a moment, but dropped his axe and ran. I think he +ran as fast as he could, but what Cinnamon said was true: he went, of +course, on his hind-legs, and did not travel fast. It was downhill, and +running on your hind-legs for any distance downhill is an awkward +performance at best.</p> + +<p>We, of course, followed our impulse, and went after him. We did not want +him in the least. We would not have known what to do with him if we had +him. But you know how impossible it is to resist chasing anything that +runs away from you. We could easily have caught him had we wished to, +but why should we? Besides, he might still have another thunder-stick +concealed about him. So we just ran fast enough to keep him running. And +as we ran, crashing through the bushes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> galloping down hill, with his +head rising and falling as he leaped along ahead of us, the absurdity of +it got hold of me, and I yelped with excitement and delight. To be +chasing man, of all things living—man—like this! And I could hear my +father "wooffing" to himself at each gallop with amusement and +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Very soon, however, we smelled more men. Then we slowed down, and +presently there came in sight what we knew must be one of the +chopped-tree houses. So we stood and watched, while the man, still +running as if we were at his very heels, tore up to the house, and out +from behind it came three or four others. We could see them brandishing +their arms and talking very excitedly. Then two of them plunged into the +house, and came out with—yes, there could be no doubt of it; these were +the real things—the dreaded thunder-sticks themselves.</p> + +<p>Then we knew that it was our turn to run; and we ran.</p> + +<p>Back up the hill we went, much faster than we had come down; for we were +running for our own lives now, and bears like running uphill best. On +and on we went, as fast as we could go. We had no idea at how long a +distance man could hit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> us with the thunder-sticks, but we preferred to +be on the safe side, and it must have been at least two hours before we +stopped for a moment to take breath. And when a bear is in a hurry, two +hours, even for a cub, mean more than twenty miles.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">THE FOREST FIRE.</span></h3> + + +<p>Though we had come off so happily from our first encounter with man, +none the less we had no desire to see him again. On the contrary, we +determined to keep as far away from him as possible. For my part, I +confess that thoughts of him were always with me, and every thought made +the skin crawl up my back.</p> + +<p>Nor was I the only one of the family who was nervous. Father and mother +had become so changed that they were gruff and bad-tempered; and all the +pleasure and light-heartedness seemed to have gone out of our long +rambles. There was no more romping and rolling together down the +hillsides. If Kahwa and I grew noisy in our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> play, we were certain to be +stopped with a "Woof, children! be quiet." The fear of man was always +with us, and his presence seemed to pervade the whole of the mountains.</p> + +<p>Soon, however, a thing happened which for a time at least drove man and +everything else out of our minds.</p> + +<p>We still lingered around the neighborhood of our home, because, I think, +we felt safer there, where we knew every inch of the hills and every +bush, and tree, and stone. It had been very hot for weeks, so that the +earth was parched dry, and the streams had shrunk till, in places where +torrents were pouring but a few weeks ago, there was now no more than a +dribble of water going over the stones. During the day we hardly went +about at all, but from soon after sunrise to an hour or so before sunset +we kept in the shadow of the brushwood along the water's edge.</p> + +<p>One evening the sun did not seem to be able to finish setting, but after +it had gone down the red glow still stayed in the sky to westward, and +instead of fading it glowed visibly brighter as the night went on. All +night my father was uneasy, growling and grumbling to himself and +continually sniffing the air to westward; but the atmos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>phere was +stagnant and hot and dead all night, with not a breath of wind moving. +When daylight came the glow died out of the western sky, but in place of +it a heavy gray cloud hung over the farther mountains and hid their tops +from sight. We went to bed that morning feeling very uncomfortable and +restless, and by mid-day we were up again. And now we knew what the +matter was.</p> + +<p>A breeze had sprung up from the west, and when I woke after a few hours' +sleep—sleep which had been one long nightmare of man and thunder-sticks +and broken leg—the air was full of a new smell, very sharp and pungent; +and not only was there the smell, but with the breeze the cloud from the +west had been rolling towards us, and the whole mountain-side was +covered with a thin haze, like a mist, only different from any mist that +I had seen. And it was this haze that smelled so strongly. Instead of +clearing away, as mist ought to do when the sun grows hot, this one +became denser as the day went on, half veiling the sun itself. And we +soon found that things—unusual things—were going on in the mountains. +The birds were flying excitedly about, and the squirrels chattering, and +every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>thing was travelling from west to east, and on all sides we heard +the same thing.</p> + +<p>"The world's on fire! quick, quick, quick!" screamed the squirrels as +they raced along the ground or jumped from tree to tree overhead. "Fire! +fire!" called the myrtle-robin as it passed. "Firrrrrre!" shouted the +blue jay. A coyote came limping by, yelping that the end of the world +was at hand. Pumas passed snarling and growling angrily, first at us, +and then over their shoulders at the smoke that rolled behind. Deer +plunged up to us, stood for a minute quivering with terror, and plunged +on again into the brush. Overhead and along the ground was an almost +constant stream of birds and animals, all hurrying in the same +direction.</p> + +<p>Presently there came along another family of bears, the parents and two +cubs just about the size of Kahwa and myself, the cubs whimpering and +whining as they ran. The father bear asked my father if we were not +going, too; but my father thought not. He was older and bigger than the +other bear, and had seen a forest fire when he was a cub, and his father +then had saved them by taking to the water.</p> + +<p>"If a strong <a name="winds" id="winds"></a><ins title="as in original">winds</ins> gets up," he said, "you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> cannot escape by running +away from the fire, because it will travel faster than you. It may drive +you before it for days, until you are worn out, and there's no knowing +where it will drive you. It may drive you unexpectedly straight into +man. I shall try the water."</p> + +<p>The others listened to what he had to say, but they were too frightened +to pay much attention, and soon went on again, leaving us to face the +fire. And I confess that I wished that father would let us go, too.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the smoke had been growing thicker and thicker. It made eyes +and throat smart, and poor little Kahwa was crying with discomfort and +terror. Before sunset the air was so thick that we could not see a +hundred yards in any direction, and as the twilight deepened the whole +western half of the sky, from north to south and almost overhead, seemed +to be aflame. Now, too, we could hear the roaring of the fire in the +distance, like the noise the wind makes in the pine-trees before a +thunderstorm. Then my father began to move, not away from the fire, +however, but down the stream, and the stream ran almost due west +straight towards it. What a terrible trip that was! The fire was, of +course,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> much farther away than it looked; the smoke had been carried +with the wind many miles ahead of the fire itself, and we could not yet +see the flames, but only the awful glare in the sky. But, in my +inexperience, I thought it was close upon us, and, with the dreadful +roaring growing louder and louder in my ears, every minute was an agony.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<img src="images/i1-3.png" height="500" width="360" +alt="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">"NOT FIFTY YARDS AWAY WAS MAN."</span> +</div> + +<p>But my father and mother went steadily on, and there was nothing to do +but to follow them. Sometimes we left the stream for a little to make a +short-cut, but we soon came back to it, and for the most part we kept in +the middle of the water, or where it was deep close to the bank.</p> + +<p>At last we reached our pool above the beaver-dam, and here, feeling his +way cautiously well out into the middle, till he found a place where it +was just deep enough for Kahwa and me to be able to lift our heads above +the water, father stopped. By this time the air was so hot that it was +hard to breathe without dipping one's mouth constantly in the water, and +for the roaring of the flames I could not hear Kahwa whimpering at my +side, or the rush of the stream below the dam. And we soon found that we +were not alone in the pool. My friend the kingfisher was not there,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> but +close beside us were old Grey Wolf and his wife, and, as I remembered +that Grey Wolf was considered the wisest animal in the mountains, I +began to feel more comfortable, and was glad that we had not run away +with the others. The beavers—what a lot of them there were!—were in a +state of great excitement, climbing out on to the top of the dam and +slapping the logs and the water with their tails, then plunging into the +water, only to climb out again and plunge in once more. Once a small +herd of deer, seven or eight of them, came rushing into the water, +evidently intending to stay there, but their courage failed them. +Whether it was the proximity of Grey Wolf or whether it was mere +nervousness I do not know, but after they had settled down in the water +one of them was suddenly panic-stricken, and plunged for the bank and +off into the woods, followed by all the rest.</p> + +<p>When we reached the pool there was still one ridge or spur of the +mountains between us and the fire, making a black wall in front of us, +above which was nothing but a furnace of swirling smoke and red-hot air. +It seemed as if we waited a long time for the flames to top that wall, +because, I suppose, they travelled slowly down in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> the valley beyond, +where they did not get the full force of the wind. Then we saw the sky +just above the top of the wall glowing brighter from red to yellow; then +came a few scattered, tossing bits of flame against the glow and the +swirling smoke; and then, with one roar, it was upon us. In an instant +the whole line of the mountain ridge was a mass of flame, the noise +redoubled till it was almost deafening, and, as the wind now caught it, +the fire leaped from tree to tree, not pausing at one before it +swallowed the next, but in one steady rush, without check or +interruption, it swept over the hill-top and down the nearer slope, and +instantaneously, as it seemed, we were in the middle of it.</p> + +<p>I remember recalling then what my father had said to the other bears +about not being able to run away from the fire if the wind were blowing +strongly.</p> + +<p>Had we not been out in the middle of the pool, we must have perished. +The fire was on both sides of the stream—indeed, as we learned later, +it reached for many miles on both sides, and where there was only the +usual width of water the flames joined hand across it and swept up the +stream in one solid wall. Where we were was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> the whole width of the +pool, while, besides, the beavers had cut down the larger trees +immediately near the water, so there was less for the fire to feed upon. +But even so I did not believe that we could come through alive. It was +impossible to open my eyes above water, and the hot air scorched my +throat. There was nothing for it but to keep my head under water and +hold my breath as long as I could, then put my nose out just enough to +breathe once, and plunge it in again. How long that went on I do not +know, but it seemed to me ages; though the worst of it can only have +lasted for minutes. But at the end of those minutes all the water in +that huge pool was hot.</p> + +<p>I saw my father raising his head and shoulders slowly out of the water +and beginning to look about him. That gave me courage, and I did the +same. The first thing that I realized was that the roaring was less +loud, and then, though it was still almost intolerably <a name="hot" id="hot"></a><ins title="original had fullstop">hot,</ins> I found that +it was possible to keep one's head in the open air and one's eyes open. +Looking back, I saw that the line of flame had already swept far away, +and was even now surmounting the top of the next high ridge; and it was, +I knew, at that moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> devouring the familiar cedars by our home, just +as it had devoured the trees on either side of the beavers' pool. On all +sides of us the bigger trees were still in flames, and from everywhere +thick white smoke was rising, and over all the mountain-side, right down +to the water's edge, there was not one green leaf or twig. Everything +was black. The <a name="brush" id="brush"></a><ins title="original had hyphen">brushwood</ins> was completely gone. The trees were no more +than bare trunks, some of them still partially wreathed in flames. The +whole earth was black, and from every side rose columns and jets and +streams of smoke. It seemed incredible that such a change could have +been wrought so instantaneously. It was awful. Just a few minutes and +what had been a mountain-side clothed in splendid trees, making one +dense shield of green, sloping down to the bottom-land by the stream, +with its thickets of undergrowth, and all the long cool green herbage by +the water, had been swept away, and in its place was only a black and +smoking wilderness. And what we saw before our eyes was the same for +miles and miles to north and south of us, for a hundred miles to the +west from which the fire had come; and every few minutes, as long as the +wind held, carried desolation another mile to eastward.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>And what of all the living things that had died? Had the animals and +birds that had passed us earlier in the day escaped? The deer which had +fled from the pool at the last moment—they, I knew, must have been +overtaken in that first terrible rush of the flames; and I wondered what +the chances were that the bears who had declined to stay with us, the +squirrels, the coyote, the pumas, and the hosts of birds that had been +hurrying eastward all day, would be able to keep moving long enough to +save themselves. And what of all the insects and smaller things that +must be perishing by millions every minute? I do not know whether I was +more frightened at the thought of what we had escaped or grateful to my +father for the course he had taken.</p> + +<p>It is improbable that I thought of all this at the time, but I know I +was dreadfully frightened; and it makes me laugh now to think what a +long time it was before we could persuade Kahwa to put her head above +water and look about her. Our eyes and throats were horribly sore, but +otherwise none of us was hurt. But though we were alive, life did not +look very bright for us. Where should we go? That was the first +question. And what should we find to eat in all this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> smoking +wilderness? While we sat in the middle of the pool wondering what we +could do or whether it would be safe to do anything, we saw Grey Wolf +start to go away. He climbed out on the bank while his wife sat in the +water and watched him. He got out safely, and then put his nose down to +snuff at the ground. The instant his nose touched the earth he gave a +yelp, and plunged back into the water again. He had burnt the tip of his +nose, for the ground was baking hot, as we soon discovered for +ourselves. When we first stepped out on shore, our feet were so wet that +we did not feel the heat, but in a few seconds they began to dry, and +then the sooner we scrambled back into the water again, the better.</p> + +<p>How long it would have taken the earth to cool again I do not know. It +was covered with a layer of burned stuff, ashes, and charred wood, which +everywhere continued smouldering underneath, and all through the morning +of the next day little spirals of smoke were rising from the ground in +every direction. Fortunately, at mid-day came a thunderstorm which +lasted well on towards evening, and when the rain stopped the ground had +ceased smoking. Many of the trees<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> still smouldered and burned inside. +Sometimes the flame would eat its way out again to the surface, so that +the tree would go on burning in the middle of the wet forest until it +was consumed; and for days afterwards, on scratching away the stuff on +the surface, we would come to a layer of half burned sticks that was +still too hot to touch.</p> + +<p>We of course kept to the stream. There along the edges we found food, +for the rushes and grass and plants of all kinds had burned to the +water-line, but below that the stems and roots remained fresh and good. +But it was impossible to avoid getting the black dust into one's nose +and mouth, and our throats and nostrils were still full of the smell of +the smoke. No amount of water would wash it out. The effect of the +thunderstorm soon passed off, and by the next day everything was as dry +as ever, and the least puff of wind filled the air with clouds of black +powder which made us sneeze, and, getting into our eyes, kept them red +and sore. I do not think that in all my life I have spent such a +miserable time as during those days while we were trying to escape from +the region of the fire.</p> + +<p>Of course, we did not know that there was any escape. Perhaps the whole +world had burned.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> But my father was sure that we should get out of it +some time or other if we only kept straight on. And keep on we did, +hardly ever leaving the water, but travelling on and on up the stream as +it got smaller and smaller, until finally there was no stream at all, +but only a spring bubbling out of the mountain-side. So we crossed over +the burnt ground until we came to the beginning of another stream on the +other side, and followed that down just as we had followed the first one +up. And perhaps the most dreadful thing all the time was the utter +silence of the woods. As a rule, both day and night, they were full of +the noises of other animals and birds, but now there was not a sound in +all the mountains. We seemed to be the only living things left.</p> + +<p>The stream which we now followed was that on which the men whom we had +seen were camping, and presently we came to the place where they had +been. The chopped-log house was a pile of ashes and half-burnt wood. +About the ruins we found all sorts of curious things that were new to +us—among them, things which I now know were kettles and frying-pans; +and we came across lumps of their food, but it was all too much covered +with the black powder to be eat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>able. There we stayed for the best part +of a day, and then we went on without having seen a sign of man himself, +and wondering what had become of him.</p> + +<p>Seven or eight days had passed since the fire, when, the day after we +passed the place where man had lived, we came to a beaver-dam across the +stream, and the beavers told us that, some hours before the fire reached +there, they had seen the men hurrying downstream, but they did not know +whether they had succeeded in escaping or not. And now other life began +to reappear. We met badgers and woodchucks and rats which had taken +refuge in their holes, and had at first been unable to force their way +out again through the mass of burnt stuff which covered the ground and +choked up their burrows. The air, too, began to be full of insects, +which had been safe underground or in the hearts of trees, and were now +hatching out. And then we met birds—woodpeckers first, and afterwards +jays, which were working back into the burnt district, and from them it +was that we first learned for certain that it was only a burnt district, +and that there was part of the world which had escaped. So we pushed on, +until one morning, when daylight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> came, we saw in the distance a +hill-top on which the trees still stood with all their leaves +unconsumed. And how good and cool it looked!</p> + +<p>We did not stop to sleep, but travelled on all through the day, going as +fast as we could along the rocky edges of the stream, which was now +almost wide enough to be a river, when suddenly we heard strange noises +ahead of us, and we knew what the noises were, and that they meant man +again. Men were coming towards us along the bank of the stream, so we +had to leave it and hurry into the woods. There, though there was no +shelter but the burnt tree-stumps, we were safe and all we had to do was +to squat perfectly still, and it was impossible even for us, at a little +<a name="distance" id="distance"></a><ins title="original had dis-stance">distance</ins>, to distinguish each other from burnt tree-stumps. So we sat +and watched the men pass. There were five of them, each carrying a +bundle nearly as big as himself on his back, and they laughed and talked +noisily as they passed, without a suspicion that four bears were looking +at them from less than a hundred yards away.</p> + +<p>As soon as they had passed, we went on again, and before evening we came +to places where the trees were only partly burned; here and there one +had escaped altogether. Then, close by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> stream, a patch of willows +was as green and fresh as if there had been no fire; and at last we had +left the burnt country behind us. How good it was—the smell of the dry +pine-needles and the good, soft brown earth underneath, and the delight +of the taste of food that was once more free from smoke, and the glory +of that first roll in the green grass among the fresh, juicy undergrowth +by the water!</p> + +<p>That next day we slept—really slept—for the first time since the night +in the beavers' pool.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">KAHWA.</span></h3> + + +<p>We soon found that the country which we were now in was simply full of +animals. Of course it had had its share of inhabitants before the fire, +and, in addition, all those that fled before the flames had crowded into +it; besides which the beasts of prey from all directions were drawn +towards the same place by the abundance of food which was easy to get. +We heard terri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>ble stories of sufferings and narrow escapes, and the +poor deer especially, when they had at last won to a place of safety +from the flames, were generally so tired and so bewildered that they +fell an easy prey to the pumas and wolves. All night long the forest was +full of the yelping of the coyotes revelling over the bodies of animals +that the larger beasts had killed and only partly eaten, and every +creature seemed to be quarrelling with those of its kind, the former +inhabitants of the neighborhood resenting the intrusion of the +newcomers. For ourselves, nobody attacked us. We found two other +families of bears quite close to us, but though we did not make friends +at first, they did not quarrel with us. We were glad enough to live in +peace, and to be able to devote ourselves to learning something about +the new country.</p> + +<p>In general it was very much like the place that we had left—the same +succession of mountain after mountain, all densely covered with trees, +and with the streams winding down through gulch and valley. The stream +that we had followed was now a river, broader all along its course than +the <a name="beavers" id="beavers"></a><ins title="original had beaver's">beavers'</ins> pool which had saved our lives, and at one place, about two +miles beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> the end of the burned region, it passed through a valley, +wider than any that I had seen, with an expanse of level land on either +side. Here it was, on this level bottom-land, that I first tasted what +are, I think, next to honey, of all wild things the greatest treat that +a bear knows—ripe blueberries. But this "berry-path," as we called it, +was to play a very important part in my life, and I must explain.</p> + +<p>We had soon learned that we were now almost in the middle of men. There +was the party which had passed us going up the stream into the burned +country. There were two more log-houses about a mile from the edge of +the burned country, and therefore also behind us. There were others +farther down the stream, and almost every day men passed either up or +down the river, going from one set of houses to another. Finally we +heard, and, before we had been there a week, saw with our own eyes, that +only some ten miles farther on, where our stream joined another and made +a mighty river, there was a town, which had all sprung up since last +winter, in which hundreds of men lived together. This was the great +draw-back to our new home. But if we went farther on, the chances were +that we should only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> come to more and more men; and for the present, by +lying up most of the day, and only going out at night in the direction +of their houses, there was no difficulty in keeping away from them.</p> + +<p>Familiarity with them indeed had lessened our terror. We certainly had +no desire to hurt them, and they, as they passed up and down or went +about their work digging in the ground along the side of the river or +chopping down trees, appeared to give no thought to us; and with that +fear removed, even though we kept constantly on the alert, lest they +should unexpectedly come too near us, our life was happy and free from +care. Father and mother grew to be like their old selves again, less +gruff and nervous than they had been since the memorable day when we saw +Cinnamon with his broken leg; and as for Kahwa and me, though we romped +less than we used to do—for we were seven months old now, and at seven +months a bear is getting to be a big and serious animal—we were as +happy as two young bears could be. After a long hot day, during which we +had been sleeping in the shade, what could be more delightful than to go +and lie in the cool stream, where it flowed only a foot or so deep, and +as clear as the air itself, over a firm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> sandy bottom? There were frogs, +and snails, and beetles of all sorts, along the water's edge, and the +juicy stems of the reeds and water-plants. Then, in the night we +wandered abroad finding lily roots, and the sweet ferns, and camas, and +mushrooms, with another visit to the river in the early morning and +perhaps a trout to wind up with before the sun drove us under cover +again. And above all there was the berry-patch.</p> + +<p>The mere smell of a berry-patch at the end of summer, when the sun has +been beating down all day, so that the air is heavy with the scent of +the cooking fruit, is delicious enough, but it is nothing to the +sweetness of the berries themselves.</p> + +<p>It was in the evening, after our dip in the river, when twilight was +shading into night, that we used to visit the patch. It was a great open +space in a bend of the river, half a mile long and nearly as wide, +without a tree on it, and nothing but just the <a name="blueberry" id="blueberry"></a><ins title="original had hyphen">blueberry</ins> bushes growing +close together all over it, reaching about up to one's chest as one +walked through, and every bush loaded with berries. Not only we, but +every bear in the neighborhood, used to go there each evening—the two +other families of whom I have spoken, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> also two other single +he-bears who had no families. One of these was the only animal in the +neighborhood—except the porcupines, which every bear hates—whom I +disliked and feared. He was a bad-tempered beast, bigger than father, +with whom at our first meeting he wanted to pick a quarrel, while making +friends with mother. She, however, would not have anything to say to +him. When he was getting ready to fight my father—walking sideways at +him and snarling, while my father, I am bound to confess, backed +away—mother did not say a word, but went straight at him as she had +rushed at the puma that day when she saved my life. Then father jumped +at him also, and between them they bundled him along till he fairly took +to his heels and ran. But whenever we met him after that—and we saw him +every evening at the patch—he snarled viciously at us, and I, at least, +was careful to keep father and mother between him and me. If he had +caught any one of us alone, I believe he would have killed us; so we +took care that he never should.</p> + +<p>I can see the berry-patch now, lying white and shining in the moonlight, +with here and there round the edges, and even sometimes pretty well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> out +into the middle, if the night was not too light, the black spots showing +where the bears were feeding. We enjoyed our feasts in silence, and +beyond an occasional snapping of a twig, or the cry of some animal from +the forest, or the screech of a passing owl, there was not a sound but +that of our own eating. One night, however, there came an interruption.</p> + +<p>It was bright moonlight, and we were revelling in our enjoyment of the +fruit, but father was curiously restless. The air was very still, but in +a little gust of wind early in the evening father declared that he had +smelled man. As an hour passed and there was no further sign of him, +however, we forgot him in the delight of the ripe berries. Suddenly from +the other side of the patch, nearly half a mile away from us, rang out +the awful voice of the thunder-stick. We did not wait to see what was +happening, but made at all speed for the shelter of the trees, and tore +on up the mountain slope. There was no further sound, but we did not +dare to go back to the patch that night, nor did we see any of the other +bears; so that it was not until some days afterwards that we heard that +the thunder-stick had very nearly killed the mother of one of the other +families.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> It had cut a deep wound in her neck, and she had saved +herself only by plunging into the woods. If we had known all this at the +time, I doubt if we should have gone back to the berry-patch as we did +on the very next night.</p> + +<p>On our way to the patch we met the bad-tempered bear coming away from +it. That was curious, and if it had been anybody else we should +undoubtedly have asked him why he was leaving the feast at that time in +the evening. Had we done so, it might have saved a lot of trouble. As it +was, we only snarled back at him as he passed snarling by us, and went +on our way. We were very careful, however, and took a long time to make +our way out of the trees down to the edge of the bushes; but there was +no sound to make us uneasy, nor any smell of man in such wind as blew. +Of course we took care to approach the patch at the farthest point from +where we had heard the thunder-stick on the night before. It was a +cloudy night, and the moon shone only at intervals. Taking advantage of +a passing cloud, we slipped out from the cover of the trees into the +berry-bushes. We could see no other bears, but they might be hidden by +the clouds. In a minute, however, the moon shone out, and had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> there +been any others there—at least, as far out from the edge as +ourselves—we must have been able to see them. Certainly, alas! we were +seen, for even as I was looking round the patch in the first ray of the +moonlight to see if any of our friends were there, the thunder-stick +rang out again, and once more we plunged for the trees. But this time +the sound was much nearer, and there was a second report before we were +well into the shadow, and then a third. So terrified were we that there +was no thought of stopping, but after we got into the woods we kept +straight on as fast as we could go, father and mother in front, I next, +and Kahwa behind; and none of us looked back, for we heard the shouts of +men and the crashing of branches as they ran, and again and again the +thunder-stick spoke.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I became aware that Kahwa was not behind me. I stopped and +looked round, but she was nowhere to be seen. I remembered having heard +her give a sudden squeal, as if she had trodden on something sharp, but +I had paid no attention to it at the time. Now I became frightened, and +called to father and mother to stop. They were a long way ahead, and it +was some time before I could get near enough to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> attract their attention +and tell them that Kahwa was missing.</p> + +<p>Mother wished to charge straight down the hill again at the men, +thunder-sticks or no thunder-sticks; but father dissuaded her, and at +last we began to retrace our steps cautiously, keeping our ears and +noses open for any sign either of Kahwa or of man. As we came near the +edge of the wood, noises reached us—shouts and stamping; and then, +mixed with the other sounds, I clearly heard Kahwa's voice. She was +crying in anger and pain, as if she was fighting, and fighting +desperately. A minute later we were near enough to see, and a miserable +sight it was that we saw.</p> + +<p>Out in the middle of the berry-patch, in the brilliant moonlight, was +poor Kahwa with four men. They had fastened ropes around her, and two of +them at the end of one rope on one side, and two at the end of one on +the other, were dragging her across the middle of the patch. She was +fighting every inch of the way, but her struggles against four men were +useless, and slowly, yard by yard, she was being dragged away from us.</p> + +<p>But if she could not fight four men, could not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> we? There were four of +us, and I said so to my father. But he only grunted, and reminded me of +the thunder-sticks. It was only too true. Without the thunder-sticks we +should have had no difficulty in meeting them, but with those weapons in +their hands it would only be sacrificing our lives in vain to attempt a +rescue. So there we had to stand and watch, my mother all the time +whimpering and my father growling, and sitting up on his haunches and +rubbing his nose in his chest. We dared not show ourselves in the open, +so we followed the edge of the patch, keeping alongside of the men, but +in the shadow of the trees. They pulled Kahwa across the middle of the +patch into the woods on the other side, and down to the riverbank, +where, we knew, there began an open path which the men had beaten in +going to and from their houses half a mile farther on. Here there were +several houses in a bunch together. Inside one of these they shut her, +and then all went in to another house themselves. We stayed around, and +two or three times later on we saw one or more of the men come out and +stand for a while at Kahwa's door listening; but at last they came out +no more, and we saw the lights go out in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> house, and we knew that +the men had gone to sleep.</p> + +<p>Then we crept down cautiously till we could hear Kahwa whimpering and +growling through the walls. My mother spoke to her, and there was +silence for a moment, and then, when mother spoke again, the poor little +thing recognized her voice and squealed with delight. But what could we +do? We talked to her for awhile, and tried to scratch away the earth +from round the wall, in the hope of getting at her; but it was all +useless, and as the day began to dawn nothing remained but to make off +before the men arose, and to crawl away to hide ourselves in the woods +again.</p> + +<p>What a wretched night that was! Hitherto I do not think that I had +thought much of Kahwa. I had taken her as a matter of course, played +with her and quarrelled with her by turns, without stopping to think +what life might be without her. But now I thought of it, and as I lay +awake through the morning I realized how much she had been to me, and +wondered what the men would do with her. Most of all I wondered why they +should have wanted to catch her at all. We had no wish to do them any +harm. We were nobody's enemy; least of all was little Kahwa.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> Why could +not men live in peace with us as we were willing to live in peace with +them?</p> + +<p>Long before it was dusk next evening we were in the woods as near to the +men's houses as we dared to go, but we could hear no sound of my +sister's voice. There appeared to be only one man about the place, and +he was at work chopping wood, until just at sunset, when the other three +men came back from down the stream, and we noticed that they carried +long ropes slung over their arms. Were those the ropes with which they +had dragged Kahwa the night before? If so, had they again, while we +slept, dragged her off somewhere else? We feared it must be so.</p> + +<p>Impatiently we waited until it was dark enough to trust ourselves in the +open near the houses, and then we soon knew that our fears were +justified. The door of the house in which Kahwa had been shut was open; +the men went in and out of it, and evidently Kahwa was not there. Nor +was there any trace of her about the buildings. So under my father's +guidance we started on the path down the stream by which the three men +had returned, and it was not long before we found the marks of where she +had struggled against her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> captors, and in places the scent of her trail +was still perceptible, in spite of the strong man-smell which pervaded +the beaten path.</p> + +<p>So we followed the trail down until we came to more houses; then made a +circuit and followed on again, still finding evidence that she had +passed. Soon we came to more houses, at ever shortening intervals, until +the bank of the stream on both sides was either continuously occupied by +houses or showed traces of men being constantly at work there. And +beyond was the town itself. It was of no use for us to go farther. In +the town we could see lights streaming from many of the buildings, and +the shouting of men's voices came to our ears. We wandered round the +outskirts of the town till it was daylight, and then drew back into the +hills and lay down again, very sad and hungry—for we had hardly thought +of food—and very lonesome.</p> + +<p>Kahwa, we felt sure, was somewhere among those houses in the town. But +that was little comfort to us. And all the time we wondered what man +wanted with her, and why he could not have left us to be happy, as we +had been before he came.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">LIFE IN CAMP.</span></h3> + + +<p>One of the results of Kahwa's disappearance was to make me much more +solitary than I had ever been before, not merely because I did not have +her to play with, but now, for the first time, I took to wandering on +excursions by myself. And these excursions all had one object:—to find +Kahwa.</p> + +<p>For some days after her capture we waited about the outskirts of the +town nearly all night long; but on the third or fourth morning father +made up his mind that it was useless, and, though mother persuaded him +not to abandon the search for another night or two, he insisted after +that on giving up and returning to the neighborhood where we had been +living since the fire. So we turned our backs upon the town, and, for my +part very reluctantly, went home.</p> + +<p>The moon was not yet much past the full, and I can remember now how the +berry-patch looked that night as we passed it, lying white and shining +in the moonlight. We saw no other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> bears at it, and did not stop, but +kept under the trees round the edges, and went on to our favorite +resting-place, where, a few hundred yards from the river, a couple of +huge trees had at some time been blown down. Round their great trunks as +they lay on the ground, young trees and a mass of elder-bushes and other +brushwood had sprung up, making a dense thicket. The two logs lay side +by side, and in between them, with the tangle of bushes all round and +the branches of the other trees overhead, there was a complete and +impenetrable shelter.</p> + +<p>We had used this place so much that a regular path was worn to it +through the bushes. This night as we came near we saw recent prints of a +bear's feet on the path, and the bear that made them was evidently a big +one. From the way father growled when he saw them, I think he guessed at +once whose feet they were. I know that I had my suspicions—suspicions +which soon proved to be correct.</p> + +<p>During our absence our enemy, the surly bear that I have spoken of, had +taken it into his head that he would occupy our home. Of course he had +lived in this district much longer than we, and, had this been his home +when we first came,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> we should never have thought of disputing +possession with him. But it had been our home now, so far as we had any +regular home at this time of year, ever since our arrival after the +fire, while he had lived half a mile away. Now, however, there he was, +standing obstinately in the pathway, swinging his head from side to +side, and evidently intending to fight rather than go away. We all +stopped, my father in front, my mother next, and I behind. I have said +that the stranger was bigger than my father, and in an ordinary meeting +in the forest I do not think my father would have attempted to stand up +to him; but this was different. It was our home, and we all felt that he +had no right there, but that, on the contrary, he was behaving as he was +out of pure bad temper and a desire to bully us and make himself +unpleasant. Moreover, the events of the last few days had rendered my +father and mother irritable, and they were in no mood to be polite to +anybody.</p> + +<p>Usually it takes a long time to make two bears fight. We begin slowly, +growling and walking sideways towards each other, and only getting +nearer inch by inch. But on this occasion there was not much room in the +path, and father was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> thoroughly exasperated. He hardly waited at all, +but just stood sniffing with his nose up for a minute to see if the +other showed any sign of going away, and then, without further warning, +threw himself at him. I had never seen my father in a real fight, and +now he was simply splendid. Before the stranger had time to realize what +was happening, he was flung back on his haunches, and in a moment they +were rolling over and over in one mass in the bushes. At first it was +impossible to see what was going on, but, in spite of the ferocity of my +father's rush, it soon became evident that in the end the bigger bear +must win. My father's face was buried in the other's left shoulder, and +he had evidently got a good grip there; but he was almost on his back, +for the stranger had worked himself uppermost, and we could see that he +was trying to get his teeth round my father's <a name="foreleg" id="foreleg"></a><ins title="no hyphen in original">fore-leg</ins>. Had he once got +hold, nothing could have saved the leg, bone and all, from being crushed +to pieces, and father, if not killed, would certainly have been beaten, +and probably crippled for life. And sooner or later it seemed certain +that the stranger would get his hold.</p> + +<p>Then it was that my mother interfered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> Hurling herself at him, she +threw her whole weight into one swinging blow on the side of the big +bear's head, and in another second had plunged her teeth into the back +of his neck. My father's grip in the fleshy part of the shoulder, +however painful it might be, had little real effect; but where my mother +had attacked, behind the right ear, was a different matter. The stranger +was obliged to leave my father's leg alone and to turn and defend +himself against this new onslaught; but, big as he was, he now had more +on his hands than he could manage. As soon as he turned his attention to +my mother, my father let go of his shoulder, and in his turn tried to +grip the other's fore-leg. There was nothing for the stranger to do now +but to get out of it as fast as he could; and even I could not help +admiring his strength as he lifted himself up and shook mother off as +lightly as she would have shaken me. She escaped the wicked blow that he +aimed at her, and dodged out of his reach, and my father, letting go his +hold of the fore-leg, did the same. The stranger, with one on either +side of him, backed himself against one of the fallen logs and waited +for them to attack him. But that they had no wish to do. All that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +wanted was that he should go away, and they told him so. They moved +aside from the path on either hand to give him space to go, and slowly +and surlily he began to move.</p> + +<p>I was still standing in the pathway. Suddenly he made a movement as if +to rush at me, but my father and mother jumped towards him +simultaneously, while I plunged into the bushes, and he was compelled to +turn and defend himself against my parents again. But they did not +attack him, though they followed him slowly along the path. Every step +or two he stopped to make an ugly start back at one or the other, but he +knew that he was overmatched, and yard by yard he made off, my father +and mother following him as far as the edge of the thicket, and standing +to watch him out of sight. And I was glad when he was safely gone and +they came back to me.</p> + +<p>It was not a pleasant home-coming, and we were all restless and nervous +for days afterwards; and then it was that I vowed to myself that, if I +ever grew up and the opportunity came, I would wreak vengeance on that +bear.</p> + +<p>If we were all nervous, I was the worst, and in my restlessness took to +going off by myself. Up to this time I do not think I had ever been a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +hundred yards away from one or other of my parents, and now, when I +started out alone, it was always in horrible fear of meeting the big +bear when there was no one to stand by me. Gradually, however, I +acquired confidence in myself, making each night a longer trip alone, +and each night going in the direction of the town. At last, one night, I +found myself at the edge of the town itself, and now when I was alone I +did not stop at the first building that I came to, but very +cautiously—for the man-smell was thick around me, and terrified me in +spite of myself—very cautiously I began to thread my way in between the +buildings.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> As I snuffed round each building, I found all sorts of new +things to eat, with strange tastes, but most of them were good. That the +men were not all asleep was plain from the shouts and noises which +reached me at times from the centre of the big town, where, as I could +see by occasional glimpses which I caught of the nearer buildings, many +of the houses had bright lights streaming from them all night. Avoiding +these, I wandered on, picking up things to eat, and all the while +keeping ears and nose open for a sign of Kahwa.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The new mining town or camp of the Far West has no long +rows of houses or paved streets. The houses are built of logs or of +boards, rarely more than one story high, and are set down irregularly. +There maybe one more or less well-defined "street"—the main trail +running through the camp—but even along that there will be wide gaps +between the houses; while, for the rest, the buildings are at all sorts +of angles, so that a man or a bear may wander through them as he +pleases, regardless of whether he is following a "street" or not.</p></div></div> + +<p>I stayed thus, moving in and out among the buildings, till dawn. Once a +dog inside a house barked furiously as I came near, and I heard a man's +voice speaking to it, and I hurried on. As the sky began to lighten, I +made my way out into the woods again, and rejoined my father and mother +before the sun was up. When I joined them, my father growled at me +because I smelled of man.</p> + +<p>The next night found me down in the town again. I began to know my way +about. I learned which houses contained dogs, and avoided them. Other +animals besides myself, I discovered, came into the town at night for +the sake of the food which they found lying about—coyotes and +wood-rats, and polecats; but though bears would occasionally visit the +buildings nearest to the woods, no other penetrated into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> heart of +the town as I did. It had a curious fascination for me, and gradually I +grew so much at home, that even when a man came through the buildings +towards me, I only slipped out of his way round a corner, and—for man's +sight and smell are both miserably bad compared with ours—he never had +a suspicion that I was near.</p> + +<p>On the third or fourth night I had gone nearer to the lighted buildings +than I had ever been before, when I heard a sound that made me stop dead +and throw myself up on my haunches to listen. Yes, there could be no +doubt of it! It was Kahwa's voice. Anyone who did not know her might +have thought that she was angry, but I knew better. She was making +exactly the noise that she used to make when romping with me, and I knew +that she was not angry, but only pretending, and that she must be +playing with someone. I suppose I ought to have been glad that she was +alive and happy enough to be able to play, but it only enraged me and +made me wonder who her playmates might be. Then gradually the truth, the +incredible truth, dawned upon me. Truly incredible it seemed at first, +but there could be no doubt of it. <i>She was playing with man.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>I could hear men's voices speaking to her as if in anger, and then I +heard her voice and theirs in turn again, and at last I recognized that +their anger was no more real than hers. The sounds came from where the +lights were brightest, and it was long before I could make up my mind to +go near enough to be able to see. At last, however, I crept to a place +from which I could look out between two buildings, keeping in the deep +shade myself, and I can see now every detail of what met my eyes as +plainly as if it was all before me at this minute.</p> + +<p>There was a building larger than those around it, with a big door wide +open, and from the door and from the windows on either side poured +streams of light out into the night. In the middle of the light, and +almost in front of the door, was a group of five or six men, and in the +centre of the group was Kahwa, tied to a post by a chain which was +fastened to a collar round her neck. I saw a man stoop down and hold +something out to her—presumably something to eat—and then, as she came +to take it from the hand which he held out, he suddenly drew it away and +hit her on the side of the head with his other hand. He did not hit hard +enough to hurt her, and it was evidently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> done in play, because as he +did it she got up on her hind-legs and slapped at him, first with one +hand and then with the other, growling all the time in angry +make-believe. Sometimes the man came too near, and Kahwa would hit him, +and the other men all burst out laughing. Then I saw him walk +deliberately right up to her, and they took hold of each other and +wrestled, just as Kahwa and I used to do by the old place under the +cedar-trees when we were little cubs. I could see, too, that now and +then she was not doing her best, and did not want to hurt him, and he +certainly did not hurt her.</p> + +<p>At last the men went into the building, leaving Kahwa alone outside; but +other men were continually coming out of, or going into, the open door, +and I was afraid to approach her, or even to make any noise to tell her +of my presence. So I sat in the shade of the buildings and watched. +Nearly every man who passed stopped for a minute and spoke to her, but +none except the man whom I had first seen tried to play with her or went +within her reach. The whole thing seemed to me incredible, but there it +was under my eyes, and, somehow, it made me feel terribly lonely—all +the lonelier, I think, because she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> these new friends; for as +friends she undoubtedly regarded them, while I could not even go near +enough to speak to her.</p> + +<p>At last so many men came out of the building that I was afraid to stay. +Some of them went one way, and some another, and I had to keep +constantly moving my position to avoid being seen. In doing so I found +myself farther and father away from the centre of the town, and nearer +to the outskirts. The men shouted and laughed, and made so much noise +that I did not dare to go back, but made my way out into the woods. And +for the first time I did not go home to my father and mother, but stayed +by myself in the brush.</p> + +<p>The next evening I again made my way into the town, and once more saw +the same sights as on the preceding night. This evening, however, there +was a wind blowing, and it blew directly from me, as I stood in the same +place, to Kahwa in front of the lighted door. Suddenly, while she was in +the middle of her play, I saw her stop and begin to snuff up the wind +with every sign of excitement. Then she called to me. Answer I dared +not, but I knew that she had recognized me and would understand why I +did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> not speak. While she was still calling to me, the man with whom she +had been playing—the same man as on the night before—came up and gave +her a cuff on the head, and she lost her temper in earnest. She hit at +him angrily, but he jumped out of her way (how I wished she had caught +him!), and, after trying for awhile to tempt her with play again, he and +the other men left her and went into the building. Then she gave all her +time to me, and at last, when nobody was near, I spoke just loud enough +for her to hear. She simply danced with excitement, running to the end +of her chain toward me until it threw her back on to her hind-legs, +circling round and round the stump to which she was fastened, and then +charging out to the end of her chain again, all the time whimpering and +calling to me in a way which made me long to go to her.</p> + +<p>I did not dare to show myself, however, but waited until, as on the +night before, just as it was beginning to get light, the men all came +out of the building and scattered in different directions. This time, +however, I did not go back to the woods, but merely shifted out of the +men's way behind the dark corners of the buildings, hoping that somehow +I would find an opportunity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> getting to speak to Kahwa. At last the +building was quiet, and only the man who had played with Kahwa seemed to +be left, and I saw the lights inside begin to grow less. I hoped that +then the door would be shut, and the man inside would go to sleep, as I +knew that men did in other houses when the lights disappeared at night; +but while there was still some light issuing from door and windows the +man came out and went up to Kahwa, and, unfastening the chain from the +stump, proceeded to lead her away somewhere to the rear of the building. +She struggled and tried to pull away from him, but he jerked her along +with the chain, and I could see that she was afraid of him, and did not +dare to fight him in earnest, and bit by bit he dragged her along. I +followed and saw him go to a sort of pen, or a small enclosure of high +walls without any roof, in which he left her, and then went in to his +own building. And soon I saw the last lights go out inside and +everything was quiet.</p> + +<p>I stole round to the pen and spoke to Kahwa through the walls. She was +crazy at the sound of my voice, and could hear her running round and +round inside, dragging the chain after her. Could she not climb out? I +asked her. No; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> walls were made of straight, smooth boards with +nothing that she could get her claws into, and much too high to jump. +But we found a crack close to the ground through which our noses would +almost touch, and that was some consolation.</p> + +<p>I stayed there as long as I dared, and told her all that had happened +since she was taken away—of the fight with the strange bear, and how I +had been in the town alone looking for her night after night; and she +told me her story, parts of which I could not believe, though now I can +understand them better.</p> + +<p>What puzzled me, and at the time made me thoroughly angry, was the way +in which she spoke of the man whom I had seen playing with her, and who +had dragged her into the pen. She was afraid of him in a curious way—in +much the same way as she was afraid of father or mother. The idea that +she could feel any affection for him I would have scouted as +preposterous; but after the experiences of the last few nights nothing +seemed too wonderful to be true, and it was plain that all her thoughts +centered in him and he represented everything in life to her. Without +him she would have no food, but as it was she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> had plenty. He never came +to her without bringing things to eat, delightful things sometimes; and +in particular she told me of pieces of white stuff, square and rough +like small stones, but sweeter and more delicious than honey. Of course, +I know now that it was sugar; but as she told me about it then, and how +good it was, and how the man always had pieces of it in his pockets, +which he gave her while they were playing together, I found myself +envying her, and even wishing that the man would take me to play with, +too.</p> + +<p>But as we talked the day was getting lighter, and promising to come +again next night, I slipped away in the dawn into the woods.</p> + +<p>Night after night I used to go and speak to Kahwa. Sometimes I did not +go until it was nearly daylight, and she was already in her pen. +Sometimes I went earlier, and watched her with the men before the door +of the building, and often I saw the man who was her master playing with +her and giving her lumps of sugar, and I could tell from the way in +which she ate it how good it was. Many time I had narrow escapes of +being seen, for I grew careless, and trotted among the houses as if I +were in the middle of the forest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> More than once I came close to a man +unexpectedly, for the man-smell was so strong everywhere that a single +man more or less in my neighborhood made no difference, and I had to +trust to my eyes and ears entirely. Somehow, however, I managed always +to keep out of their way, and during this time I used to eat very little +wild food, living almost altogether on the things that I picked up in +the town. And during all these days and nights I never saw my father or +my mother.</p> + +<p>Then one evening an eventful thing happened. The door of Kahwa's pen +closed with a latch from the outside—a large piece of iron which lifted +and fell, and was then kept in place by a block of wood. I had spent a +great deal of time at that latch, lifting it with my nose, and biting +and worrying it, in the hopes of breaking it off or opening the door; +but when I did that I was always standing on my hind-legs, so as to +reach up to it, with my fore-feet on the door, and, of course, my weight +kept the door shut. But that never occurred to me. One evening, however, +I happened to be standing up and sniffing at the latch, with my +fore-feet not on the door itself, but on the wall beside the door. It +happened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> that, just as I lifted the latch with my nose, Kahwa put her +fore-feet against the door on the inside. To my astonishment, the door +swung open into my face, and Kahwa came rolling out. If we had only +thought it out, we could just as well have done that on the first night, +instead of trying to reach each other for nearly two weeks through a +narrow crack in the wall until nearly all the skin was rubbed off our +noses.</p> + +<p>However, it was done at last, and we were so glad that we thought of +nothing else. Now we were free to go back into the woods and take up our +old life again with father and mother. Would it not be glorious, I +asked? Yes, she said, it would be glorious. To go off into the woods, +and never, never, never, I said, see or think of man again.</p> + +<p>Yes—yes, she said, but—Of course it would be very glorious, but—Well, +there was the white stuff—the sugar—she could come back once in a +while—just once in a while—couldn't she, to see the man and get a lump +or two?</p> + +<p>I am afraid I lost my temper. Here was what ought to have been a moment +of complete happiness spoiled by her greediness. Of course she could not +come back, I told her. If she did she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> would never get away a second +time. We would go to father and mother and persuade them to move just as +far away from man as they could. Instead of being delighted, the +prospect only made her gloomy and thoughtful. Of course she wanted to +see father and mother, but—but—but—There was always that "but"—and +the thought of the man and the sugar.</p> + +<p>While we were arguing, the time came when I usually left the town for +the day, and the immediate thing to be done was to get away from that +place and out into the woods, and all went well till we got to the last +house in the town.</p> + +<p>Now, however, Kahwa insisted on going up to snuff around this house. I +warned her of the dog, but the truth was that she had grown accustomed +to dogs, and I think had really lost her fear of men. So she went close +up to the house, and began smelling round the walls to see if there was +anything good to eat, while I stood back under the trees fretting and +impatient of her delay.</p> + +<p>Having sniffed all along one side of the house, she passed round the +corner to the back. In turning the corner she came right upon the dog, +who flew at her at once, though he was not much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> bigger than her head. +Whether she was accustomed to dogs or not, the sudden attack startled +her, and she turned round to run back to me. In doing so she just grazed +the corner of the house, and the next instant she was rolling head over +heels on the ground. The end of her chain had caught in the crack +between the ends of two of the logs at the corner, and she was held as +firmly as if she had been tied to her stump in front of the door. As she +rolled over, the dog jumped upon her, small as he was, yelping all the +time, and barking furiously. I thought it would only be a momentary +delay, but the chain held fast, and all the while the dog's attacks made +it impossible for her to give her attention to trying to tear it free.</p> + +<p>A minute later, and the door of the house burst open, and a man came +running out, carrying, to my horror, a thunder-stick in his hand. Kahwa +and the dog were all mixed up together on the ground, and I saw the man +stop and stand still a moment and point the thunder-stick at her. And +then came that terrible noise of the thunder-stick speaking.</p> + +<p>Too frightened to see what happened, I took to my heels, and plunged +into the wood as fast as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> I could, without the man or the dog having +seen me. I ran on for some distance till I felt safe enough to stop and +listen, but there was not a sound, and no sign of Kahwa coming after me. +I waited and waited until the sun came up, and still there was no sign +of Kahwa, until at last I summoned up courage to steal slowly back +again. As I came near I heard the dog barking at intervals, and then the +voices of men. Very cautiously I crept near enough to get a view of the +house from behind, and as I came in sight of the corner where Kahwa had +fallen I saw her for the second time—just as on that wretched evening +at the berry-patch—surrounded by a group of three or four men. But this +time they had no ropes round her, and were not trying to drag her away; +only they stood talking and looking down at her, while she lay dead on +the ground before them.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.</span></h3> + + +<p>Now indeed I was truly lonely. During the three or four weeks that had +passed since I had seen my father or mother, I had in a measure learned +to rely upon myself; nor had I so far felt the separation keenly, +because I knew that every evening I should see Kahwa. Now she was gone +for ever. There was no longer any object in going into the town, and the +terror of that last scene was still so vivid in my mind that I wished +never to see man again.</p> + +<p>It was true that I had feared man instinctively from the first, but +familiarity with him had for a while overcome that fear. Now it +returned, and with the fear was mingled another feeling—a feeling of +definite hatred. Originally, though afraid of him, I had borne man no +ill-will whatever, and would have been entirely content to go on living +beside him in peace and friendliness, just as we lived with the deer and +the beaver. Man himself made that impossible; and now I no longer wished +it. I hated him—hated him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> thoroughly. Had it not been for dread of the +thunder-sticks, I should have gone down into the town and attacked the +first man that I met. I would have persuaded other bears to go with me +to range <a name="through" id="through"></a><ins title="original had throught">through</ins> the buildings, destroying every man that we could find; +and though this was impossible, I made up my mind that it would be a bad +day for any man whom I might meet alone, when unprotected by the weapon +that gave him so great an advantage.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile my present business was, somehow and somewhere, to go on +living. On that first evening, amid my conflict of emotions, it was some +time before I could bring myself to turn my back definitely upon the +town; for it was difficult to realize at once that there was in truth no +longer any Kahwa there, nor any reason for my going again among the +buildings, and it was late in the night before I finally started to look +for my father and mother. I went, of course, to the place where I had +left them, and where the fight with the stranger had taken place.</p> + +<p>They were not there when I arrived, but I saw that they had spent the +preceding day at home, and would, in all probability, be back soon after +it was light. So I stayed in the immediate neigh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>borhood, and before +sunrise they returned. My mother was glad to see me, but I do not think +I can say as much for my father. I told them where I had been, and of my +visits to the town, and of poor Kahwa's death; and though at the time +father did not seem to pay much attention to what I said, next day he +suggested that we should move farther away from the neighborhood of men.</p> + +<p>The following afternoon we started, making our way back along the stream +by which we had descended, and soon finding ourselves once more in the +region that had been swept by fire. It was still desolate, but the two +months that had passed had made a wonderful difference. It was covered +by the bright red flowers of a tall plant standing nearly as high as a +bear's head, which shoots up all over the charred soil whenever a tract +of forest is burned. Other undergrowth may come up in the following +spring, but for the first year nothing appears except the red +"fireweed," and that grows so thickly that the burnt wood is a blaze of +color, out of which the blackened trunks of the old trees stand up naked +and gaunt.</p> + +<p>We passed several houses of men by the water<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>side, and gave them a wide +berth. We learned from the beavers and the ospreys that a number of men +had gone up the stream during the summer, and few had come back, so that +now there must be many more of them in the district swept by the fire +than there had been before. We did not wish to live in the burnt +country, however, because there was little food to be found there, and +under the fireweed the ground was still covered with a layer of the +bitter black stuff, which, on being disturbed, got into one's throat and +eyes and nostrils. So we turned southwards along the edge of the track +of the fire, and soon found ourselves in a country that was entirely new +to us, though differing little in general appearance from the other +places with which we were familiar—the same unbroken succession of +hills and gulches covered with the dense growth of good forest trees. It +was, in fact, bears' country; and in it we felt at home.</p> + +<p>For the most part we travelled in the morning and evening; but the +summer was gone now, and on the higher mountains it was sometimes +bitterly cold, so we often kept on moving all day. We were not going +anywhere in particular: only endeavoring to get away from man, and, if +possible,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> to find a region where he had never been. But it seemed as if +man now was pushing in everywhere. We did not see him, but continually +we came across the traces of him along the banks of the streams. The +beavers, and the kingfishers, of course, know everything that goes on +along the rivers. Nothing can pass upstream or down without going by the +beaver-dams, and the beavers are always on the watch. You might linger +about a beaver-dam all day, and except for the smell, which a man would +not notice, you would not believe there was a beaver near. But they are +watching you from the cracks and holes in their homes, and in the +evening, if they are not afraid of you, you will be astonished to see +twenty or thirty beavers come out to play about what you thought was an +empty house. We never passed a dam without asking about man, and always +it was the same tale. Men had been there a week ago, or the day before, +or when the moon last was full. And the kingfishers and the ospreys told +us the same things. So we kept on our way southward.</p> + +<p>As the days went on I grew to think less of Kahwa; the memory of those +nights spent in the town, with the lights, and the strange noises, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +the warm man-smell all about me, began to fade until they all seemed +more like incidents of a dream than scenes which I had actually lived +through only a few weeks before. I began to feel more as I used to feel +in the good old days before the fire, and came again to be a part of the +wild, wholesome life of the woods. Moreover, I was growing; my mother +said that I was growing fast. No puma would have dared to touch me now, +and my unusual experiences about the town had bred in me a spirit of +independence and self-reliance, so that other cubs of my own age whom we +met, and who, of course, had lived always with their parents, always +seemed to me younger than I; and certainly I was bigger and stronger +than any first-year bear that I saw. On the whole, I would have been +fairly contented with life had it not been for the estrangement which +was somehow growing up between my father and myself. I could not help +feeling that, though I knew not why, he would have been glad to have me +go away again. So I kept out of his way as much as possible, seldom +speaking to him, and, of course, not venturing to share any food that he +found. On the first evening after my return he had rolled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> over an old +log, and mother and I went up as a matter of course to see what was +there; but he growled at me in a way that made me stand off while he and +mother finished the fungi and the beetles. After that I kept my +distance. It did not matter much, for I was well able to forage for +myself. But I would have preferred to have him kinder. His unkindness, +however, did not prevent him from taking for himself anything which he +wanted that I had found. One day I came across some honey, from which he +promptly drove me away, and I had to look on while he and mother shared +the feast between them.</p> + +<p>At last we came to a stream where the beavers told us that no man had +been seen in the time of any member of their colony then living. The +stream, which was here wide enough to be a river, came from the west, +and for two or three days we followed it down eastwards, and found no +trace or news of man; so we turned back up it again—back past the place +where we had first struck it—and on along its course for another day's +journey into the mountains. It was, perhaps, too much to hope that we +had lighted on a place where man would never come; but at least we knew +that for a distance of a week's travelling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> in all directions he never +yet had been, and it might be many years before he came. Meanwhile we +should have a chance to live our lives in peace.</p> + +<p>Here we stayed, moving about very little, and feeding as much as we +could; for winter was coming on, and a bear likes to be fat and well fed +before his long sleep. It rained a good deal now, as it always does in +the mountains in the late autumn, and as a general rule the woods were +full of mist all day, in which we went about tearing the roots out of +the soft earth, eating the late blueberries where we could find them, +and the cranberries and the elderberries, which were ripe on the bushes, +now and then coming across a clump of nut-trees, and once in a while, +the greatest of all treats, revelling in a feast of honey.</p> + +<p>One morning, after a cold and stormy night, we saw that the tops of the +highest mountains were covered with snow. It might be a week or two yet +before the snow fell over the country as a whole, or it might be only a +day or two; for the wind was blowing from the north, biting cold, and +making us feel numb and drowsy. So my father decided that it was time to +make our homes for the winter. He had already fixed upon a spot where a +tree had fallen and torn out its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> roots, making a cave well shut in on +two sides, and blocked on a third by another fallen log; and here, +without thinking, I had taken it as a matter of course that we should +somehow all make our winter homes together. But when that morning he +started out, with mother after him, and I attempted to follow, he drove +me away. I followed yet for a while, but he kept turning back and +growling at me, and at last told me bluntly that I must go and shift for +myself. I took it philosophically, I think, but it was with a heavy +heart that I turned away to seek a winter home for myself.</p> + +<p>It did not take me long to decide on the spot. At the head of a narrow +gully, where at some time or other a stream must have run, there was a +tree half fallen, and leaning against the hillside. A little digging +behind the tree would make as snug and sheltered a den as I could want. +So I set to work, and in the course of a few hours I had made a +sufficiently large hollow, and into it I scraped all the leaves and +pine-needles in the neighborhood, and, by working about inside and +turning round and round, I piled them up on all sides until I had a nest +where I was perfectly sheltered, with only an opening in front large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +enough to go in and out of. This opening I would almost close when the +time came, but for the present I left it open and lived inside, sleeping +much of the time, but still continuing for a week or ten days to go out +in the mornings and evenings for food. But it was getting colder and +colder, and the woods had become strangely silent. The deer had gone +down to the lower ground at the first sign of coming winter, and the +coyotes and the wolves had followed to spend the cold months in the +foot-hills and on the plains about the haunts of man. The woodchucks +were already asleep below-ground, and of the birds only the woodpeckers +and the crossbills, and some smaller birds fluttering among the +pine-branches, remained. There was a fringe of ice along the edges of +the streams, and the kingfishers and the ospreys had both flown to where +the waters would remain open throughout the year. The beavers had been +very busy for some time, but now, if one went to the nearest dam in the +evening, there was not a sign of life.</p> + +<p>At last the winter came. It had been very cold and gray for a day or +two, and I felt dull and torpid. And then, one morning towards mid-day, +the white flakes began to fall. There had been a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> few little flurries of +snow before, lasting only for a minute or two; but this was different. +The great flakes fell slowly and softly, and soon the whole landscape +began to grow white. Through the opening in my den I watched the snow +falling for some time, but did not venture out; and as the afternoon +wore on, and it only fell faster and faster, I saw that it would soon +pile up and close the door upon me.</p> + +<p>There was no danger of its coming in, for I had taken care that the roof +overhung far enough to prevent anything falling in from above, and the +den was too well sheltered for the wind to drift the snow inside. So I +burrowed down into my leaves and pine-needles, and worked them up on +both sides till only a narrow slit of an opening remained, and through +this slit, sitting back on my haunches against the rear of the little +cave I watched the white wall rising outside. All that night and all +next day it snowed, and by the second evening there was hardly a ray of +light coming in. I remember feeling a certain pride in being all alone, +in the warm nest made by myself, for the first time in my life; and I +sat back and mumbled at my paw, and grew gradually drowsier and +drowsier, till I hardly knew when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> the morning came, for I was very +sleepy and the daylight scarcely pierced the wall of snow outside. And +before another night fell I was asleep, while outside the white covering +which was to shut me in for the next four months at least, was growing +<a name="under" id="under"></a><ins title="original had thicker under">thicker. Under</ins> it I was as safe and snug up there in the heart of the +mountains as ever a man could be in any house that he might build.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">ALONE IN THE WORLD.</span></h3> + + +<p>Have you any idea how frightfully stiff one is after nearly five months' +consecutive sleep? Of course, a bear is not actually asleep for the +greater part of the time, but in a deliciously drowsy condition that is +halfway between sleeping and waking. It is very good. Of course, you +lose all count and thought of time; days and weeks and months are all +the same. You only know that, having been asleep, you are partly awake +again. There is no light, but you can see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> the wall of your den in front +of you, and dimly you know that, while all the world outside is +snow-covered and swept with bitter winds, and the earth is gripped solid +in the frost, you are very warm and comfortable. Changes of temperature +do not reach you, and you sit and croon to yourself and mumble your +paws, and all sorts of thoughts and tangled scraps of dreams go swimming +through your head until, before you know it, you have forgotten +everything and are asleep again.</p> + +<p>Then again you find yourself awake. Is it hours or days or weeks since +you were last awake? You do not know, and it does not matter. So you +croon, and mumble, and dream, and sleep again; and wake, and croon, and +mumble, and dream.</p> + +<p>At last a day comes when you wake into something more like complete +consciousness than you have known since you shut yourself up. There is a +new feeling in the air; a sense of moisture and fresh smells are +mingling with the warm dry scent of your den. And you are aware that you +have not changed your position for more than a quarter of a year, but +have been squatting on your heels, with your back against the wall and +your nose folded into your paws across your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> breast; and you want to +stretch your hind-legs dreadfully. But you do not do it. It is still too +comfortable where you are. You may move a little, and have a vague idea +that it might be rather nice outside. But you do not go to see; you only +take the other paw into your mouth, and, still crooning to yourself, you +are asleep again.</p> + +<p>This happens again and again, and each time the change in the feeling of +the air is more marked, and the scents of the new year outside grow +stronger and more pungent. At last one day comes daylight, where the +snow has melted from the opening in front of you, and with the daylight +comes the notes of birds and the ringing of the +woodpecker—rat-tat-tat-tat! rat-tat-tat-tat!—from a tree near by. But +even these signs that the spring is at hand again would not tempt you +out if it were not for another feeling that begins to assert itself, and +will not let you rest. You find you are hungry, horribly hungry. It is +of no use to say to yourself that you are perfectly snug and contented +where you are, and that there is all the spring and summer to get up in. +You are no longer contented. It is nearly five months since you had your +last meal, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> you will not have another till you go out for yourself +and get it. Mumbling your paws will not satisfy you. There is really +nothing for it but to get up.</p> + +<p>But, oh, what a business it is, that getting up! Your shoulders are +cramped and your back is stiff; and as for your legs underneath you, you +wonder if they will really ever get supple and strong again. First you +lift your head from your breast and try moving your neck about, and +sniff at the walls of your den. Then you unfold your arms, +and—ooch!—how they crack, first one and then the other! At last you +begin to roll from one side to the other, and try to stretch each +hind-leg in turn; then cautiously letting yourself drop on all fours, +you give a step, and before you know it you have staggered out into the +open air.</p> + +<p>It is very early in the morning, and the day is just breaking, and all +the mountain-side is covered with a clinging pearly mist; but to your +eyes the light seems very strong, and the smell of the new moist earth +and the resinous scent of the pines almost hurt your nostrils. One side +of the gully in front of you is brown and bare, but in the bottom, and +clinging to the other side, are patches of moist and half-melted snow, +and on all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> sides you hear the drip of falling moisture and the ripple +of little streams of water which are running away to swell the creeks +and rivers in every valley bottom.</p> + +<p>You are shockingly unsteady on your feet, and feel very dazed and +feeble; but you are also hungrier than ever now, with the keen morning +air whetting your appetite, and the immediate business ahead of you is +to find food. So you turn to the bank at your side and begin to grub; +and as you grub you wander on, eating the roots that you scratch up and +the young shoots of plants that are appearing here and there. And all +the time the day is growing, and the sensation is coming back to your +limbs, and your hunger is getting satisfied, and you are wider and wider +awake. And, thoroughly interested in what you are about, before you are +aware of it, you are fairly started on another year of life.</p> + +<p>That is how a bear begins each spring. It may be a few days later or a +few days earlier when one comes out; but the sensations are the same. +You are always just as stiff, and the smells are as pungent, and the +light is as strong, and the hunger as great. For the first few days you +really think of nothing but of finding enough to eat.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> As soon as you +have eaten, and eaten until you think you are satisfied, you are hungry +again; and so you wander round looking for food, and going back to your +den to sleep.</p> + +<p>That spring when I came out it was very much as it had been the +spring before, when I was a little cub. The squirrels were +chattering in the trees (I wondered whether old Blacky had been +burned in the fire), and the <a name="woodpecker" id="woodpecker"></a><ins title="original had wookpecker">woodpecker</ins> was as busy as +ever—rat-tat-tat-tat! rat-tat-tat-tat!—overhead. There were +several woodchucks—fat, waddling things—living in the same gully +with me, and they had been abroad for some days when I woke up. On +my way down to the stream on that first morning, I found a porcupine +in my path, but did not stop to slap it. By the river's bank the +little brown-coated minks were hunting among the grass, and by the +dam the beavers were hard at work protecting and strengthening their +house against the spring floods, which were already rising.</p> + +<p>It was only a couple of hundred yards or so from my den to the stream, +and for the first few days I hardly went farther than that. But it was +impossible that I should not all the time—that is, as soon as I could +think of anything except my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> hunger—be contrasting this spring with the +spring before, when Kahwa and I had played about the rock and the +cedar-trees, and I had tumbled down the hill. And the more I thought of +it, the less I liked being alone. And my father and mother, I knew, must +be somewhere close by me—for I presumed they had spent the winter in +the spot that they had chosen—so I made up my mind to go and join them +again.</p> + +<p>It was in the early evening that I went, about a week after I had come +out of my winter-quarters, and I had no trouble in finding the place; +but when I did find it I also found things that I did not expect.</p> + +<p>"Surely," I said to myself as I came near, "that is little Kahwa's +voice!" There could be no doubt of it. She was squealing just as she +used to do when she tried to pull me away from the rock by my hind-foot. +So I hurried on to see what it could mean, and suddenly the truth dawned +upon me.</p> + +<p>My parents had two new children. I had never thought of that +possibility. I heard my mother's voice warning the cubs that someone +was coming, and as I appeared the young ones ran and <a name="smuggled" id="smuggled"></a><ins title="as in original">smuggled</ins> up to +her, and stared at me as if I was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> stranger and they were afraid +of me, as I suppose they were. It made me feel awkward, and almost +as if my mother was a stranger, too; but after standing still a +little time and watching them I walked up. Mother met me kindly and +the cubs kept behind her and out of the way. I spoke to mother and +rubbed noses with her, and told her that I was glad to see her. She +evidently thought well of me, and I was rather surprised, when +standing beside her, to find that she was not nearly so much bigger +than I as I had supposed.</p> + +<p>But before I had been there more than a minute mother gave me warning +that father was coming, and, turning, I saw him walking down the +hillside towards us. He saw me at the same time, and stopped and +growled. At first, I think, not knowing who I was, he was astonished to +see my mother talking to a strange bear. When he did recognize me, +however, I might still have been a stranger, for any friendliness that +he showed. He sat up on his haunches and growled, and then came on +slowly, swinging his head, and obviously not at all disposed to welcome +me. Again I was surprised, to see that he was not as big as I had +thought, and for a moment wild ideas of fighting him, if that was what +he wanted, came into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> my head. I wished to stay with mother, and even +though he was my father, I did not see why I should go away alone and +leave her. But, tall though I was getting, I had not anything like my +father's weight, and, however bitterly I might wish to rebel, rebellion +was useless. Besides, my mother, though she was kind to me, would +undoubtedly have taken my father's part, as it was right that she should +do.</p> + +<p>So I moved slowly away as my father came up, and as I did so even the +little cubs growled at me, siding, of course, with their father against +the stranger whom they had never seen. Father did not try to attack me, +but walked up to mother and began licking her, to show that she belonged +to him. I disliked going away, and thought that perhaps he would relent; +but when I sat down, as if I was intending to stay, he growled and told +me that I was not wanted.</p> + +<p>I ought by this time to have grown accustomed to being alone, and to +have been incapable of letting myself be made miserable by a snub, +even from my father. But I was not; I was wretched. I do not think +that even on the first night after Kahwa was caught, or on that +morning when I saw her dead, that I felt as completely forlorn as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> I +did that day when I turned away from my mother, and went down the +mountain-side back to my own place alone. The squirrels chattered at +me, and the <a name="woodpecker2" id="woodpecker2"></a><ins title="original had wookpecker">woodpecker</ins> rat-tat-tat-ed, and the woodchuck scurried +away, and I hated them all. What company were they to me? I was +lonely, and I craved the companionship of my own kind.</p> + +<p>But it was to be a long time before I found it. I was now a solitary +bear, with my own life to live and my own way to make in the world, with +no one to look to for guidance and no one to help me if I needed help; +but many regarded me as an enemy, and would have rejoiced if I were +killed.</p> + +<p>In those first days I thought of the surly solitary bear who had taken +our home while we were away, and whom I had vowed some day to punish; +and I began to understand in some measure why he was so bad-tempered. If +we had met then, I almost believe I would have tried to make friends +with him.</p> + +<p>I have said that many animals would have rejoiced had I been killed. +This is not because bears are the enemies of other wild things, for we +really kill very little except beetles and other insects, frogs and +lizards, and little things like mice and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> chipmunks. We are not as the +wolves, the coyotes, the pumas, or the weasels, which live on the lives +of other animals, and which every other thing in the woods regards as +its sworn foe. Still, smaller animals are mostly afraid of us, and the +carcass of a dead bear means a feast for a number of hungry things. If a +bear cannot defend his own life, he will have no friends to do it for +him; and while, as I have said before, a full-grown bear in the +mountains has no need to fear any living thing, man always excepted, in +stand-up fight, it is none the less necessary to be always on one's +guard.</p> + +<p>In my case fear had nothing to do with my hatred of loneliness. Even the +thought of man himself gave me no uneasiness. I was sure that no human +beings were as yet within many miles of my home, and I knew that I +should always have abundant warning of their coming. Moreover, I already +knew man. He was not to me the thing of terror and mystery that he had +been a year ago, or that he still was to most of the forest folk. I had +cause enough, it is true, to know how dangerous and how savagely cruel +he was, and for that I hated him. But I had also seen enough of him to +have a contempt for his blind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>ness and his lack of the sense of scent. +Had I not again and again, when in the town, dodged round the corner of +a building, and waited while he passed a few yards away, or stood +immovable in the dark shadow of a building, and looked straight at him +while he went by utterly unconscious that I was near? Nothing could live +in the forest for a week with no more eyesight, scent, or hearing than a +man possesses, and without his thunder-stick he would be as helpless as +a lame deer. All this I understood, and was not afraid that, if our +paths should cross again, I should not be well able to take care of +myself.</p> + +<p>But while there was no fear added to my loneliness, the loneliness +itself was bad enough. Having none to provide for except myself, I had +no difficulty in finding food. For the first few weeks, I think, I did +nothing but wander aimlessly about and sleep, still using my winter den +for that purpose. As the summer came on, however, I began to rove, +roaming usually along the streams, and sleeping there in the cool +herbage by the water's edge during the heat of the day. My chief +pleasure, I think, was in fishing, and I was glad my mother had shown me +how to do it. No bear, when hungry, could afford to fish for his food, +for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> it takes too long; but I had all my time to myself, and nearly +every morning and evening I used to get my trout for breakfast or for +supper. At the end of a long, hot day, I know nothing pleasanter than, +after lying a while in the cold running water, to stretch one's self out +along the river's edge, under the shadow of a bush, and wait, paw in +water, till the trout come gliding within striking distance; and then +the sudden stroke, and afterwards the comfortable meal off the cool +juicy fish in the soft night air. I became very skilful at fishing, and, +from days and days of practice, it was seldom indeed that I lost my fish +if once I struck.</p> + +<p>Time, too, I had for honey-hunting, but I was never sure that it was +worth the trouble and pain. In nine cases out of ten the honey was too +deeply buried in a tree for me to be able to reach it, and in trying I +was certain to get well stung for my pains. Once in a while, however, I +came across a comb that was easy to reach, and the chance of one of +those occasional finds made me spend, not hours only, but whole days at +a time, looking for the bees' nests.</p> + +<p>Along by the streams were many blueberry-patches, though none so +large as that which had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> cost Kahwa her life; but during the season +I could always find berries enough. And so, fishing and bee-hunting, +eating berries and digging for roots, I wandered on all through the +summer. I had no one place that I could think of as a home more than +any other. I preferred not to stay near my father and mother, and so +let myself wander, heading for the most part westward, and farther +into the mountains as the summer grew, and then in the autumn +turning south again. I must have wandered over many hundred miles of +mountain, but when the returning chill in the air told me that +winter was not very far away, I worked round so as to get back into +somewhat the same neighborhood as I had been in last winter, no +more, perhaps, than ten miles away.</p> + +<p>On the whole, it was an uneventful year. Two or three times I met a +grizzly, and always got out of the way as fast as I could. Once only I +found myself in the neighborhood of man, and I gave him a wide berth. +Many times, of course—in fact, nearly every day—I met other bears like +myself, and sometimes I made friends with them, and stayed in their +company for the better part of a day, perhaps at a berry-patch or in the +wide shallows of a stream. But there was no place for me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>—a strong, +growing he-bear, getting on for two years old—in any of the families +that I came across. Parents with young cubs did not want me. Young bears +in their second year were usually in couples. The solitary bears that I +met were generally older than I, and, though we were friendly on +meeting, neither cared for the other's companionship. Again and again in +these meetings I was struck by the fact, that I was unusually big and +strong for my age, the result, I suppose, as I have already said, of the +accident that threw me on my own resources so young. I never met young +bears of my own age that did not seem like cubs to me. Many times I came +across bears who were one and even two years older than myself, but who +had certainly no advantage of me in height, and, I think, none in +weight. But I had no occasion to test my strength in earnest that +summer, and when winter came, and the mountainpeaks in the neighborhood +showed white again against the dull gray sky, I was still a solitary +animal, and acutely conscious of my loneliness.</p> + +<p>That year I made my den in a cave which I found high up on a +mountain-side, and which had evidently been used by bears at some +time or other,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> though not for the last year or two. There I made my +nest with less trouble than the year before, and at the first +serious snowfall I shut myself up for another long sleep.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">I FIND A COMPANION.</span></h3> + + +<p>The next spring was late. We had a return of cold weather long after +winter ought to have been over, and for a month or more after I moved +out it was no easy matter to find food enough. The snow had been +unusually deep, and had only half melted when the cold returned, so that +the remaining half stayed on the ground a long while, and sometimes it +took me all my time, grubbing up camas roots, turning over stones and +logs, and ripping the bark off fallen trees, to find enough to eat to +keep me even moderately satisfied. Besides the mice and chipmunks which +I caught, I was forced by hunger to dig woodchucks out of their holes, +and eat the young ones, though hitherto I had never eaten any animal so +large.</p> + +<p>Somehow, in one way and another, I got along, and when spring really +came I felt that I was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> full-grown bear, and no longer a youngster +who had to make way for his elders when he met them in the path. Nor was +it long before I had an opportunity of seeing that other bears also +regarded me no longer as a cub.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<img src="images/i1-4.png" height="500" width="357" +alt="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">TOLD ME BLUNTLY THAT I MUST GO.</span> +</div> + +<p>I had found a bees' nest about ten feet up in a big tree, and of course +climbed up to it; but it was one of those cases of which I have spoken, +when the game was not worth the trouble. The nest was in a cleft in the +tree too narrow for me to get my arm into, and I could smell the honey a +foot or so away from my nose without being able to reach it—than which +I know nothing more tantalizing. And while you are hanging on to a tree +with three paws, and trying to squeeze the fourth into a hole, the bees +have you most unpleasantly at their mercy. I was horribly stung about my +face, both my eyes and my nose were smarting abominably, and at last I +could stand it no longer, but slid down to the ground again.</p> + +<p>When I reached the ground, there was another bear standing a few yards +away looking at me. He had a perfect right to look at me, and he was +doing me no sort of harm; but the stings of the bees made me furious, +and I think I was glad to have anybody or anything to vent my wrath +upon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> So as soon as I saw the other bear I charged him. He was an older +bear than I, and about my size; and, as it was the first real fight that +I had ever had, he probably had more experience. But I had the advantage +of being thoroughly angry and wanting to hurt someone, without caring +whether I was hurt myself or not, while he was feeling entirely +peaceable, and not in the least anxious to hurt me or anybody else. The +consequence was that the impetuosity of my first rush was more than he +could stand. Of course he was up to meet me, and I expect that under my +coat my skin on the left shoulder still carries the marks of his claws +where he caught me as we came together.</p> + +<p>But I was simply not to be denied, and, while my first blow must have +almost broken his neck, in less than a minute I had him rolling over and +over and yelling for mercy. I really believe that, if he had not managed +to get to his feet, and then taken to his heels as fast as he could, I +would have killed him. Meanwhile the bees were having fun with us both.</p> + +<p>It was no use, however angry I might be, to stop to try and fight them; +so soon as the other bear had escaped I made my own way as fast as I +could out of the reach of their stings, and down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> to the stream to cool +my smarting face. As I lay in the water, I remember looking back with +astonishment to the whole proceeding. Five minutes before I had had no +intention of fighting anybody, and had had no reason whatever for +fighting that particular bear. Had I met him in the ordinary way, we +should have been friendly, and I am not at all sure that, if I had had +to make up my mind to it in cold blood, I should have dared to stand up +to him, unless something very important depended on it. Yet all of a +sudden the thing had happened. I had had my first serious fight with a +bear older than myself, and had beaten him. Moreover, I had learned the +enormous advantage of being the aggressor in a fight, and of throwing +yourself into it with your whole soul. As it was, though I was +astonished at the entire affair and surprised at myself, and although +the bee-stings still hurt horribly, I was pretty well satisfied and +rather proud.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was as well that I had that fight then, for the time was not +far distant when I was to go through the fight of my life. A bear may +have much fighting in the course of his existence, or he may have +comparatively little, depending chiefly on his own disposition; but at +least once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> he is sure to have one fight on which almost the whole +course of his life depends. And that is when he fights for his wife. Of +course he may be beaten, and then he has to try again. Some bears never +succeed in winning a wife at all. Some may win one and then have her +taken from them, and have to seek another; but I do not believe that any +bear chooses to live alone. Every one will once at least make an effort +to win a companion. The crisis came with me that summer, though many +bears, I believe, prefer to run alone until a year, or even two years, +later.</p> + +<p>The summer had passed like the former one, rather uneventfully after the +episode of the bees. I wandered abroad, roaming over a wide tract of +country, fishing, honey-hunting, and finding my share of roots and +beetles and berries, sheltering during the heat of the day, and going +wherever I felt inclined in the cool of the night and morning. I think I +was disposed to be rather surly and quarrelsome, and more than once took +upon myself to dispute the path with other bears; but they always gave +way to me, and I felt that I pretty well had the mountains and the +forests for my own. But I was still lonely, and that summer I felt it +more than ever.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> The +late spring had ruined a large part of the berry +crop, and the consequence was that, <a name="wherever" id="wherever"></a><ins title="original had whereever">wherever</ins> there was a patch with any +fruit on it, bears were sure to find it out. There was one small +sheltered patch which I knew, where the fruit had nearly all survived +the frosts. I was there one evening, when, not far from me, out of the +woods came another bear of about my size. I liked her the moment I +obtained a good view of her. She saw me, and sat up and looked at me +amicably.</p> + +<p>I had never tried to make love before, but I knew what was the right +thing to do; so I approached her slowly, walking sideways, rubbing +my nose on the ground, and mumbling into the grass to tell her how +much I admired her. She responded in the correct way, by rolling on +the ground. So I continued to approach her, and I cannot have been +more than five or six yards away, when out of the bushes behind her, +to my astonishment, came a he-bear. He growled at me, and began to +sniff around at the bushes, to show that he was entirely ready to +fight if I wanted to. And of course I wanted to. I probably should +have wanted to in any circumstances, but when the she-bear showed +that she liked me better than him, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> growling at him, I would not +have gone away, without fighting for her, for all the berries and +honey in the world. One of the most momentous crisis in my life had +come, and, as all such things do, had come quite unexpectedly.</p> + +<p>He was as much in earnest as I, and for a minute we sidled round +growling over our shoulders, and each measuring the other. There was +little to choose between us, for, if I was a shade the taller, he was a +year older than I, and undoubtedly the heavier and thicker. In fighting +all other animals except those of his kind, a bear's natural weapons are +his paws, with one blow of which he can crush a small animal, and either +stun or break the neck of a larger one. But he cannot do any one of +these three things to another bear as big as himself, and only if one +bear is markedly bigger than the other can he hope to reach his head, so +as either to tear his face or give him such a blow as will daze him and +render him incapable of going on fighting. A very much larger bear can +beat down the smaller one's arms, and rain such a shower of blows upon +him as will convince him at once that he is overmatched, and make him +turn tail and run. When two are evenly matched, however, the first +interchange of blows with the paws<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> is not likely to have much effect +either way, and the fight will have to be settled by closing, by the use +of teeth and main strength. But, as I had learned in my fight that day +when I had been stung by the bees, the moral effect of the first may be +great, and it was in that that my slight advantage in height and reach +was likely to be useful, whereas if we came to close quarters slowly the +thicker and stockier animal would have the advantage. So I determined to +force the fighting with all the fury that I could; and I did.</p> + +<p>It was he who gave the first blow. As we sidled up close to one another, +he let out at me wickedly with his left paw, a blow which, if it had +caught me, would undoubtedly have torn off one of my ears. Most bears +would have replied to that with a similar swinging blow when they got an +opening, and the interchange of single blows at arms' length would have +gone on indefinitely until one or the other lost his temper and closed. +I did not wait for that. The instant the first blow whistled past my +head I threw myself on my hindquarters and launched myself bodily at +him, hitting as hard as I could and as fast, first with one paw and then +with the other, without giving him time to recover his wits or get in a +blow himself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> I felt him giving way as the other bear had done, and +when we closed he was on his back on the ground, and I was on the top of +him.</p> + +<p>The fight, however, had only begun. I had gained a certain moral effect +by the ferocity of my attack, but a bear, when he is fighting in +earnest, is not beaten by a single rush, nor, indeed, until he is +absolutely unable to fight longer. Altogether we must have fought for +over an hour. Two or three times we were compelled to stop and draw +apart, because neither of us had strength left to use either claws or +jaw. And each time when we closed again I followed the same tactics, +rushing in and beating him down and doing my best to cow him before we +gripped; and each time, I think, it had some effect—at least to the +extent that it gave me a feeling of confidence, as if I was fighting a +winning fight.</p> + +<p>The deadliest grip that one bear can get on another is with his jaws +across the other's muzzle, when he can crush the whole face in. Once he +very nearly got me so, and this scar on the side of my nose is the mark +of his tooth; but he just failed to close his jaws in time. And, as it +proved then, it is a dangerous game to play, for it leaves you exposed +if you miss your grip, and in this case<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> it gave me the opportunity that +I wanted, to get my teeth into his right paw just above the wrist. My +teeth sank through the flesh and tendons and closed upon the bone. In +time, if I could hold my grip, I would crush it. His only hope lay in +being able to compel me to let go, by getting his teeth in behind my +ear; and this we both knew, and it was my business with my right paw to +keep his muzzle away.</p> + +<p>A moment like that is terrible—and splendid. I have never found myself +in his position, but I can imagine what it must be. We swayed and fell +together, and rolled over and over—now he uppermost, and now I; but +never for a second did I relax my hold. Whatever position we were in, my +teeth were slowly grinding into the bone of his arm, and again and again +I felt his teeth grating and slipping on my skull as I clawed and pushed +blindly at his face to keep him away. More and more desperate he grew, +and still I hung on; and while I clung to him in dead silence he was +growling and snarling frantically, and I could hear his tone getting +higher and higher till, just as I felt the bone giving between my teeth, +the growling broke and changed to a whine, and I knew that I had won.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>One more wrench with my teeth, and I felt his arm limp and useless +in my mouth. Then I let go, and as he cowered back on three legs I +reared up and fell upon him again, hitting blow after blow with my +paws, buffeting, biting, beating, driving him before me. Even now he +had fight left in him; but with all his pluck he was helpless with +his crippled limb, and slowly I bore him back out of the open patch, +where we had been fighting into the woods, and yard by yard up the +hill, until at last it was useless for him to pretend to fight any +longer, and he turned and, as best he could, limping on three legs, +ran.</p> + +<p>During the whole of the fight the she-bear had not said a word, but sat +on the ground watching and awaiting the result. While the battle was +going on I had no time to look at her; but in the intervals when we were +taking breath, whenever I turned in her direction, she avoided my eye +and pretended not to know that I was there or that anything that +interested her was passing. She looked at the sky and the trees, and +washed herself, or did whatever would best show her indifference. All of +which only told me that she was not indifferent at all.</p> + +<p>Now, when I came back to her, she still pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>tended not to see me until I +was close up to <a name="her" id="her"></a><ins title="original had fullstop">her,</ins> and when I held out my nose to hers she growled as +if a stranger had no right to behave in that way. But I knew she did not +mean it; and I was very tired and sore, with blood running from me in a +dozen places. So I walked a few yards away from her and lay down. In a +minute she came over to me and rubbed her nose against mine, and told me +how sorry she was for having snubbed me, and then began to lick my +wounds.</p> + +<p>As soon as I was fairly rested, we got up and made our way in the +bright moonlight down to the river, so that I could wash the blood off +myself and get the water into my wounds. We stayed there for a while, +and then returned to the patch and made a supper off the berries, and +later wandered into the woods side by side. She was very kind to me, and +every caress and every loving thing she did or said was a delight. It +was all so wonderfully new. And when at last we lay down under the +stars, so that I could sleep after the strain that I had been through, +and I knew that she was by me, and that when I woke up I should not be +lonely any more, it all seemed almost too good to be true. It was as if +I had suddenly come into a new world and I was a new bear.</p> + + +<h3 class="mt"><span class="smcap">THE END.</span></h3> + + + +<hr /> + +<h3><a name="Transcribers_Notes" id="Transcribers_Notes"></a>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<table summary="transcriber's note"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 11:</td> +<td>'We bears <a href="#comes">comes</a> out' left as printed.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 18:</td> +<td> 'terriffic' changed to <a href="#terrific">terrific</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 20:</td> +<td> 'for a <a href="#hunch">hunch</a> of the' left as printed.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 27:</td> +<td> 'slaping' changed to <a href="#slapping">slapping</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 35:</td> +<td> 'man smell' changed to '<a href="#man">man-smell</a>' for consistency.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 40:</td> +<td> 'Wooff' changed to '<a href="#woof">Woof</a>'.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 45:</td> +<td> 'a strong <a href="#winds">winds</a>' left as printed.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 50:</td> +<td> 'hot.' changed to '<a href="#hot">hot,</a>'.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 51:</td> +<td> hyphen removed from '<a href="#brush">brush-wood</a>' for consistency.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 57:</td> +<td> 'dis-stance' changed to <a href="#distance">distance</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 59:</td> +<td> "beaver's" changed to "<a href="#beavers">beavers'</a>" for consistency.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 62:</td> +<td> 'blue-berry' changed to '<a href="#blueberry">blueberry</a>' for consistency.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 75:</td> +<td> hyphen added to '<a href="#foreleg">foreleg</a>' for consistency.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 94:</td> +<td> 'throught' changed to <a href="#through">through</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 104:</td> +<td> 'under it' changed to <a href="#under">thicker. Under it</a>.'</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 109:</td> +<td> 'wookpecker' changed to <a href="#woodpecker">woodpecker</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 113:</td> +<td> 'wookpecker' changed to <a href="#woodpecker2">woodpecker</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 110:</td> +<td> 'ran and <a href="#smuggled">smuggled</a> up' left as printed.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 124:</td> +<td> 'whereever' changed to <a href="#wherever">wherever</a>.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">Page 130:</td> +<td> 'up to her. and' changed to 'up to <a href="#her">her,</a> and'</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bear Brownie, by H. P. 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P. Robinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bear Brownie + The Life of a Bear + +Author: H. P. Robinson + +Editor: Jane Fielding + +Release Date: February 27, 2010 [EBook #31414] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAR BROWNIE *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Loriba and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + Bear Brownie + _The Life of a Bear_ + + _From Animal Autobiographies by H. P. Robinson_ + + + REVISED BY + JANE FIELDING + + NEW YORK + A. L. CHATTERTON CO. + + + + + Copyright, 1913 + A. L. CHATTERTON CO. + + + + +BEAR BROWNIE + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HOW I TUMBLED DOWNHILL. + + +It is not easy for one to believe that he ever was a cub. Of course, I +know that I was, and as it was only nine years ago I ought to remember +it fairly clearly. + +It is not so much a mere matter of size, although it is doubtful if any +young bear realizes how small he is. My father and mother seemed +enormous to me, but, on the other hand, my sister was smaller than I, +and perhaps the fact that I could always box her ears when I wanted to +gave me an exaggerated idea of my own importance. Not that I did it very +often, except when she used to bite my hind-toes. Every bear, of course, +likes to chew his own feet, for it is one of the most soothing and +comforting things in the world; but it is horrid to have anyone else +come up behind you when you are asleep, and begin to chew your feet for +you. And that was Kahwa--that was my sister, my name being Brownie--was +always doing, and I simply had to slap her well whenever she did. + +But, as I said, cubhood is not a matter of size only. As I look down at +this glossy coat of mine, it is hard to believe that it was ever a dirty +yellow color, and all ridiculous wool and fluff, as young cubs' coats +are. But I must have been fluffy, because I remember how my mother, +after she had been licking me for any length of time, used to be obliged +to stop and wipe the fur out of her mouth with the back of her paw. +Every time my mother had to wipe her mouth she used to try to box my +ears, so that when she stopped licking me, I, knowing what was coming +next, would tuck my head down as far as it would go between my legs, and +keep it there till she began licking again. + +Yes, when I stop to think, I know, from many things, that I must have +been just an ordinary cub. For instance, my very earliest recollection +is of tumbling downhill. + +Like all bears, I was born and lived on the hillside. In the Rocky +Mountains, where my home was, there is nothing but hills, or mountains, +for miles and miles, so that you can wander on for day after day, always +going up one side of a hill and down the other, and up and down again; +and at the bottom of almost every valley there is a stream or river, +which for most of the year swirls along nosily and full of water. + +In the winter the whole country is covered with snow many feet deep, +which, as it falls, slides off the hillsides, and is drifted by the +winds into the valleys and hollows till the smaller ones are filled up +nearly to the tops of the trees. But bears do not see much of that, for +when the first snow comes we get into our dens and go half asleep, and +stay hibernating till springtime. And you have no idea how delightful +hibernating is, nor how excruciatingly stiff we are when we wake up, and +how hungry! + +The snow lies over everything for months, until in the early spring the +warm west winds begin to blow, melting the snow from one side of the +mountains. Then the sun grows hotter and hotter day by day, and helps to +melt it until most of the mountain slopes are clear; but in sheltered +places and in the bottoms of the little hollows the snow stays in +patches till far into the summer. We bears comes out from our winter +sleep when the snow is not quite gone, when the whole earth everywhere +is still wet with it, and the streams, swollen with floods, are +bubbling and boiling along so that the air is filled with the noise of +them by night and day. + +Our home was well up one of the hillsides, where two huge cedar-trees +shot up side by side close by a jutting mass of rock. In between the +roots of the trees and under the rock was as good a house as a family of +bears could want--roomy enough for all four of us, perfectly sheltered, +and hidden and dry. Can you imagine how warm and comfy it was when we +were all snuggled in there, with our arms round each other, and our +faces buried in each other's fur? Anyone looking in would have seen +nothing but a huge ball of brown fluff. + +It was from just outside the door that I tumbled downhill. + +It must have been early in the year, because the ground was still very +wet and soft, and the gully at the bottom full of snow. Of course, if I +had not been a cub I should never have fallen, for big bears do not +tumble downhill. If by any chance anything did start one, and he found +he could not stop himself, he would know enough to tuck in his head and +paws out of harm's way; but I only knew that somehow, in romping with +Kahwa, I had lost my balance, and was going--goodness knew where! I went +all spread out like a squirrel, first on my head, then on my back, then +on my tummy, clutching at everything that I passed, slapping the ground +with my outstretched paws, and squealing for help. Bump! bang! slap! +bump! I went, hitting trees and thumping all the wind out of me against +the earth, and at last--souse into the snow! + +Wow-ugh! How cold and wet it was! And it was deep--so deep, indeed, that +I was buried completely out of sight; and I doubt if I should ever have +got out alive had not my mother come down and dug me out with her nose +and paws. Then she half pushed and half smacked me uphill again, and +when I got home I was the wettest, coldest, sorest, wretchedest bear-cub +in the Rocky Mountains. + +Then, while I lay and whimpered, my mother spent the rest of the day +licking me into the semblance of a respectable bearskin again. But I was +bruised and nervous for days afterwards. + +That tumble of mine gave us the idea of the game which Kahwa and I used +to play almost every day after that. Kahwa would take her stand with her +back against the rock by our door, just at the point where the hill +went off most steeply, and it was my business to come charging up the +hill at her and try to pull her down. What fun it was! Sometimes I was +the one to stand against the rock, and Kahwa tried to pull me down. She +could not do it; but she was plucky, and used to come at me so +ferociously that I often wondered for a minute whether it was only play +or whether she was really angry. + +Best of all was when mother used to play with us. Then she put her back +to the rock, and we both attacked her at once from opposite sides, each +trying to get hold of a hind-leg just above the foot. If she put her +head down to pretend to bite either of us, the other jumped for her ear. +Sometimes we would each get hold of an ear, and hang on as hard as we +could, while she pretended we were hurting her dreadfully, growling and +shaking her head, and making as much fuss as she could; but if in our +excitement either of us did chance to bite a little too hard, we always +knew it. With a couple of cuffs, hard enough to make us yelp, she would +throw us to one side and the other, and there was no more play for that +day. And mother could hit hard when she liked. I have seen her smack +father in a way that would have broken all the bones in a cub's body, +and killed any human being outright. + +But to Kahwa and me both father and mother were very gentle and kind in +those first helpless days, and I suppose they never punished us unless +we deserved it. Later on my father and I had differences, as you will +hear. But in that first summer our lives, uneventful, were happy. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CUBHOOD DAYS. + + +When they are small, bear-cubs rarely go about alone. The whole family +usually keeps together, or, if it separates, it is generally into +couples--one cub with each of the parents; or the father goes off alone, +leaving both cubs with the mother. A cub toddling off alone in its own +woolly, comfortable ignorance would be sure to make all manner of +mistakes in what it ate, and it might find itself in very serious +trouble in other ways. + +Bears, when they live far enough away from man, have absolutely nothing +to be afraid of. There are, of course, bigger bears--perhaps bigger ones +of our own kind, either black or brown ("cinnamon," the brown members of +our family are called), or, especially, grizzly. But I never heard of a +grizzly bear hurting one of us. When I smell a grizzly in the +neighborhood, I confess that it seems wiser to go round the other side +of the hill; but that is probably inherited superstition more than +anything else. My father and mother did it, and so do I. Apart from +these, there lives nothing in the forest that a full-grown bear has any +cause to fear. He goes where he pleases and does what he likes, and +nobody ventures to dispute his rights. With a cub, however, it is +different. + +I had heard my father and mother speak of pumas, or mountain lions, and +I knew their smell well enough--and did not like it. But I shall never +forget the first one that I saw. + +We were out together--father, mother, Kahwa and I--and it was getting +well on in the morning. The sun was up, and the day growing warm, and I, +wandering drowsily along with my nose to the ground, had somehow strayed +away from the rest, when suddenly I smelled puma very strong. As I +threw myself up on my haunches, he came out from behind a tree, and +stood facing me only a few yards away. I was simply paralyzed with +fear--one of the two or three times in my life when I have been honestly +and thoroughly frightened. As I looked at him, wondering what would +happen next, he crouched down till he was almost flat along the ground, +and I can see him now, his whole yellow body almost hidden behind his +head, his eyes blazing, and his tail going slap, slap from side to side. +How I wished that I had a tail! + +Then inch by inch he crept towards me, very slowly, putting one foot +forward and then the other. I did not know what to do, and so did what +proved to be the best thing possible: I sat quite still, and screamed +for mother as loud as I could. She must have known from my voice that +something serious was the matter, because in a second, just as the +puma's muscles were growing tense for the final spring, there was a +sudden crash of broken boughs behind me, a feeling as if a whirlwind was +going by, and my mother shot past me straight at the puma. I had no idea +that she could go so fast. The puma was up on his hind-legs to meet +her, but her impetus was so terrific that it bore him backwards, without +seeming to check her speed in the least, and away they went rolling over +and over down the hill. + +But it was not much of a fight. The puma, willing enough to attack a +little cub like me, knew that he was no match for my mother, and while +they were still rolling he wrenched himself loose, and was off among the +trees like a shadow. + +When mother came back to me blood was running over her face, where at +the moment of meeting, the puma had managed to give her one wicked, +tearing claw down the side of her nose. So, as soon as my father and +Kahwa joined us, we all went down to the stream, where mother bathed her +face, and kept it in the cold water for nearly the whole day. + +It was probably in some measure to pay me out for this scrape, and to +give me another lesson in the unwisdom of too much independence and +inquisitiveness in a youngster, that my parents, soon after this sad +event, allowed me to get into trouble with that porcupine. + +One evening my father had taken us to a place where the ground was full +of mountain lilies. It was early in the year, when the green shoots +were just beginning to appear above the earth; and wherever there was a +shoot there was a bulb down below. And a mountain lily bulb is one of +the very nicest things to eat that there is--so sweet, and juicy, and +crisp! The place was some distance from our home, and after that first +visit Kahwa and I kept begging to be taken there again. At last my +father yielded, and we set out early one morning just before day was +breaking. + +We were not loitering on the way, but trotting steadily along all +together, and Kahwa and I, at least, were full of expectation of the +lily bulbs in store, when in a little open space among the trees, we +came upon an object unlike anything I had ever seen before. As we came +upon it, I could have declared that it was moving--then that it was an +animal which, at sight of us, had stopped stock still, and tucked its +head and toes in underneath it. But it certainly was not moving now, and +did not look as if it ever could move again, so finally I concluded that +it must be a large fungus or a strange new kind of hillock, with black +and white grass growing all over it. My father and mother had stopped +short when they saw it, and just sat up on their haunches and looked at +it; and Kahwa did the same, snuggling up close to my mother's side. Was +it an animal, or a fungus, or only a mound of earth? The way to find out +was to smell it. So, without any idea of hurting it, I trotted up and +reached out my nose. As I did so it shrank a little more into itself, +and became rounder and more like a fungus than ever; but the act of +shrinking also made the black and white grass stick out a little +farther, so that my nose met it sooner than I expected, and I found +that, if it was grass, it was very sharp grass, and pricked horribly. I +tried again, and again it shrank up and pricked me worse than ever. Then +I heard my father chuckling to himself. + +That made me angry, for I always have detested being laughed at, and, +without stopping to think, I smacked the thing just as hard as I could. +A moment later I was hopping round on three legs howling with pain, for +a hunch of the quills had gone right into my paw, where they were still +sticking, one coming out on the other side. + +My father laughed, but my mother drew out the quills with her teeth, and +that hurt worse than anything; and all day, whenever she found a +particularly fat lily bulb, she gave it to me. For my part, I could +only dig for the bulbs with my left paw, and it was ever so many days +before I could run on all four feet again. + +All these things must have happened when I was very young--less than +three months old--because we were still living in the same place, +whereas when summer came we moved away, as bears always do, and had no +fixed home during the hot months. + +Bear-cubs are born when the mother is still in her winter den, and they +are usually five or six weeks old before they come out into the world at +all. Even then at first, when the cubs are very young, the family stays +close at home, and for some time I imagine that the longest journey I +made was when I tumbled those fifty feet downhill. Father or mother +might wander away alone in the early morning or evening for a while, but +for the most part we were all four at home by the rock and the +cedar-trees, with the bare brown tree-trunks growing up all round out of +the bare brown mountain-sides, and Kahwa and I spending our time lying +sleepily cuddled up to mother, or romping together and wishing we could +catch squirrels. + +There were a great many squirrels about--large gray ones mostly; but +living in a fir-tree close by us was a black one with a deplorable +temper. + +Every day he used to come and quarrel with us. Whenever he had nothing +particular to do, he would say to himself, "I'll go and tease those old +bears." And he did. His plan was to get on our trees from behind, where +we could not see him, then to come round on our side about five or six +feet from the ground, just safely out of reach, and there, hanging head +downwards, call us every name he could think of. Squirrels have an awful +vocabulary, but I never knew one that could talk like Blacky. And every +time he thought of something new to say he waved his tail at us in a way +that was particularly aggravating. You have no idea how other animals +poke fun at us because we have no tails, and how sensitive we really are +on the subject. They say that it was to hide our lack of tail that we +originally got into the habit of sitting up on our haunches whenever we +meet a stranger. + +Very soon we began to be taken out on long excursions, going all four +together, as I have said, and then we began to learn how much that is +nice to eat there is in the world. + +You have probably no idea, for instance, how many good things there may +be under one rotting log. Even if you do not get a mouse or a chipmunk, +you are sure of a fringe of greenstuff which, from lack of sunlight, has +grown white and juicy, and almost as sure of some mushrooms or other +fungi, most of which are delicious. But before you can touch them you +have to look after the insects. Mushrooms will wait, but the sooner you +catch beetles, and earwigs, and ants, and grubs, the better. It is +always worth while to roll a log over, if you can, no matter how much +trouble it costs; and a big stone is sometimes nearly as good. + +Insects, of course, are small, and it would take a lot of ants, or even +beetles, to make a meal for a bear; but they are good, and they help +out. Some wild animals, especially those which prey upon others, eat a +lot at one time, and then starve till they can kill again. A bear, on +the other hand, is wandering about for more than half of the twenty-four +hours, except in the very heat of summer, and he is eating most of the +while that he wanders. The greater part of his food, of course, is +greenstuff--lily bulbs, white camas roots, wild-onions, and young shoots +and leaves. As he walks he browses a mouthful of young leaves here, +scratches up a root there, tears the bark off a decaying tree and eats +the insects underneath, lifts a stone and finds a mouse or a lizard +beneath, or loiters for twenty minutes over an ant-hill. With plenty of +time, he is never in a hurry, and every little counts. + +But most of all in summer I used to love to go down to the stream. In +warm weather, during the heat of the day, bears stay in the shelter of +thickets, among the brush by the water or under the shade of a fallen +tree. As the sun sank we would move down to the stream, and lie all +through the long evening in the shallows, where the cold water rippled +against one's sides. And along the water there was always something good +to eat--not merely the herbage and the roots of the water-plants, but +frogs and insects of all sorts among the grass. Our favorite +bathing-place was just above a wide pool made by a beaver-dam. The pool +itself was deep in places, but before the river came to it, it flowed +for a hundred yards and more over a level gravel bottom, so shallow that +even as a cub I could walk from shore to shore without the water being +above my shoulders. At the edge of the pool the same black and white +kingfisher was always sitting on the same branch when we came down, and +he disliked our coming, and _chirred_ at us to go away. I used to love +to pretend not to understand him, and to walk solemnly through the water +underneath and all round his branch. It made him furious, and sent him +_chirring_ upstream to find another place to fish, where there were no +idiotic bear-cubs who did not know any better than to walk about among +his fish. + +Here, too, my father and mother taught us to fish; but it was a long +time before I managed to catch a trout for myself. It takes such a +dreadful lot of sitting still. Having found where a fish is lying, +probably under an overhanging branch or beneath the grass jutting out +from the bank, you lie down silently as close to the edge of the water +as you can get, and slip one paw in, ever so gradually, behind the fish, +and move it towards him gently--gently. If he takes fright and darts +away, you leave your paw where it is, or move it as close to the spot +where he was lying as you can reach, and wait. Sooner or later he will +come back, swimming downstream and then swinging round to take his +station almost exactly in the same spot as before. If you leave your +paw absolutely still, he does not mind it, and may even, on his return, +come and lie right up against it. If so, you strike at once. More +probably he will stop a few inches or a foot away. If you have already +reached as far as you can towards him, then is the time that you need +all your patience. Again and again he darts out to take a fly from the +surface of the water or swallow something that is floated down to him by +the current, and each time that he comes back he may shift his position +an inch or two. At last he comes to where you can actually crook your +claws under his tail. Ever so cautiously you move your paw gently half +way up towards his head, and then, when your claws are almost touching +him, you strike--strike, once and hard, with a hooking blow that sends +him whirling like a bar of silver far out on the bank behind you. And +trout is good--the plump, dark, pink-banded trout of the mountain +streams. But you must not strike one fraction of a second too soon, for +if your paw has more than an inch to travel before the claws touch him +he is gone, and all you feel is the flip of a tail upon the inner side +of the paw, and all your time is wasted. + +It is hard to learn to wait long enough, and I know that at first I +used to strike at fish that were a foot away, with no more chance of +catching them than of making supper off a waterfall. But father and +mother used to catch a fish apiece for us almost every evening, and +gradually Kahwa and I began to take them for ourselves. + +Then, as the daylight faded, the beavers came out upon their dam and +played about in the pool, swimming and diving and slapping the surface +with their tails with a noise like that of an osprey when he strikes the +water in diving for a fish. But though they had time for play, they were +busy folk, the beavers. Some of them were constantly patching and +tinkering at the dam, and some always at work, except when the sun was +up, one relieving another, gnawing their way with little tiny bites +steadily through one of the great trees that stood by the water's edge, +and always gnawing it so that when, after weeks of labor, it fell, it +never failed to fall across the stream precisely where they wanted it. +If an enemy appeared--at the least sign or smell of wolf or puma--there +would be a loud ringing slap from one of the tails upon the water, and +in an instant every beaver had vanished under water and was safe inside +the house among the logs of the dam, the door of which was down below +the surface. + +Us bears they were used to and did not mind; but they never let us come +too near. Sitting safely on the top of their piled logs, or twenty feet +away in the water, they would talk to us pleasantly enough; but--well, +my father told me that young, very young, beaver was good eating and I +imagine that the beavers knew that we thought so, and were afraid, +perhaps, that we might not be too particular about the age. + +As the dusk changed to darkness we would leave the water and roam over +the hillsides, sometimes sleeping through the middle hours of the night, +but in summer more often roaming on, to come back to the stream for a +while just before the sun was up, and then turning in to sleep till he +went down again. + +Those long rambles in the summer moonlight, or in the early dawn when +everything reeked with dew, how good they were! And when the afternoon +of a broiling day brought a thunderstorm, the delight of the smell of +the moist earth and the almost overpowering scent of the pines! And when +the berries were ripe--blueberries, cranberries, wild-raspberries, and, +later in the year, elderberries--no fruit, nor anything else to eat, +has ever tasted as they did then in that first summer when I was a cub. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE COMING OF MAN. + + +Summer was far advanced. We had had a week or two of hot, dry weather, +during which we had wandered abroad, spending the heat of the days +asleep in the shadow of cool brushwood down by the streams, and in the +nights and early mornings roaming where we would. Ultimately we worked +round to the neighborhood of our home, and went to see if all was right +there, and to spend one day in the familiar place. + +It was in the very middle of the day--a sultry day, when the sun was +blazing hot--that we were awakened by the sound of somebody coming +through the bushes. The wind was blowing towards us, so that long before +he came in sight we knew that it was a bear like ourselves. But what was +a bear doing abroad at high noon of such a day, and crashing through +the bushes in that headlong fashion? Something extraordinary must have +happened to him, and we soon learned that indeed something had. + +Coming plunging downhill with the wind behind him, he was right on us +before he knew we were there. He was one of our cousins--a cinnamon--and +we saw at once that he was hurt, for he was going on three legs, holding +his left fore-paw off the ground. It was covered with blood and hung +limply, showing that the bone was broken. He was so nervous that at +sight of us he threw himself up on his haunches and prepared to fight; +but we all felt sorry for him, and he soon quieted down. + +"Whatever has happened to you?" asked my father, while we others sat and +listened. + +"Man!" replied Cinnamon, with a growl that made my blood run cold. + +Man! Father had told us of man, but he had never seen him; nor had his +father or his grandfather before him. Man had never visited our part of +the mountains, as far as we knew, but stories of him we had heard in +plenty. They had been handed down in our family from generation to +generation, from the days when our ancestors lived far away from our +present abiding-place; and every year, too, the animals that left the +mountains when the snow came brought us back stories of man in the +spring. The coyotes knew him and feared him; the deer knew him and +trembled at his very name; the pumas knew him and both feared and hated +him. Everyone who knew him seemed to fear him, and we had caught the +fear from them, and feared him, too, and had blessed ourselves that he +did not come near us. + +And now he was here! And poor Cinnamon's shattered leg was evidence that +his evil reputation was not unjustified. + +Then Cinnamon told us his story. + +He had lived, like his father and grandfather before him, some miles +away on the other side of the high range of mountains behind us; and +there he had considered himself as safe from man as we on our side had +supposed ourselves to be. But that spring when he awoke he found that +during the winter the men had come. They were few in the beginning, he +said, and he had first heard of them as being some miles away. But more +came, and ever more; and as they came they pushed farther and farther +into the mountains. What they were doing he did not know, but they kept +for the most part along by the streams, where they dug holes everywhere. +No, they did not live in the holes. They built themselves places to live +in out of trees which they cut down and chopped into lengths and piled +together. Why they did that, when it was so much easier to dig +comfortable holes in the hillside, he did not know; but they did. And +they did not cut down the trees with their teeth like beavers, but took +sticks in their hands and beat them till they fell! + +Yes, it was true about the fires they made. They made them every day and +all the time, usually just outside the houses that they built of the +chopped trees. The fires were terrible to look at, but the men did not +seem to be afraid of them. They stood quite close to them, especially in +the evenings, and burned their food in them before they ate it. + +We had heard this before, but had not believed it. And it was true, +after all! What was still more wonderful, Cinnamon said that he had gone +down at night, when the men were all asleep in their chopped-tree +houses, and, sniffing round, had found pieces of this burnt food lying +about, and eaten them, and--they were very good! So good were they that, +incredible as it might seem, Cinnamon had gone again and again, night +after night, to look for scraps that had been left lying about. + +On the previous night he had gone down as usual after the men, as he +supposed, were all asleep, but he was arrested before he got to the +houses themselves by a strong smell of the burnt food somewhere close by +him. The men, he explained, had cut down the trees nearest to the stream +to build their houses with, so that between the edge of the forest and +the water there was an open space dotted with the stumps of the trees +that had been felled, which stuck up as high as a bear's shoulder from +the ground. It was just at the edge of this open space that he smelled +the burnt food, and, sure enough, on one of the nearest stumps there was +a bigger lump of it than any he had ever seen. Naturally, he went +straight up to it. + +Just as he got to it he heard a movement between him and the houses, +and, looking round, he saw a man lying flat on the ground in such a way +that he had hitherto been hidden by another stump. As Cinnamon looked he +saw the man point something at him (yes, unquestionably, the dreadful +thing we had heard of--the thunder-stick--with which man kills at long +distances), and in a moment there was a flash of flame and a noise like +a big tree breaking in the wind, and something hit his leg and smashed +it, as we could see. It hurt horribly, and Cinnamon turned at once and +plunged into the wood. As he did so there was a second flash and roar, +and something hit a tree-trunk within a foot of his head, and sent +splinters flying in every direction. + +Since then Cinnamon had been trying only to get away. His foot hurt him +so that he had been obliged to lie down for a few hours in the bushes +during the morning; but now he was pushing on again, only anxious to go +somewhere as far away from man as possible. + +While he was talking, my mother had been licking his wounded foot, while +father sat up on his haunches, with his nose buried in the fur of his +chest, grumbling and growling to himself, as his way was when he was +very much annoyed. I have the same trick, which I suppose I inherited +from him. We cubs sat shivering and whimpering, and listening +terror-stricken to the awful story. + +What was to be done now? That was the question. How far away, we asked, +were the men? Well, it was about midnight when Cinnamon was wounded, +and now it was noon. Except the three or four hours that he had lain in +the bushes, he had been travelling in a straight line all the time, as +fast as he could with his broken leg. And did men travel fast? No; they +moved very slowly, and always on their hind-legs. Cinnamon had never +seen one go on all fours, though _that_ seemed to him as ridiculous as +their building houses of chopped trees instead of making holes in the +ground. They very rarely went about at night, and Cinnamon did not +believe any of them had followed him, so there was probably no immediate +danger. Moreover, Cinnamon explained, they seldom moved far away from +the streams, and they made a great deal of noise wherever they went, so +that it was easy to hear them. Besides which, you could smell them a +long way off. It did not matter if you had never smelled it before: any +bear would know the man-smell by the first whiff he got of it. + +All this was somewhat consoling. It made the danger a little more +remote, and, especially, it reduced the chance of our being taken by +surprise. Still, the situation was bad enough as it stood, for the news +changed the whole color and current of our lives. Hitherto we had gone +without fear where we would, careless of anything but our own +inclinations. Now a sudden terror had arisen, that threw a shadow over +every minute of the day and night. Man was near--man, who seemed love to +kill, and who _could_ kill; not by his strength, but by virtue of some +cunning which we could neither combat nor understand. Thereafter, though +perhaps man's name might not be mentioned between us from one day to +another, I do not think there was a minute when we were not all more or +less on the alert, with ears and nostrils open for an indication of his +dreaded presence. + +Though Cinnamon thought we could safely stay where we were, he proposed +himself to push on, farther away from the neighborhood of the hated +human beings. In any emergency he was sadly crippled by his broken leg, +and--at least till that was healed--he preferred to be as remote from +danger as possible. + +After he was gone my father and mother held council. There was no more +sleep for us that day, and in the evening, when we started out on our +regular search for food, it was very cautiously, and with nerves all on +the jump. It was a trying night. We went warily, with our heads ever +turned up-wind, hardly daring to dig for a root lest the sound of our +digging should fill our ears so that we would not hear man's approach; +and when I stripped a bit of bark from a fallen log to look for beetles +underneath, and it crackled noisily as it came away, my father growled +angrily at me and mother cuffed me from behind. + +I remember, though, that they shared the beetles between them. + +I need not dwell on the days of anxiety that followed. I do not remember +them much myself, except that they were very long and nerve-racking. I +will tell you at once how it was that we first actually came in contact +with man himself. + +In the course of my life I have reached the conclusion that nearly all +the troubles that come to animals are the result of one of two +things--either of their greediness or their curiosity. It was curiosity +which led me into the difficulty with Porcupine. It was Cinnamon's +greediness that got his leg broken for him. Our first coming in contact +with man was the result, I am afraid, of both--but chiefly of our +curiosity. + +During the days that followed our meeting with Cinnamon, while we were +moving about so cautiously, we were also all the time (and, though we +never mentioned the fact, we all knew that we were) gradually working +nearer to the place where Cinnamon had told us that man was. I knew what +was happening, but would not have mentioned it for worlds, lest if we +talked about it we should change our direction. And I wanted--yes, in +spite of his terrors--I wanted to see man just once. Also--I may as well +confess it--there were memories of what Cinnamon had said of that +wonderful burnt food. + +Some ten or twelve days must have passed in this way, when one morning, +after we had been abroad for three or four hours, and the sun was just +getting up, we heard a noise such as we had never heard before. Chuck! +chuck! chuck! It came at regular intervals for a while, then stopped and +began again. What could it be? It was not the noise of a woodpecker, nor +that which a beaver makes with its tail. Chuck! chuck! chuck! It was not +the clucking of a grouse, though perhaps more like that than anything +else, but different, somehow, in quality. Chuck! chuck! chuck! I think +we all knew in our hearts that it had something to do with man. + +The noise came from not far away, but the wind was blowing across us. +So we made a circle till it blew from the noise to us; and suddenly in +one whiff we all knew that it was man. I felt my skin crawling up my +spine, and I saw my father's nose go down into his chest, while the hair +on his neck and shoulders stood out as it only could do in moments of +intense excitement. + +Slowly, very slowly, we moved towards the noise, until at last we were +so close that the smell grew almost overpowering. But still we could not +see him, because of the brushwood. Then we came to a fallen log and, +carefully and silently we stepped on to it--my father and mother first, +then I, then Kahwa. Now, by standing up on our hind-feet, our +heads--even mine and Kahwa's--were clear of the bushes, and there, not +fifty yards away from us, was man. He was chopping down a tree, and that +was the noise that we had heard. He did not see us, being too intent on +his work. Chuck! chuck! chuck! He was striking steadily at the tree with +what I now know was an axe, but which at the time we all supposed to be +a thunder-stick, and at each blow the splinters of wood flew just as +Cinnamon had told us. After a while he stopped, and stooped to pick +something off the ground. This hid him from my sight, and from Kahwa's +also, so she strained up on her tiptoes to get another look at him. In +doing so her feet slipped on the bark of the log, and down she came with +a crash that could have been heard at twice his distance from us, even +if the shock had not knocked a "Wooff!" out of her as she fell. The man +instantly stood up and turned round, and, of course, found himself +staring straight into our faces. + +He did not hesitate a moment, but dropped his axe and ran. I think he +ran as fast as he could, but what Cinnamon said was true: he went, of +course, on his hind-legs, and did not travel fast. It was downhill, and +running on your hind-legs for any distance downhill is an awkward +performance at best. + +We, of course, followed our impulse, and went after him. We did not want +him in the least. We would not have known what to do with him if we had +him. But you know how impossible it is to resist chasing anything that +runs away from you. We could easily have caught him had we wished to, +but why should we? Besides, he might still have another thunder-stick +concealed about him. So we just ran fast enough to keep him running. And +as we ran, crashing through the bushes, galloping down hill, with his +head rising and falling as he leaped along ahead of us, the absurdity of +it got hold of me, and I yelped with excitement and delight. To be +chasing man, of all things living--man--like this! And I could hear my +father "wooffing" to himself at each gallop with amusement and +satisfaction. + +Very soon, however, we smelled more men. Then we slowed down, and +presently there came in sight what we knew must be one of the +chopped-tree houses. So we stood and watched, while the man, still +running as if we were at his very heels, tore up to the house, and out +from behind it came three or four others. We could see them brandishing +their arms and talking very excitedly. Then two of them plunged into the +house, and came out with--yes, there could be no doubt of it; these were +the real things--the dreaded thunder-sticks themselves. + +Then we knew that it was our turn to run; and we ran. + +Back up the hill we went, much faster than we had come down; for we were +running for our own lives now, and bears like running uphill best. On +and on we went, as fast as we could go. We had no idea at how long a +distance man could hit us with the thunder-sticks, but we preferred to +be on the safe side, and it must have been at least two hours before we +stopped for a moment to take breath. And when a bear is in a hurry, two +hours, even for a cub, mean more than twenty miles. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE FOREST FIRE. + + +Though we had come off so happily from our first encounter with man, +none the less we had no desire to see him again. On the contrary, we +determined to keep as far away from him as possible. For my part, I +confess that thoughts of him were always with me, and every thought made +the skin crawl up my back. + +Nor was I the only one of the family who was nervous. Father and mother +had become so changed that they were gruff and bad-tempered; and all the +pleasure and light-heartedness seemed to have gone out of our long +rambles. There was no more romping and rolling together down the +hillsides. If Kahwa and I grew noisy in our play, we were certain to be +stopped with a "Wooff, children! be quiet." The fear of man was always +with us, and his presence seemed to pervade the whole of the mountains. + +Soon, however, a thing happened which for a time at least drove man and +everything else out of our minds. + +We still lingered around the neighborhood of our home, because, I think, +we felt safer there, where we knew every inch of the hills and every +bush, and tree, and stone. It had been very hot for weeks, so that the +earth was parched dry, and the streams had shrunk till, in places where +torrents were pouring but a few weeks ago, there was now no more than a +dribble of water going over the stones. During the day we hardly went +about at all, but from soon after sunrise to an hour or so before sunset +we kept in the shadow of the brushwood along the water's edge. + +One evening the sun did not seem to be able to finish setting, but after +it had gone down the red glow still stayed in the sky to westward, and +instead of fading it glowed visibly brighter as the night went on. All +night my father was uneasy, growling and grumbling to himself and +continually sniffing the air to westward; but the atmosphere was +stagnant and hot and dead all night, with not a breath of wind moving. +When daylight came the glow died out of the western sky, but in place of +it a heavy gray cloud hung over the farther mountains and hid their tops +from sight. We went to bed that morning feeling very uncomfortable and +restless, and by mid-day we were up again. And now we knew what the +matter was. + +A breeze had sprung up from the west, and when I woke after a few hours' +sleep--sleep which had been one long nightmare of man and thunder-sticks +and broken leg--the air was full of a new smell, very sharp and pungent; +and not only was there the smell, but with the breeze the cloud from the +west had been rolling towards us, and the whole mountain-side was +covered with a thin haze, like a mist, only different from any mist that +I had seen. And it was this haze that smelled so strongly. Instead of +clearing away, as mist ought to do when the sun grows hot, this one +became denser as the day went on, half veiling the sun itself. And we +soon found that things--unusual things--were going on in the mountains. +The birds were flying excitedly about, and the squirrels chattering, and +everything was travelling from west to east, and on all sides we heard +the same thing. + +"The world's on fire! quick, quick, quick!" screamed the squirrels as +they raced along the ground or jumped from tree to tree overhead. "Fire! +fire!" called the myrtle-robin as it passed. "Firrrrrre!" shouted the +blue jay. A coyote came limping by, yelping that the end of the world +was at hand. Pumas passed snarling and growling angrily, first at us, +and then over their shoulders at the smoke that rolled behind. Deer +plunged up to us, stood for a minute quivering with terror, and plunged +on again into the brush. Overhead and along the ground was an almost +constant stream of birds and animals, all hurrying in the same +direction. + +Presently there came along another family of bears, the parents and two +cubs just about the size of Kahwa and myself, the cubs whimpering and +whining as they ran. The father bear asked my father if we were not +going, too; but my father thought not. He was older and bigger than the +other bear, and had seen a forest fire when he was a cub, and his father +then had saved them by taking to the water. + +"If a strong winds gets up," he said, "you cannot escape by running +away from the fire, because it will travel faster than you. It may drive +you before it for days, until you are worn out, and there's no knowing +where it will drive you. It may drive you unexpectedly straight into +man. I shall try the water." + +The others listened to what he had to say, but they were too frightened +to pay much attention, and soon went on again, leaving us to face the +fire. And I confess that I wished that father would let us go, too. + +Meanwhile the smoke had been growing thicker and thicker. It made eyes +and throat smart, and poor little Kahwa was crying with discomfort and +terror. Before sunset the air was so thick that we could not see a +hundred yards in any direction, and as the twilight deepened the whole +western half of the sky, from north to south and almost overhead, seemed +to be aflame. Now, too, we could hear the roaring of the fire in the +distance, like the noise the wind makes in the pine-trees before a +thunderstorm. Then my father began to move, not away from the fire, +however, but down the stream, and the stream ran almost due west +straight towards it. What a terrible trip that was! The fire was, of +course, much farther away than it looked; the smoke had been carried +with the wind many miles ahead of the fire itself, and we could not yet +see the flames, but only the awful glare in the sky. But, in my +inexperience, I thought it was close upon us, and, with the dreadful +roaring growing louder and louder in my ears, every minute was an agony. + +[Illustration: "NOT FIFTY YARDS AWAY WAS MAN."] + +But my father and mother went steadily on, and there was nothing to do +but to follow them. Sometimes we left the stream for a little to make a +short-cut, but we soon came back to it, and for the most part we kept in +the middle of the water, or where it was deep close to the bank. + +At last we reached our pool above the beaver-dam, and here, feeling his +way cautiously well out into the middle, till he found a place where it +was just deep enough for Kahwa and me to be able to lift our heads above +the water, father stopped. By this time the air was so hot that it was +hard to breathe without dipping one's mouth constantly in the water, and +for the roaring of the flames I could not hear Kahwa whimpering at my +side, or the rush of the stream below the dam. And we soon found that we +were not alone in the pool. My friend the kingfisher was not there, but +close beside us were old Grey Wolf and his wife, and, as I remembered +that Grey Wolf was considered the wisest animal in the mountains, I +began to feel more comfortable, and was glad that we had not run away +with the others. The beavers--what a lot of them there were!--were in a +state of great excitement, climbing out on to the top of the dam and +slapping the logs and the water with their tails, then plunging into the +water, only to climb out again and plunge in once more. Once a small +herd of deer, seven or eight of them, came rushing into the water, +evidently intending to stay there, but their courage failed them. +Whether it was the proximity of Grey Wolf or whether it was mere +nervousness I do not know, but after they had settled down in the water +one of them was suddenly panic-stricken, and plunged for the bank and +off into the woods, followed by all the rest. + +When we reached the pool there was still one ridge or spur of the +mountains between us and the fire, making a black wall in front of us, +above which was nothing but a furnace of swirling smoke and red-hot air. +It seemed as if we waited a long time for the flames to top that wall, +because, I suppose, they travelled slowly down in the valley beyond, +where they did not get the full force of the wind. Then we saw the sky +just above the top of the wall glowing brighter from red to yellow; then +came a few scattered, tossing bits of flame against the glow and the +swirling smoke; and then, with one roar, it was upon us. In an instant +the whole line of the mountain ridge was a mass of flame, the noise +redoubled till it was almost deafening, and, as the wind now caught it, +the fire leaped from tree to tree, not pausing at one before it +swallowed the next, but in one steady rush, without check or +interruption, it swept over the hill-top and down the nearer slope, and +instantaneously, as it seemed, we were in the middle of it. + +I remember recalling then what my father had said to the other bears +about not being able to run away from the fire if the wind were blowing +strongly. + +Had we not been out in the middle of the pool, we must have perished. +The fire was on both sides of the stream--indeed, as we learned later, +it reached for many miles on both sides, and where there was only the +usual width of water the flames joined hand across it and swept up the +stream in one solid wall. Where we were was the whole width of the +pool, while, besides, the beavers had cut down the larger trees +immediately near the water, so there was less for the fire to feed upon. +But even so I did not believe that we could come through alive. It was +impossible to open my eyes above water, and the hot air scorched my +throat. There was nothing for it but to keep my head under water and +hold my breath as long as I could, then put my nose out just enough to +breathe once, and plunge it in again. How long that went on I do not +know, but it seemed to me ages; though the worst of it can only have +lasted for minutes. But at the end of those minutes all the water in +that huge pool was hot. + +I saw my father raising his head and shoulders slowly out of the water +and beginning to look about him. That gave me courage, and I did the +same. The first thing that I realized was that the roaring was less +loud, and then, though it was still almost intolerably hot, I found that +it was possible to keep one's head in the open air and one's eyes open. +Looking back, I saw that the line of flame had already swept far away, +and was even now surmounting the top of the next high ridge; and it was, +I knew, at that moment devouring the familiar cedars by our home, just +as it had devoured the trees on either side of the beavers' pool. On all +sides of us the bigger trees were still in flames, and from everywhere +thick white smoke was rising, and over all the mountain-side, right down +to the water's edge, there was not one green leaf or twig. Everything +was black. The brushwood was completely gone. The trees were no more +than bare trunks, some of them still partially wreathed in flames. The +whole earth was black, and from every side rose columns and jets and +streams of smoke. It seemed incredible that such a change could have +been wrought so instantaneously. It was awful. Just a few minutes and +what had been a mountain-side clothed in splendid trees, making one +dense shield of green, sloping down to the bottom-land by the stream, +with its thickets of undergrowth, and all the long cool green herbage by +the water, had been swept away, and in its place was only a black and +smoking wilderness. And what we saw before our eyes was the same for +miles and miles to north and south of us, for a hundred miles to the +west from which the fire had come; and every few minutes, as long as the +wind held, carried desolation another mile to eastward. + +And what of all the living things that had died? Had the animals and +birds that had passed us earlier in the day escaped? The deer which had +fled from the pool at the last moment--they, I knew, must have been +overtaken in that first terrible rush of the flames; and I wondered what +the chances were that the bears who had declined to stay with us, the +squirrels, the coyote, the pumas, and the hosts of birds that had been +hurrying eastward all day, would be able to keep moving long enough to +save themselves. And what of all the insects and smaller things that +must be perishing by millions every minute? I do not know whether I was +more frightened at the thought of what we had escaped or grateful to my +father for the course he had taken. + +It is improbable that I thought of all this at the time, but I know I +was dreadfully frightened; and it makes me laugh now to think what a +long time it was before we could persuade Kahwa to put her head above +water and look about her. Our eyes and throats were horribly sore, but +otherwise none of us was hurt. But though we were alive, life did not +look very bright for us. Where should we go? That was the first +question. And what should we find to eat in all this smoking +wilderness? While we sat in the middle of the pool wondering what we +could do or whether it would be safe to do anything, we saw Grey Wolf +start to go away. He climbed out on the bank while his wife sat in the +water and watched him. He got out safely, and then put his nose down to +snuff at the ground. The instant his nose touched the earth he gave a +yelp, and plunged back into the water again. He had burnt the tip of his +nose, for the ground was baking hot, as we soon discovered for +ourselves. When we first stepped out on shore, our feet were so wet that +we did not feel the heat, but in a few seconds they began to dry, and +then the sooner we scrambled back into the water again, the better. + +How long it would have taken the earth to cool again I do not know. It +was covered with a layer of burned stuff, ashes, and charred wood, which +everywhere continued smouldering underneath, and all through the morning +of the next day little spirals of smoke were rising from the ground in +every direction. Fortunately, at mid-day came a thunderstorm which +lasted well on towards evening, and when the rain stopped the ground had +ceased smoking. Many of the trees still smouldered and burned inside. +Sometimes the flame would eat its way out again to the surface, so that +the tree would go on burning in the middle of the wet forest until it +was consumed; and for days afterwards, on scratching away the stuff on +the surface, we would come to a layer of half burned sticks that was +still too hot to touch. + +We of course kept to the stream. There along the edges we found food, +for the rushes and grass and plants of all kinds had burned to the +water-line, but below that the stems and roots remained fresh and good. +But it was impossible to avoid getting the black dust into one's nose +and mouth, and our throats and nostrils were still full of the smell of +the smoke. No amount of water would wash it out. The effect of the +thunderstorm soon passed off, and by the next day everything was as dry +as ever, and the least puff of wind filled the air with clouds of black +powder which made us sneeze, and, getting into our eyes, kept them red +and sore. I do not think that in all my life I have spent such a +miserable time as during those days while we were trying to escape from +the region of the fire. + +Of course, we did not know that there was any escape. Perhaps the whole +world had burned. But my father was sure that we should get out of it +some time or other if we only kept straight on. And keep on we did, +hardly ever leaving the water, but travelling on and on up the stream as +it got smaller and smaller, until finally there was no stream at all, +but only a spring bubbling out of the mountain-side. So we crossed over +the burnt ground until we came to the beginning of another stream on the +other side, and followed that down just as we had followed the first one +up. And perhaps the most dreadful thing all the time was the utter +silence of the woods. As a rule, both day and night, they were full of +the noises of other animals and birds, but now there was not a sound in +all the mountains. We seemed to be the only living things left. + +The stream which we now followed was that on which the men whom we had +seen were camping, and presently we came to the place where they had +been. The chopped-log house was a pile of ashes and half-burnt wood. +About the ruins we found all sorts of curious things that were new to +us--among them, things which I now know were kettles and frying-pans; +and we came across lumps of their food, but it was all too much covered +with the black powder to be eatable. There we stayed for the best part +of a day, and then we went on without having seen a sign of man himself, +and wondering what had become of him. + +Seven or eight days had passed since the fire, when, the day after we +passed the place where man had lived, we came to a beaver-dam across the +stream, and the beavers told us that, some hours before the fire reached +there, they had seen the men hurrying downstream, but they did not know +whether they had succeeded in escaping or not. And now other life began +to reappear. We met badgers and woodchucks and rats which had taken +refuge in their holes, and had at first been unable to force their way +out again through the mass of burnt stuff which covered the ground and +choked up their burrows. The air, too, began to be full of insects, +which had been safe underground or in the hearts of trees, and were now +hatching out. And then we met birds--woodpeckers first, and afterwards +jays, which were working back into the burnt district, and from them it +was that we first learned for certain that it was only a burnt district, +and that there was part of the world which had escaped. So we pushed on, +until one morning, when daylight came, we saw in the distance a +hill-top on which the trees still stood with all their leaves +unconsumed. And how good and cool it looked! + +We did not stop to sleep, but travelled on all through the day, going as +fast as we could along the rocky edges of the stream, which was now +almost wide enough to be a river, when suddenly we heard strange noises +ahead of us, and we knew what the noises were, and that they meant man +again. Men were coming towards us along the bank of the stream, so we +had to leave it and hurry into the woods. There, though there was no +shelter but the burnt tree-stumps, we were safe and all we had to do was +to squat perfectly still, and it was impossible even for us, at a little +distance, to distinguish each other from burnt tree-stumps. So we sat +and watched the men pass. There were five of them, each carrying a +bundle nearly as big as himself on his back, and they laughed and talked +noisily as they passed, without a suspicion that four bears were looking +at them from less than a hundred yards away. + +As soon as they had passed, we went on again, and before evening we came +to places where the trees were only partly burned; here and there one +had escaped altogether. Then, close by the stream, a patch of willows +was as green and fresh as if there had been no fire; and at last we had +left the burnt country behind us. How good it was--the smell of the dry +pine-needles and the good, soft brown earth underneath, and the delight +of the taste of food that was once more free from smoke, and the glory +of that first roll in the green grass among the fresh, juicy undergrowth +by the water! + +That next day we slept--really slept--for the first time since the night +in the beavers' pool. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +KAHWA. + + +We soon found that the country which we were now in was simply full of +animals. Of course it had had its share of inhabitants before the fire, +and, in addition, all those that fled before the flames had crowded into +it; besides which the beasts of prey from all directions were drawn +towards the same place by the abundance of food which was easy to get. +We heard terrible stories of sufferings and narrow escapes, and the +poor deer especially, when they had at last won to a place of safety +from the flames, were generally so tired and so bewildered that they +fell an easy prey to the pumas and wolves. All night long the forest was +full of the yelping of the coyotes revelling over the bodies of animals +that the larger beasts had killed and only partly eaten, and every +creature seemed to be quarrelling with those of its kind, the former +inhabitants of the neighborhood resenting the intrusion of the +newcomers. For ourselves, nobody attacked us. We found two other +families of bears quite close to us, but though we did not make friends +at first, they did not quarrel with us. We were glad enough to live in +peace, and to be able to devote ourselves to learning something about +the new country. + +In general it was very much like the place that we had left--the same +succession of mountain after mountain, all densely covered with trees, +and with the streams winding down through gulch and valley. The stream +that we had followed was now a river, broader all along its course than +the beavers' pool which had saved our lives, and at one place, about two +miles beyond the end of the burned region, it passed through a valley, +wider than any that I had seen, with an expanse of level land on either +side. Here it was, on this level bottom-land, that I first tasted what +are, I think, next to honey, of all wild things the greatest treat that +a bear knows--ripe blueberries. But this "berry-path," as we called it, +was to play a very important part in my life, and I must explain. + +We had soon learned that we were now almost in the middle of men. There +was the party which had passed us going up the stream into the burned +country. There were two more log-houses about a mile from the edge of +the burned country, and therefore also behind us. There were others +farther down the stream, and almost every day men passed either up or +down the river, going from one set of houses to another. Finally we +heard, and, before we had been there a week, saw with our own eyes, that +only some ten miles farther on, where our stream joined another and made +a mighty river, there was a town, which had all sprung up since last +winter, in which hundreds of men lived together. This was the great +draw-back to our new home. But if we went farther on, the chances were +that we should only come to more and more men; and for the present, by +lying up most of the day, and only going out at night in the direction +of their houses, there was no difficulty in keeping away from them. + +Familiarity with them indeed had lessened our terror. We certainly had +no desire to hurt them, and they, as they passed up and down or went +about their work digging in the ground along the side of the river or +chopping down trees, appeared to give no thought to us; and with that +fear removed, even though we kept constantly on the alert, lest they +should unexpectedly come too near us, our life was happy and free from +care. Father and mother grew to be like their old selves again, less +gruff and nervous than they had been since the memorable day when we saw +Cinnamon with his broken leg; and as for Kahwa and me, though we romped +less than we used to do--for we were seven months old now, and at seven +months a bear is getting to be a big and serious animal--we were as +happy as two young bears could be. After a long hot day, during which we +had been sleeping in the shade, what could be more delightful than to go +and lie in the cool stream, where it flowed only a foot or so deep, and +as clear as the air itself, over a firm sandy bottom? There were frogs, +and snails, and beetles of all sorts, along the water's edge, and the +juicy stems of the reeds and water-plants. Then, in the night we +wandered abroad finding lily roots, and the sweet ferns, and camas, and +mushrooms, with another visit to the river in the early morning and +perhaps a trout to wind up with before the sun drove us under cover +again. And above all there was the berry-patch. + +The mere smell of a berry-patch at the end of summer, when the sun has +been beating down all day, so that the air is heavy with the scent of +the cooking fruit, is delicious enough, but it is nothing to the +sweetness of the berries themselves. + +It was in the evening, after our dip in the river, when twilight was +shading into night, that we used to visit the patch. It was a great open +space in a bend of the river, half a mile long and nearly as wide, +without a tree on it, and nothing but just the blueberry bushes growing +close together all over it, reaching about up to one's chest as one +walked through, and every bush loaded with berries. Not only we, but +every bear in the neighborhood, used to go there each evening--the two +other families of whom I have spoken, and also two other single +he-bears who had no families. One of these was the only animal in the +neighborhood--except the porcupines, which every bear hates--whom I +disliked and feared. He was a bad-tempered beast, bigger than father, +with whom at our first meeting he wanted to pick a quarrel, while making +friends with mother. She, however, would not have anything to say to +him. When he was getting ready to fight my father--walking sideways at +him and snarling, while my father, I am bound to confess, backed +away--mother did not say a word, but went straight at him as she had +rushed at the puma that day when she saved my life. Then father jumped +at him also, and between them they bundled him along till he fairly took +to his heels and ran. But whenever we met him after that--and we saw him +every evening at the patch--he snarled viciously at us, and I, at least, +was careful to keep father and mother between him and me. If he had +caught any one of us alone, I believe he would have killed us; so we +took care that he never should. + +I can see the berry-patch now, lying white and shining in the moonlight, +with here and there round the edges, and even sometimes pretty well out +into the middle, if the night was not too light, the black spots showing +where the bears were feeding. We enjoyed our feasts in silence, and +beyond an occasional snapping of a twig, or the cry of some animal from +the forest, or the screech of a passing owl, there was not a sound but +that of our own eating. One night, however, there came an interruption. + +It was bright moonlight, and we were revelling in our enjoyment of the +fruit, but father was curiously restless. The air was very still, but in +a little gust of wind early in the evening father declared that he had +smelled man. As an hour passed and there was no further sign of him, +however, we forgot him in the delight of the ripe berries. Suddenly from +the other side of the patch, nearly half a mile away from us, rang out +the awful voice of the thunder-stick. We did not wait to see what was +happening, but made at all speed for the shelter of the trees, and tore +on up the mountain slope. There was no further sound, but we did not +dare to go back to the patch that night, nor did we see any of the other +bears; so that it was not until some days afterwards that we heard that +the thunder-stick had very nearly killed the mother of one of the other +families. It had cut a deep wound in her neck, and she had saved +herself only by plunging into the woods. If we had known all this at the +time, I doubt if we should have gone back to the berry-patch as we did +on the very next night. + +On our way to the patch we met the bad-tempered bear coming away from +it. That was curious, and if it had been anybody else we should +undoubtedly have asked him why he was leaving the feast at that time in +the evening. Had we done so, it might have saved a lot of trouble. As it +was, we only snarled back at him as he passed snarling by us, and went +on our way. We were very careful, however, and took a long time to make +our way out of the trees down to the edge of the bushes; but there was +no sound to make us uneasy, nor any smell of man in such wind as blew. +Of course we took care to approach the patch at the farthest point from +where we had heard the thunder-stick on the night before. It was a +cloudy night, and the moon shone only at intervals. Taking advantage of +a passing cloud, we slipped out from the cover of the trees into the +berry-bushes. We could see no other bears, but they might be hidden by +the clouds. In a minute, however, the moon shone out, and had there +been any others there--at least, as far out from the edge as +ourselves--we must have been able to see them. Certainly, alas! we were +seen, for even as I was looking round the patch in the first ray of the +moonlight to see if any of our friends were there, the thunder-stick +rang out again, and once more we plunged for the trees. But this time +the sound was much nearer, and there was a second report before we were +well into the shadow, and then a third. So terrified were we that there +was no thought of stopping, but after we got into the woods we kept +straight on as fast as we could go, father and mother in front, I next, +and Kahwa behind; and none of us looked back, for we heard the shouts of +men and the crashing of branches as they ran, and again and again the +thunder-stick spoke. + +Suddenly I became aware that Kahwa was not behind me. I stopped and +looked round, but she was nowhere to be seen. I remembered having heard +her give a sudden squeal, as if she had trodden on something sharp, but +I had paid no attention to it at the time. Now I became frightened, and +called to father and mother to stop. They were a long way ahead, and it +was some time before I could get near enough to attract their attention +and tell them that Kahwa was missing. + +Mother wished to charge straight down the hill again at the men, +thunder-sticks or no thunder-sticks; but father dissuaded her, and at +last we began to retrace our steps cautiously, keeping our ears and +noses open for any sign either of Kahwa or of man. As we came near the +edge of the wood, noises reached us--shouts and stamping; and then, +mixed with the other sounds, I clearly heard Kahwa's voice. She was +crying in anger and pain, as if she was fighting, and fighting +desperately. A minute later we were near enough to see, and a miserable +sight it was that we saw. + +Out in the middle of the berry-patch, in the brilliant moonlight, was +poor Kahwa with four men. They had fastened ropes around her, and two of +them at the end of one rope on one side, and two at the end of one on +the other, were dragging her across the middle of the patch. She was +fighting every inch of the way, but her struggles against four men were +useless, and slowly, yard by yard, she was being dragged away from us. + +But if she could not fight four men, could not we? There were four of +us, and I said so to my father. But he only grunted, and reminded me of +the thunder-sticks. It was only too true. Without the thunder-sticks we +should have had no difficulty in meeting them, but with those weapons in +their hands it would only be sacrificing our lives in vain to attempt a +rescue. So there we had to stand and watch, my mother all the time +whimpering and my father growling, and sitting up on his haunches and +rubbing his nose in his chest. We dared not show ourselves in the open, +so we followed the edge of the patch, keeping alongside of the men, but +in the shadow of the trees. They pulled Kahwa across the middle of the +patch into the woods on the other side, and down to the riverbank, +where, we knew, there began an open path which the men had beaten in +going to and from their houses half a mile farther on. Here there were +several houses in a bunch together. Inside one of these they shut her, +and then all went in to another house themselves. We stayed around, and +two or three times later on we saw one or more of the men come out and +stand for a while at Kahwa's door listening; but at last they came out +no more, and we saw the lights go out in their house, and we knew that +the men had gone to sleep. + +Then we crept down cautiously till we could hear Kahwa whimpering and +growling through the walls. My mother spoke to her, and there was +silence for a moment, and then, when mother spoke again, the poor little +thing recognized her voice and squealed with delight. But what could we +do? We talked to her for awhile, and tried to scratch away the earth +from round the wall, in the hope of getting at her; but it was all +useless, and as the day began to dawn nothing remained but to make off +before the men arose, and to crawl away to hide ourselves in the woods +again. + +What a wretched night that was! Hitherto I do not think that I had +thought much of Kahwa. I had taken her as a matter of course, played +with her and quarrelled with her by turns, without stopping to think +what life might be without her. But now I thought of it, and as I lay +awake through the morning I realized how much she had been to me, and +wondered what the men would do with her. Most of all I wondered why they +should have wanted to catch her at all. We had no wish to do them any +harm. We were nobody's enemy; least of all was little Kahwa. Why could +not men live in peace with us as we were willing to live in peace with +them? + +Long before it was dusk next evening we were in the woods as near to the +men's houses as we dared to go, but we could hear no sound of my +sister's voice. There appeared to be only one man about the place, and +he was at work chopping wood, until just at sunset, when the other three +men came back from down the stream, and we noticed that they carried +long ropes slung over their arms. Were those the ropes with which they +had dragged Kahwa the night before? If so, had they again, while we +slept, dragged her off somewhere else? We feared it must be so. + +Impatiently we waited until it was dark enough to trust ourselves in the +open near the houses, and then we soon knew that our fears were +justified. The door of the house in which Kahwa had been shut was open; +the men went in and out of it, and evidently Kahwa was not there. Nor +was there any trace of her about the buildings. So under my father's +guidance we started on the path down the stream by which the three men +had returned, and it was not long before we found the marks of where she +had struggled against her captors, and in places the scent of her trail +was still perceptible, in spite of the strong man-smell which pervaded +the beaten path. + +So we followed the trail down until we came to more houses; then made a +circuit and followed on again, still finding evidence that she had +passed. Soon we came to more houses, at ever shortening intervals, until +the bank of the stream on both sides was either continuously occupied by +houses or showed traces of men being constantly at work there. And +beyond was the town itself. It was of no use for us to go farther. In +the town we could see lights streaming from many of the buildings, and +the shouting of men's voices came to our ears. We wandered round the +outskirts of the town till it was daylight, and then drew back into the +hills and lay down again, very sad and hungry--for we had hardly thought +of food--and very lonesome. + +Kahwa, we felt sure, was somewhere among those houses in the town. But +that was little comfort to us. And all the time we wondered what man +wanted with her, and why he could not have left us to be happy, as we +had been before he came. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LIFE IN CAMP. + + +One of the results of Kahwa's disappearance was to make me much more +solitary than I had ever been before, not merely because I did not have +her to play with, but now, for the first time, I took to wandering on +excursions by myself. And these excursions all had one object:--to find +Kahwa. + +For some days after her capture we waited about the outskirts of the +town nearly all night long; but on the third or fourth morning father +made up his mind that it was useless, and, though mother persuaded him +not to abandon the search for another night or two, he insisted after +that on giving up and returning to the neighborhood where we had been +living since the fire. So we turned our backs upon the town, and, for my +part very reluctantly, went home. + +The moon was not yet much past the full, and I can remember now how the +berry-patch looked that night as we passed it, lying white and shining +in the moonlight. We saw no other bears at it, and did not stop, but +kept under the trees round the edges, and went on to our favorite +resting-place, where, a few hundred yards from the river, a couple of +huge trees had at some time been blown down. Round their great trunks as +they lay on the ground, young trees and a mass of elder-bushes and other +brushwood had sprung up, making a dense thicket. The two logs lay side +by side, and in between them, with the tangle of bushes all round and +the branches of the other trees overhead, there was a complete and +impenetrable shelter. + +We had used this place so much that a regular path was worn to it +through the bushes. This night as we came near we saw recent prints of a +bear's feet on the path, and the bear that made them was evidently a big +one. From the way father growled when he saw them, I think he guessed at +once whose feet they were. I know that I had my suspicions--suspicions +which soon proved to be correct. + +During our absence our enemy, the surly bear that I have spoken of, had +taken it into his head that he would occupy our home. Of course he had +lived in this district much longer than we, and, had this been his home +when we first came, we should never have thought of disputing +possession with him. But it had been our home now, so far as we had any +regular home at this time of year, ever since our arrival after the +fire, while he had lived half a mile away. Now, however, there he was, +standing obstinately in the pathway, swinging his head from side to +side, and evidently intending to fight rather than go away. We all +stopped, my father in front, my mother next, and I behind. I have said +that the stranger was bigger than my father, and in an ordinary meeting +in the forest I do not think my father would have attempted to stand up +to him; but this was different. It was our home, and we all felt that he +had no right there, but that, on the contrary, he was behaving as he was +out of pure bad temper and a desire to bully us and make himself +unpleasant. Moreover, the events of the last few days had rendered my +father and mother irritable, and they were in no mood to be polite to +anybody. + +Usually it takes a long time to make two bears fight. We begin slowly, +growling and walking sideways towards each other, and only getting +nearer inch by inch. But on this occasion there was not much room in the +path, and father was thoroughly exasperated. He hardly waited at all, +but just stood sniffing with his nose up for a minute to see if the +other showed any sign of going away, and then, without further warning, +threw himself at him. I had never seen my father in a real fight, and +now he was simply splendid. Before the stranger had time to realize what +was happening, he was flung back on his haunches, and in a moment they +were rolling over and over in one mass in the bushes. At first it was +impossible to see what was going on, but, in spite of the ferocity of my +father's rush, it soon became evident that in the end the bigger bear +must win. My father's face was buried in the other's left shoulder, and +he had evidently got a good grip there; but he was almost on his back, +for the stranger had worked himself uppermost, and we could see that he +was trying to get his teeth round my father's fore-leg. Had he once got +hold, nothing could have saved the leg, bone and all, from being crushed +to pieces, and father, if not killed, would certainly have been beaten, +and probably crippled for life. And sooner or later it seemed certain +that the stranger would get his hold. + +Then it was that my mother interfered. Hurling herself at him, she +threw her whole weight into one swinging blow on the side of the big +bear's head, and in another second had plunged her teeth into the back +of his neck. My father's grip in the fleshy part of the shoulder, +however painful it might be, had little real effect; but where my mother +had attacked, behind the right ear, was a different matter. The stranger +was obliged to leave my father's leg alone and to turn and defend +himself against this new onslaught; but, big as he was, he now had more +on his hands than he could manage. As soon as he turned his attention to +my mother, my father let go of his shoulder, and in his turn tried to +grip the other's fore-leg. There was nothing for the stranger to do now +but to get out of it as fast as he could; and even I could not help +admiring his strength as he lifted himself up and shook mother off as +lightly as she would have shaken me. She escaped the wicked blow that he +aimed at her, and dodged out of his reach, and my father, letting go his +hold of the fore-leg, did the same. The stranger, with one on either +side of him, backed himself against one of the fallen logs and waited +for them to attack him. But that they had no wish to do. All that they +wanted was that he should go away, and they told him so. They moved +aside from the path on either hand to give him space to go, and slowly +and surlily he began to move. + +I was still standing in the pathway. Suddenly he made a movement as if +to rush at me, but my father and mother jumped towards him +simultaneously, while I plunged into the bushes, and he was compelled to +turn and defend himself against my parents again. But they did not +attack him, though they followed him slowly along the path. Every step +or two he stopped to make an ugly start back at one or the other, but he +knew that he was overmatched, and yard by yard he made off, my father +and mother following him as far as the edge of the thicket, and standing +to watch him out of sight. And I was glad when he was safely gone and +they came back to me. + +It was not a pleasant home-coming, and we were all restless and nervous +for days afterwards; and then it was that I vowed to myself that, if I +ever grew up and the opportunity came, I would wreak vengeance on that +bear. + +If we were all nervous, I was the worst, and in my restlessness took to +going off by myself. Up to this time I do not think I had ever been a +hundred yards away from one or other of my parents, and now, when I +started out alone, it was always in horrible fear of meeting the big +bear when there was no one to stand by me. Gradually, however, I +acquired confidence in myself, making each night a longer trip alone, +and each night going in the direction of the town. At last, one night, I +found myself at the edge of the town itself, and now when I was alone I +did not stop at the first building that I came to, but very +cautiously--for the man-smell was thick around me, and terrified me in +spite of myself--very cautiously I began to thread my way in between the +buildings.[A] As I snuffed round each building, I found all sorts of new +things to eat, with strange tastes, but most of them were good. That the +men were not all asleep was plain from the shouts and noises which +reached me at times from the centre of the big town, where, as I could +see by occasional glimpses which I caught of the nearer buildings, many +of the houses had bright lights streaming from them all night. Avoiding +these, I wandered on, picking up things to eat, and all the while +keeping ears and nose open for a sign of Kahwa. + + [A] The new mining town or camp of the Far West has no long rows + of houses or paved streets. The houses are built of logs or of + boards, rarely more than one story high, and are set down + irregularly. There maybe one more or less well-defined + "street"--the main trail running through the camp--but even + along that there will be wide gaps between the houses; while, + for the rest, the buildings are at all sorts of angles, so that + a man or a bear may wander through them as he pleases, + regardless of whether he is following a "street" or not. + +I stayed thus, moving in and out among the buildings, till dawn. Once a +dog inside a house barked furiously as I came near, and I heard a man's +voice speaking to it, and I hurried on. As the sky began to lighten, I +made my way out into the woods again, and rejoined my father and mother +before the sun was up. When I joined them, my father growled at me +because I smelled of man. + +The next night found me down in the town again. I began to know my way +about. I learned which houses contained dogs, and avoided them. Other +animals besides myself, I discovered, came into the town at night for +the sake of the food which they found lying about--coyotes and +wood-rats, and polecats; but though bears would occasionally visit the +buildings nearest to the woods, no other penetrated into the heart of +the town as I did. It had a curious fascination for me, and gradually I +grew so much at home, that even when a man came through the buildings +towards me, I only slipped out of his way round a corner, and--for man's +sight and smell are both miserably bad compared with ours--he never had +a suspicion that I was near. + +On the third or fourth night I had gone nearer to the lighted buildings +than I had ever been before, when I heard a sound that made me stop dead +and throw myself up on my haunches to listen. Yes, there could be no +doubt of it! It was Kahwa's voice. Anyone who did not know her might +have thought that she was angry, but I knew better. She was making +exactly the noise that she used to make when romping with me, and I knew +that she was not angry, but only pretending, and that she must be +playing with someone. I suppose I ought to have been glad that she was +alive and happy enough to be able to play, but it only enraged me and +made me wonder who her playmates might be. Then gradually the truth, the +incredible truth, dawned upon me. Truly incredible it seemed at first, +but there could be no doubt of it. _She was playing with man._ + +I could hear men's voices speaking to her as if in anger, and then I +heard her voice and theirs in turn again, and at last I recognized that +their anger was no more real than hers. The sounds came from where the +lights were brightest, and it was long before I could make up my mind to +go near enough to be able to see. At last, however, I crept to a place +from which I could look out between two buildings, keeping in the deep +shade myself, and I can see now every detail of what met my eyes as +plainly as if it was all before me at this minute. + +There was a building larger than those around it, with a big door wide +open, and from the door and from the windows on either side poured +streams of light out into the night. In the middle of the light, and +almost in front of the door, was a group of five or six men, and in the +centre of the group was Kahwa, tied to a post by a chain which was +fastened to a collar round her neck. I saw a man stoop down and hold +something out to her--presumably something to eat--and then, as she came +to take it from the hand which he held out, he suddenly drew it away and +hit her on the side of the head with his other hand. He did not hit hard +enough to hurt her, and it was evidently done in play, because as he +did it she got up on her hind-legs and slapped at him, first with one +hand and then with the other, growling all the time in angry +make-believe. Sometimes the man came too near, and Kahwa would hit him, +and the other men all burst out laughing. Then I saw him walk +deliberately right up to her, and they took hold of each other and +wrestled, just as Kahwa and I used to do by the old place under the +cedar-trees when we were little cubs. I could see, too, that now and +then she was not doing her best, and did not want to hurt him, and he +certainly did not hurt her. + +At last the men went into the building, leaving Kahwa alone outside; but +other men were continually coming out of, or going into, the open door, +and I was afraid to approach her, or even to make any noise to tell her +of my presence. So I sat in the shade of the buildings and watched. +Nearly every man who passed stopped for a minute and spoke to her, but +none except the man whom I had first seen tried to play with her or went +within her reach. The whole thing seemed to me incredible, but there it +was under my eyes, and, somehow, it made me feel terribly lonely--all +the lonelier, I think, because she had these new friends; for as +friends she undoubtedly regarded them, while I could not even go near +enough to speak to her. + +At last so many men came out of the building that I was afraid to stay. +Some of them went one way, and some another, and I had to keep +constantly moving my position to avoid being seen. In doing so I found +myself farther and father away from the centre of the town, and nearer +to the outskirts. The men shouted and laughed, and made so much noise +that I did not dare to go back, but made my way out into the woods. And +for the first time I did not go home to my father and mother, but stayed +by myself in the brush. + +The next evening I again made my way into the town, and once more saw +the same sights as on the preceding night. This evening, however, there +was a wind blowing, and it blew directly from me, as I stood in the same +place, to Kahwa in front of the lighted door. Suddenly, while she was in +the middle of her play, I saw her stop and begin to snuff up the wind +with every sign of excitement. Then she called to me. Answer I dared +not, but I knew that she had recognized me and would understand why I +did not speak. While she was still calling to me, the man with whom she +had been playing--the same man as on the night before--came up and gave +her a cuff on the head, and she lost her temper in earnest. She hit at +him angrily, but he jumped out of her way (how I wished she had caught +him!), and, after trying for awhile to tempt her with play again, he and +the other men left her and went into the building. Then she gave all her +time to me, and at last, when nobody was near, I spoke just loud enough +for her to hear. She simply danced with excitement, running to the end +of her chain toward me until it threw her back on to her hind-legs, +circling round and round the stump to which she was fastened, and then +charging out to the end of her chain again, all the time whimpering and +calling to me in a way which made me long to go to her. + +I did not dare to show myself, however, but waited until, as on the +night before, just as it was beginning to get light, the men all came +out of the building and scattered in different directions. This time, +however, I did not go back to the woods, but merely shifted out of the +men's way behind the dark corners of the buildings, hoping that somehow +I would find an opportunity of getting to speak to Kahwa. At last the +building was quiet, and only the man who had played with Kahwa seemed to +be left, and I saw the lights inside begin to grow less. I hoped that +then the door would be shut, and the man inside would go to sleep, as I +knew that men did in other houses when the lights disappeared at night; +but while there was still some light issuing from door and windows the +man came out and went up to Kahwa, and, unfastening the chain from the +stump, proceeded to lead her away somewhere to the rear of the building. +She struggled and tried to pull away from him, but he jerked her along +with the chain, and I could see that she was afraid of him, and did not +dare to fight him in earnest, and bit by bit he dragged her along. I +followed and saw him go to a sort of pen, or a small enclosure of high +walls without any roof, in which he left her, and then went in to his +own building. And soon I saw the last lights go out inside and +everything was quiet. + +I stole round to the pen and spoke to Kahwa through the walls. She was +crazy at the sound of my voice, and could hear her running round and +round inside, dragging the chain after her. Could she not climb out? I +asked her. No; the walls were made of straight, smooth boards with +nothing that she could get her claws into, and much too high to jump. +But we found a crack close to the ground through which our noses would +almost touch, and that was some consolation. + +I stayed there as long as I dared, and told her all that had happened +since she was taken away--of the fight with the strange bear, and how I +had been in the town alone looking for her night after night; and she +told me her story, parts of which I could not believe, though now I can +understand them better. + +What puzzled me, and at the time made me thoroughly angry, was the way +in which she spoke of the man whom I had seen playing with her, and who +had dragged her into the pen. She was afraid of him in a curious way--in +much the same way as she was afraid of father or mother. The idea that +she could feel any affection for him I would have scouted as +preposterous; but after the experiences of the last few nights nothing +seemed too wonderful to be true, and it was plain that all her thoughts +centered in him and he represented everything in life to her. Without +him she would have no food, but as it was she had plenty. He never came +to her without bringing things to eat, delightful things sometimes; and +in particular she told me of pieces of white stuff, square and rough +like small stones, but sweeter and more delicious than honey. Of course, +I know now that it was sugar; but as she told me about it then, and how +good it was, and how the man always had pieces of it in his pockets, +which he gave her while they were playing together, I found myself +envying her, and even wishing that the man would take me to play with, +too. + +But as we talked the day was getting lighter, and promising to come +again next night, I slipped away in the dawn into the woods. + +Night after night I used to go and speak to Kahwa. Sometimes I did not +go until it was nearly daylight, and she was already in her pen. +Sometimes I went earlier, and watched her with the men before the door +of the building, and often I saw the man who was her master playing with +her and giving her lumps of sugar, and I could tell from the way in +which she ate it how good it was. Many time I had narrow escapes of +being seen, for I grew careless, and trotted among the houses as if I +were in the middle of the forest. More than once I came close to a man +unexpectedly, for the man-smell was so strong everywhere that a single +man more or less in my neighborhood made no difference, and I had to +trust to my eyes and ears entirely. Somehow, however, I managed always +to keep out of their way, and during this time I used to eat very little +wild food, living almost altogether on the things that I picked up in +the town. And during all these days and nights I never saw my father or +my mother. + +Then one evening an eventful thing happened. The door of Kahwa's pen +closed with a latch from the outside--a large piece of iron which lifted +and fell, and was then kept in place by a block of wood. I had spent a +great deal of time at that latch, lifting it with my nose, and biting +and worrying it, in the hopes of breaking it off or opening the door; +but when I did that I was always standing on my hind-legs, so as to +reach up to it, with my fore-feet on the door, and, of course, my weight +kept the door shut. But that never occurred to me. One evening, however, +I happened to be standing up and sniffing at the latch, with my +fore-feet not on the door itself, but on the wall beside the door. It +happened that, just as I lifted the latch with my nose, Kahwa put her +fore-feet against the door on the inside. To my astonishment, the door +swung open into my face, and Kahwa came rolling out. If we had only +thought it out, we could just as well have done that on the first night, +instead of trying to reach each other for nearly two weeks through a +narrow crack in the wall until nearly all the skin was rubbed off our +noses. + +However, it was done at last, and we were so glad that we thought of +nothing else. Now we were free to go back into the woods and take up our +old life again with father and mother. Would it not be glorious, I +asked? Yes, she said, it would be glorious. To go off into the woods, +and never, never, never, I said, see or think of man again. + +Yes--yes, she said, but--Of course it would be very glorious, but--Well, +there was the white stuff--the sugar--she could come back once in a +while--just once in a while--couldn't she, to see the man and get a lump +or two? + +I am afraid I lost my temper. Here was what ought to have been a moment +of complete happiness spoiled by her greediness. Of course she could not +come back, I told her. If she did she would never get away a second +time. We would go to father and mother and persuade them to move just as +far away from man as they could. Instead of being delighted, the +prospect only made her gloomy and thoughtful. Of course she wanted to +see father and mother, but--but--but--There was always that "but"--and +the thought of the man and the sugar. + +While we were arguing, the time came when I usually left the town for +the day, and the immediate thing to be done was to get away from that +place and out into the woods, and all went well till we got to the last +house in the town. + +Now, however, Kahwa insisted on going up to snuff around this house. I +warned her of the dog, but the truth was that she had grown accustomed +to dogs, and I think had really lost her fear of men. So she went close +up to the house, and began smelling round the walls to see if there was +anything good to eat, while I stood back under the trees fretting and +impatient of her delay. + +Having sniffed all along one side of the house, she passed round the +corner to the back. In turning the corner she came right upon the dog, +who flew at her at once, though he was not much bigger than her head. +Whether she was accustomed to dogs or not, the sudden attack startled +her, and she turned round to run back to me. In doing so she just grazed +the corner of the house, and the next instant she was rolling head over +heels on the ground. The end of her chain had caught in the crack +between the ends of two of the logs at the corner, and she was held as +firmly as if she had been tied to her stump in front of the door. As she +rolled over, the dog jumped upon her, small as he was, yelping all the +time, and barking furiously. I thought it would only be a momentary +delay, but the chain held fast, and all the while the dog's attacks made +it impossible for her to give her attention to trying to tear it free. + +A minute later, and the door of the house burst open, and a man came +running out, carrying, to my horror, a thunder-stick in his hand. Kahwa +and the dog were all mixed up together on the ground, and I saw the man +stop and stand still a moment and point the thunder-stick at her. And +then came that terrible noise of the thunder-stick speaking. + +Too frightened to see what happened, I took to my heels, and plunged +into the wood as fast as I could, without the man or the dog having +seen me. I ran on for some distance till I felt safe enough to stop and +listen, but there was not a sound, and no sign of Kahwa coming after me. +I waited and waited until the sun came up, and still there was no sign +of Kahwa, until at last I summoned up courage to steal slowly back +again. As I came near I heard the dog barking at intervals, and then the +voices of men. Very cautiously I crept near enough to get a view of the +house from behind, and as I came in sight of the corner where Kahwa had +fallen I saw her for the second time--just as on that wretched evening +at the berry-patch--surrounded by a group of three or four men. But this +time they had no ropes round her, and were not trying to drag her away; +only they stood talking and looking down at her, while she lay dead on +the ground before them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. + + +Now indeed I was truly lonely. During the three or four weeks that had +passed since I had seen my father or mother, I had in a measure learned +to rely upon myself; nor had I so far felt the separation keenly, +because I knew that every evening I should see Kahwa. Now she was gone +for ever. There was no longer any object in going into the town, and the +terror of that last scene was still so vivid in my mind that I wished +never to see man again. + +It was true that I had feared man instinctively from the first, but +familiarity with him had for a while overcome that fear. Now it +returned, and with the fear was mingled another feeling--a feeling of +definite hatred. Originally, though afraid of him, I had borne man no +ill-will whatever, and would have been entirely content to go on living +beside him in peace and friendliness, just as we lived with the deer and +the beaver. Man himself made that impossible; and now I no longer wished +it. I hated him--hated him thoroughly. Had it not been for dread of the +thunder-sticks, I should have gone down into the town and attacked the +first man that I met. I would have persuaded other bears to go with me +to range through the buildings, destroying every man that we could find; +and though this was impossible, I made up my mind that it would be a bad +day for any man whom I might meet alone, when unprotected by the weapon +that gave him so great an advantage. + +Meanwhile my present business was, somehow and somewhere, to go on +living. On that first evening, amid my conflict of emotions, it was some +time before I could bring myself to turn my back definitely upon the +town; for it was difficult to realize at once that there was in truth no +longer any Kahwa there, nor any reason for my going again among the +buildings, and it was late in the night before I finally started to look +for my father and mother. I went, of course, to the place where I had +left them, and where the fight with the stranger had taken place. + +They were not there when I arrived, but I saw that they had spent the +preceding day at home, and would, in all probability, be back soon after +it was light. So I stayed in the immediate neighborhood, and before +sunrise they returned. My mother was glad to see me, but I do not think +I can say as much for my father. I told them where I had been, and of my +visits to the town, and of poor Kahwa's death; and though at the time +father did not seem to pay much attention to what I said, next day he +suggested that we should move farther away from the neighborhood of men. + +The following afternoon we started, making our way back along the stream +by which we had descended, and soon finding ourselves once more in the +region that had been swept by fire. It was still desolate, but the two +months that had passed had made a wonderful difference. It was covered +by the bright red flowers of a tall plant standing nearly as high as a +bear's head, which shoots up all over the charred soil whenever a tract +of forest is burned. Other undergrowth may come up in the following +spring, but for the first year nothing appears except the red +"fireweed," and that grows so thickly that the burnt wood is a blaze of +color, out of which the blackened trunks of the old trees stand up naked +and gaunt. + +We passed several houses of men by the waterside, and gave them a wide +berth. We learned from the beavers and the ospreys that a number of men +had gone up the stream during the summer, and few had come back, so that +now there must be many more of them in the district swept by the fire +than there had been before. We did not wish to live in the burnt +country, however, because there was little food to be found there, and +under the fireweed the ground was still covered with a layer of the +bitter black stuff, which, on being disturbed, got into one's throat and +eyes and nostrils. So we turned southwards along the edge of the track +of the fire, and soon found ourselves in a country that was entirely new +to us, though differing little in general appearance from the other +places with which we were familiar--the same unbroken succession of +hills and gulches covered with the dense growth of good forest trees. It +was, in fact, bears' country; and in it we felt at home. + +For the most part we travelled in the morning and evening; but the +summer was gone now, and on the higher mountains it was sometimes +bitterly cold, so we often kept on moving all day. We were not going +anywhere in particular: only endeavoring to get away from man, and, if +possible, to find a region where he had never been. But it seemed as if +man now was pushing in everywhere. We did not see him, but continually +we came across the traces of him along the banks of the streams. The +beavers, and the kingfishers, of course, know everything that goes on +along the rivers. Nothing can pass upstream or down without going by the +beaver-dams, and the beavers are always on the watch. You might linger +about a beaver-dam all day, and except for the smell, which a man would +not notice, you would not believe there was a beaver near. But they are +watching you from the cracks and holes in their homes, and in the +evening, if they are not afraid of you, you will be astonished to see +twenty or thirty beavers come out to play about what you thought was an +empty house. We never passed a dam without asking about man, and always +it was the same tale. Men had been there a week ago, or the day before, +or when the moon last was full. And the kingfishers and the ospreys told +us the same things. So we kept on our way southward. + +As the days went on I grew to think less of Kahwa; the memory of those +nights spent in the town, with the lights, and the strange noises, and +the warm man-smell all about me, began to fade until they all seemed +more like incidents of a dream than scenes which I had actually lived +through only a few weeks before. I began to feel more as I used to feel +in the good old days before the fire, and came again to be a part of the +wild, wholesome life of the woods. Moreover, I was growing; my mother +said that I was growing fast. No puma would have dared to touch me now, +and my unusual experiences about the town had bred in me a spirit of +independence and self-reliance, so that other cubs of my own age whom we +met, and who, of course, had lived always with their parents, always +seemed to me younger than I; and certainly I was bigger and stronger +than any first-year bear that I saw. On the whole, I would have been +fairly contented with life had it not been for the estrangement which +was somehow growing up between my father and myself. I could not help +feeling that, though I knew not why, he would have been glad to have me +go away again. So I kept out of his way as much as possible, seldom +speaking to him, and, of course, not venturing to share any food that he +found. On the first evening after my return he had rolled over an old +log, and mother and I went up as a matter of course to see what was +there; but he growled at me in a way that made me stand off while he and +mother finished the fungi and the beetles. After that I kept my +distance. It did not matter much, for I was well able to forage for +myself. But I would have preferred to have him kinder. His unkindness, +however, did not prevent him from taking for himself anything which he +wanted that I had found. One day I came across some honey, from which he +promptly drove me away, and I had to look on while he and mother shared +the feast between them. + +At last we came to a stream where the beavers told us that no man had +been seen in the time of any member of their colony then living. The +stream, which was here wide enough to be a river, came from the west, +and for two or three days we followed it down eastwards, and found no +trace or news of man; so we turned back up it again--back past the place +where we had first struck it--and on along its course for another day's +journey into the mountains. It was, perhaps, too much to hope that we +had lighted on a place where man would never come; but at least we knew +that for a distance of a week's travelling in all directions he never +yet had been, and it might be many years before he came. Meanwhile we +should have a chance to live our lives in peace. + +Here we stayed, moving about very little, and feeding as much as we +could; for winter was coming on, and a bear likes to be fat and well fed +before his long sleep. It rained a good deal now, as it always does in +the mountains in the late autumn, and as a general rule the woods were +full of mist all day, in which we went about tearing the roots out of +the soft earth, eating the late blueberries where we could find them, +and the cranberries and the elderberries, which were ripe on the bushes, +now and then coming across a clump of nut-trees, and once in a while, +the greatest of all treats, revelling in a feast of honey. + +One morning, after a cold and stormy night, we saw that the tops of the +highest mountains were covered with snow. It might be a week or two yet +before the snow fell over the country as a whole, or it might be only a +day or two; for the wind was blowing from the north, biting cold, and +making us feel numb and drowsy. So my father decided that it was time to +make our homes for the winter. He had already fixed upon a spot where a +tree had fallen and torn out its roots, making a cave well shut in on +two sides, and blocked on a third by another fallen log; and here, +without thinking, I had taken it as a matter of course that we should +somehow all make our winter homes together. But when that morning he +started out, with mother after him, and I attempted to follow, he drove +me away. I followed yet for a while, but he kept turning back and +growling at me, and at last told me bluntly that I must go and shift for +myself. I took it philosophically, I think, but it was with a heavy +heart that I turned away to seek a winter home for myself. + +It did not take me long to decide on the spot. At the head of a narrow +gully, where at some time or other a stream must have run, there was a +tree half fallen, and leaning against the hillside. A little digging +behind the tree would make as snug and sheltered a den as I could want. +So I set to work, and in the course of a few hours I had made a +sufficiently large hollow, and into it I scraped all the leaves and +pine-needles in the neighborhood, and, by working about inside and +turning round and round, I piled them up on all sides until I had a nest +where I was perfectly sheltered, with only an opening in front large +enough to go in and out of. This opening I would almost close when the +time came, but for the present I left it open and lived inside, sleeping +much of the time, but still continuing for a week or ten days to go out +in the mornings and evenings for food. But it was getting colder and +colder, and the woods had become strangely silent. The deer had gone +down to the lower ground at the first sign of coming winter, and the +coyotes and the wolves had followed to spend the cold months in the +foot-hills and on the plains about the haunts of man. The woodchucks +were already asleep below-ground, and of the birds only the woodpeckers +and the crossbills, and some smaller birds fluttering among the +pine-branches, remained. There was a fringe of ice along the edges of +the streams, and the kingfishers and the ospreys had both flown to where +the waters would remain open throughout the year. The beavers had been +very busy for some time, but now, if one went to the nearest dam in the +evening, there was not a sign of life. + +At last the winter came. It had been very cold and gray for a day or +two, and I felt dull and torpid. And then, one morning towards mid-day, +the white flakes began to fall. There had been a few little flurries of +snow before, lasting only for a minute or two; but this was different. +The great flakes fell slowly and softly, and soon the whole landscape +began to grow white. Through the opening in my den I watched the snow +falling for some time, but did not venture out; and as the afternoon +wore on, and it only fell faster and faster, I saw that it would soon +pile up and close the door upon me. + +There was no danger of its coming in, for I had taken care that the roof +overhung far enough to prevent anything falling in from above, and the +den was too well sheltered for the wind to drift the snow inside. So I +burrowed down into my leaves and pine-needles, and worked them up on +both sides till only a narrow slit of an opening remained, and through +this slit, sitting back on my haunches against the rear of the little +cave I watched the white wall rising outside. All that night and all +next day it snowed, and by the second evening there was hardly a ray of +light coming in. I remember feeling a certain pride in being all alone, +in the warm nest made by myself, for the first time in my life; and I +sat back and mumbled at my paw, and grew gradually drowsier and +drowsier, till I hardly knew when the morning came, for I was very +sleepy and the daylight scarcely pierced the wall of snow outside. And +before another night fell I was asleep, while outside the white covering +which was to shut me in for the next four months at least, was growing +thicker. Under it I was as safe and snug up there in the heart of the +mountains as ever a man could be in any house that he might build. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ALONE IN THE WORLD. + + +Have you any idea how frightfully stiff one is after nearly five months' +consecutive sleep? Of course, a bear is not actually asleep for the +greater part of the time, but in a deliciously drowsy condition that is +halfway between sleeping and waking. It is very good. Of course, you +lose all count and thought of time; days and weeks and months are all +the same. You only know that, having been asleep, you are partly awake +again. There is no light, but you can see the wall of your den in front +of you, and dimly you know that, while all the world outside is +snow-covered and swept with bitter winds, and the earth is gripped solid +in the frost, you are very warm and comfortable. Changes of temperature +do not reach you, and you sit and croon to yourself and mumble your +paws, and all sorts of thoughts and tangled scraps of dreams go swimming +through your head until, before you know it, you have forgotten +everything and are asleep again. + +Then again you find yourself awake. Is it hours or days or weeks since +you were last awake? You do not know, and it does not matter. So you +croon, and mumble, and dream, and sleep again; and wake, and croon, and +mumble, and dream. + +At last a day comes when you wake into something more like complete +consciousness than you have known since you shut yourself up. There is a +new feeling in the air; a sense of moisture and fresh smells are +mingling with the warm dry scent of your den. And you are aware that you +have not changed your position for more than a quarter of a year, but +have been squatting on your heels, with your back against the wall and +your nose folded into your paws across your breast; and you want to +stretch your hind-legs dreadfully. But you do not do it. It is still too +comfortable where you are. You may move a little, and have a vague idea +that it might be rather nice outside. But you do not go to see; you only +take the other paw into your mouth, and, still crooning to yourself, you +are asleep again. + +This happens again and again, and each time the change in the feeling +of the air is more marked, and the scents of the new year outside +grow stronger and more pungent. At last one day comes daylight, +where the snow has melted from the opening in front of you, and +with the daylight comes the notes of birds and the ringing of the +woodpecker--rat-tat-tat-tat! rat-tat-tat-tat!--from a tree near by. But +even these signs that the spring is at hand again would not tempt you +out if it were not for another feeling that begins to assert itself, and +will not let you rest. You find you are hungry, horribly hungry. It is +of no use to say to yourself that you are perfectly snug and contented +where you are, and that there is all the spring and summer to get up in. +You are no longer contented. It is nearly five months since you had your +last meal, and you will not have another till you go out for yourself +and get it. Mumbling your paws will not satisfy you. There is really +nothing for it but to get up. + +But, oh, what a business it is, that getting up! Your shoulders are +cramped and your back is stiff; and as for your legs underneath you, you +wonder if they will really ever get supple and strong again. First you +lift your head from your breast and try moving your neck about, and +sniff at the walls of your den. Then you unfold your arms, +and--ooch!--how they crack, first one and then the other! At last you +begin to roll from one side to the other, and try to stretch each +hind-leg in turn; then cautiously letting yourself drop on all fours, +you give a step, and before you know it you have staggered out into the +open air. + +It is very early in the morning, and the day is just breaking, and all +the mountain-side is covered with a clinging pearly mist; but to your +eyes the light seems very strong, and the smell of the new moist earth +and the resinous scent of the pines almost hurt your nostrils. One side +of the gully in front of you is brown and bare, but in the bottom, and +clinging to the other side, are patches of moist and half-melted snow, +and on all sides you hear the drip of falling moisture and the ripple +of little streams of water which are running away to swell the creeks +and rivers in every valley bottom. + +You are shockingly unsteady on your feet, and feel very dazed and +feeble; but you are also hungrier than ever now, with the keen morning +air whetting your appetite, and the immediate business ahead of you is +to find food. So you turn to the bank at your side and begin to grub; +and as you grub you wander on, eating the roots that you scratch up and +the young shoots of plants that are appearing here and there. And all +the time the day is growing, and the sensation is coming back to your +limbs, and your hunger is getting satisfied, and you are wider and wider +awake. And, thoroughly interested in what you are about, before you are +aware of it, you are fairly started on another year of life. + +That is how a bear begins each spring. It may be a few days later or a +few days earlier when one comes out; but the sensations are the same. +You are always just as stiff, and the smells are as pungent, and the +light is as strong, and the hunger as great. For the first few days you +really think of nothing but of finding enough to eat. As soon as you +have eaten, and eaten until you think you are satisfied, you are hungry +again; and so you wander round looking for food, and going back to your +den to sleep. + +That spring when I came out it was very much as it had been the spring +before, when I was a little cub. The squirrels were chattering in +the trees (I wondered whether old Blacky had been burned in the +fire), and the woodpecker was as busy as ever--rat-tat-tat-tat! +rat-tat-tat-tat!--overhead. There were several woodchucks--fat, +waddling things--living in the same gully with me, and they had +been abroad for some days when I woke up. On my way down to the +stream on that first morning, I found a porcupine in my path, but +did not stop to slap it. By the river's bank the little brown-coated +minks were hunting among the grass, and by the dam the beavers were +hard at work protecting and strengthening their house against the +spring floods, which were already rising. + +It was only a couple of hundred yards or so from my den to the stream, +and for the first few days I hardly went farther than that. But it was +impossible that I should not all the time--that is, as soon as I could +think of anything except my hunger--be contrasting this spring with the +spring before, when Kahwa and I had played about the rock and the +cedar-trees, and I had tumbled down the hill. And the more I thought of +it, the less I liked being alone. And my father and mother, I knew, must +be somewhere close by me--for I presumed they had spent the winter in +the spot that they had chosen--so I made up my mind to go and join them +again. + +It was in the early evening that I went, about a week after I had come +out of my winter-quarters, and I had no trouble in finding the place; +but when I did find it I also found things that I did not expect. + +"Surely," I said to myself as I came near, "that is little Kahwa's +voice!" There could be no doubt of it. She was squealing just as she +used to do when she tried to pull me away from the rock by my hind-foot. +So I hurried on to see what it could mean, and suddenly the truth dawned +upon me. + +My parents had two new children. I had never thought of that +possibility. I heard my mother's voice warning the cubs that someone +was coming, and as I appeared the young ones ran and smuggled up to +her, and stared at me as if I was a stranger and they were afraid +of me, as I suppose they were. It made me feel awkward, and almost +as if my mother was a stranger, too; but after standing still a +little time and watching them I walked up. Mother met me kindly and +the cubs kept behind her and out of the way. I spoke to mother and +rubbed noses with her, and told her that I was glad to see her. She +evidently thought well of me, and I was rather surprised, when +standing beside her, to find that she was not nearly so much bigger +than I as I had supposed. + +But before I had been there more than a minute mother gave me warning +that father was coming, and, turning, I saw him walking down the +hillside towards us. He saw me at the same time, and stopped and +growled. At first, I think, not knowing who I was, he was astonished to +see my mother talking to a strange bear. When he did recognize me, +however, I might still have been a stranger, for any friendliness that +he showed. He sat up on his haunches and growled, and then came on +slowly, swinging his head, and obviously not at all disposed to welcome +me. Again I was surprised, to see that he was not as big as I had +thought, and for a moment wild ideas of fighting him, if that was what +he wanted, came into my head. I wished to stay with mother, and even +though he was my father, I did not see why I should go away alone and +leave her. But, tall though I was getting, I had not anything like my +father's weight, and, however bitterly I might wish to rebel, rebellion +was useless. Besides, my mother, though she was kind to me, would +undoubtedly have taken my father's part, as it was right that she should +do. + +So I moved slowly away as my father came up, and as I did so even the +little cubs growled at me, siding, of course, with their father against +the stranger whom they had never seen. Father did not try to attack me, +but walked up to mother and began licking her, to show that she belonged +to him. I disliked going away, and thought that perhaps he would relent; +but when I sat down, as if I was intending to stay, he growled and told +me that I was not wanted. + +I ought by this time to have grown accustomed to being alone, and to +have been incapable of letting myself be made miserable by a snub, +even from my father. But I was not; I was wretched. I do not think +that even on the first night after Kahwa was caught, or on that +morning when I saw her dead, that I felt as completely forlorn as I +did that day when I turned away from my mother, and went down the +mountain-side back to my own place alone. The squirrels chattered at +me, and the woodpecker rat-tat-tat-ed, and the woodchuck scurried +away, and I hated them all. What company were they to me? I was +lonely, and I craved the companionship of my own kind. + +But it was to be a long time before I found it. I was now a solitary +bear, with my own life to live and my own way to make in the world, with +no one to look to for guidance and no one to help me if I needed help; +but many regarded me as an enemy, and would have rejoiced if I were +killed. + +In those first days I thought of the surly solitary bear who had taken +our home while we were away, and whom I had vowed some day to punish; +and I began to understand in some measure why he was so bad-tempered. If +we had met then, I almost believe I would have tried to make friends +with him. + +I have said that many animals would have rejoiced had I been killed. +This is not because bears are the enemies of other wild things, for we +really kill very little except beetles and other insects, frogs and +lizards, and little things like mice and chipmunks. We are not as the +wolves, the coyotes, the pumas, or the weasels, which live on the lives +of other animals, and which every other thing in the woods regards as +its sworn foe. Still, smaller animals are mostly afraid of us, and the +carcass of a dead bear means a feast for a number of hungry things. If a +bear cannot defend his own life, he will have no friends to do it for +him; and while, as I have said before, a full-grown bear in the +mountains has no need to fear any living thing, man always excepted, in +stand-up fight, it is none the less necessary to be always on one's +guard. + +In my case fear had nothing to do with my hatred of loneliness. Even the +thought of man himself gave me no uneasiness. I was sure that no human +beings were as yet within many miles of my home, and I knew that I +should always have abundant warning of their coming. Moreover, I already +knew man. He was not to me the thing of terror and mystery that he had +been a year ago, or that he still was to most of the forest folk. I had +cause enough, it is true, to know how dangerous and how savagely cruel +he was, and for that I hated him. But I had also seen enough of him to +have a contempt for his blindness and his lack of the sense of scent. +Had I not again and again, when in the town, dodged round the corner of +a building, and waited while he passed a few yards away, or stood +immovable in the dark shadow of a building, and looked straight at him +while he went by utterly unconscious that I was near? Nothing could live +in the forest for a week with no more eyesight, scent, or hearing than a +man possesses, and without his thunder-stick he would be as helpless as +a lame deer. All this I understood, and was not afraid that, if our +paths should cross again, I should not be well able to take care of +myself. + +But while there was no fear added to my loneliness, the loneliness +itself was bad enough. Having none to provide for except myself, I had +no difficulty in finding food. For the first few weeks, I think, I did +nothing but wander aimlessly about and sleep, still using my winter den +for that purpose. As the summer came on, however, I began to rove, +roaming usually along the streams, and sleeping there in the cool +herbage by the water's edge during the heat of the day. My chief +pleasure, I think, was in fishing, and I was glad my mother had shown me +how to do it. No bear, when hungry, could afford to fish for his food, +for it takes too long; but I had all my time to myself, and nearly +every morning and evening I used to get my trout for breakfast or for +supper. At the end of a long, hot day, I know nothing pleasanter than, +after lying a while in the cold running water, to stretch one's self out +along the river's edge, under the shadow of a bush, and wait, paw in +water, till the trout come gliding within striking distance; and then +the sudden stroke, and afterwards the comfortable meal off the cool +juicy fish in the soft night air. I became very skilful at fishing, and, +from days and days of practice, it was seldom indeed that I lost my fish +if once I struck. + +Time, too, I had for honey-hunting, but I was never sure that it was +worth the trouble and pain. In nine cases out of ten the honey was too +deeply buried in a tree for me to be able to reach it, and in trying I +was certain to get well stung for my pains. Once in a while, however, I +came across a comb that was easy to reach, and the chance of one of +those occasional finds made me spend, not hours only, but whole days at +a time, looking for the bees' nests. + +Along by the streams were many blueberry-patches, though none so +large as that which had cost Kahwa her life; but during the season +I could always find berries enough. And so, fishing and bee-hunting, +eating berries and digging for roots, I wandered on all through the +summer. I had no one place that I could think of as a home more than +any other. I preferred not to stay near my father and mother, and so +let myself wander, heading for the most part westward, and farther +into the mountains as the summer grew, and then in the autumn +turning south again. I must have wandered over many hundred miles of +mountain, but when the returning chill in the air told me that +winter was not very far away, I worked round so as to get back into +somewhat the same neighborhood as I had been in last winter, no +more, perhaps, than ten miles away. + +On the whole, it was an uneventful year. Two or three times I met a +grizzly, and always got out of the way as fast as I could. Once only I +found myself in the neighborhood of man, and I gave him a wide berth. +Many times, of course--in fact, nearly every day--I met other bears like +myself, and sometimes I made friends with them, and stayed in their +company for the better part of a day, perhaps at a berry-patch or in the +wide shallows of a stream. But there was no place for me--a strong, +growing he-bear, getting on for two years old--in any of the families +that I came across. Parents with young cubs did not want me. Young bears +in their second year were usually in couples. The solitary bears that I +met were generally older than I, and, though we were friendly on +meeting, neither cared for the other's companionship. Again and again in +these meetings I was struck by the fact, that I was unusually big and +strong for my age, the result, I suppose, as I have already said, of the +accident that threw me on my own resources so young. I never met young +bears of my own age that did not seem like cubs to me. Many times I came +across bears who were one and even two years older than myself, but who +had certainly no advantage of me in height, and, I think, none in +weight. But I had no occasion to test my strength in earnest that +summer, and when winter came, and the mountainpeaks in the neighborhood +showed white again against the dull gray sky, I was still a solitary +animal, and acutely conscious of my loneliness. + +That year I made my den in a cave which I found high up on a +mountain-side, and which had evidently been used by bears at some +time or other, though not for the last year or two. There I made my +nest with less trouble than the year before, and at the first +serious snowfall I shut myself up for another long sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +I FIND A COMPANION. + + +The next spring was late. We had a return of cold weather long after +winter ought to have been over, and for a month or more after I moved +out it was no easy matter to find food enough. The snow had been +unusually deep, and had only half melted when the cold returned, so that +the remaining half stayed on the ground a long while, and sometimes it +took me all my time, grubbing up camas roots, turning over stones and +logs, and ripping the bark off fallen trees, to find enough to eat to +keep me even moderately satisfied. Besides the mice and chipmunks which +I caught, I was forced by hunger to dig woodchucks out of their holes, +and eat the young ones, though hitherto I had never eaten any animal so +large. + +Somehow, in one way and another, I got along, and when spring really +came I felt that I was a full-grown bear, and no longer a youngster +who had to make way for his elders when he met them in the path. Nor was +it long before I had an opportunity of seeing that other bears also +regarded me no longer as a cub. + +[Illustration: TOLD ME BLUNTLY THAT I MUST GO.] + +I had found a bees' nest about ten feet up in a big tree, and of course +climbed up to it; but it was one of those cases of which I have spoken, +when the game was not worth the trouble. The nest was in a cleft in the +tree too narrow for me to get my arm into, and I could smell the honey a +foot or so away from my nose without being able to reach it--than which +I know nothing more tantalizing. And while you are hanging on to a tree +with three paws, and trying to squeeze the fourth into a hole, the bees +have you most unpleasantly at their mercy. I was horribly stung about my +face, both my eyes and my nose were smarting abominably, and at last I +could stand it no longer, but slid down to the ground again. + +When I reached the ground, there was another bear standing a few yards +away looking at me. He had a perfect right to look at me, and he was +doing me no sort of harm; but the stings of the bees made me furious, +and I think I was glad to have anybody or anything to vent my wrath +upon. So as soon as I saw the other bear I charged him. He was an older +bear than I, and about my size; and, as it was the first real fight that +I had ever had, he probably had more experience. But I had the advantage +of being thoroughly angry and wanting to hurt someone, without caring +whether I was hurt myself or not, while he was feeling entirely +peaceable, and not in the least anxious to hurt me or anybody else. The +consequence was that the impetuosity of my first rush was more than he +could stand. Of course he was up to meet me, and I expect that under my +coat my skin on the left shoulder still carries the marks of his claws +where he caught me as we came together. + +But I was simply not to be denied, and, while my first blow must have +almost broken his neck, in less than a minute I had him rolling over and +over and yelling for mercy. I really believe that, if he had not managed +to get to his feet, and then taken to his heels as fast as he could, I +would have killed him. Meanwhile the bees were having fun with us both. + +It was no use, however angry I might be, to stop to try and fight them; +so soon as the other bear had escaped I made my own way as fast as I +could out of the reach of their stings, and down to the stream to cool +my smarting face. As I lay in the water, I remember looking back with +astonishment to the whole proceeding. Five minutes before I had had no +intention of fighting anybody, and had had no reason whatever for +fighting that particular bear. Had I met him in the ordinary way, we +should have been friendly, and I am not at all sure that, if I had had +to make up my mind to it in cold blood, I should have dared to stand up +to him, unless something very important depended on it. Yet all of a +sudden the thing had happened. I had had my first serious fight with a +bear older than myself, and had beaten him. Moreover, I had learned the +enormous advantage of being the aggressor in a fight, and of throwing +yourself into it with your whole soul. As it was, though I was +astonished at the entire affair and surprised at myself, and although +the bee-stings still hurt horribly, I was pretty well satisfied and +rather proud. + +Perhaps it was as well that I had that fight then, for the time was not +far distant when I was to go through the fight of my life. A bear may +have much fighting in the course of his existence, or he may have +comparatively little, depending chiefly on his own disposition; but at +least once he is sure to have one fight on which almost the whole +course of his life depends. And that is when he fights for his wife. Of +course he may be beaten, and then he has to try again. Some bears never +succeed in winning a wife at all. Some may win one and then have her +taken from them, and have to seek another; but I do not believe that any +bear chooses to live alone. Every one will once at least make an effort +to win a companion. The crisis came with me that summer, though many +bears, I believe, prefer to run alone until a year, or even two years, +later. + +The summer had passed like the former one, rather uneventfully after the +episode of the bees. I wandered abroad, roaming over a wide tract of +country, fishing, honey-hunting, and finding my share of roots and +beetles and berries, sheltering during the heat of the day, and going +wherever I felt inclined in the cool of the night and morning. I think I +was disposed to be rather surly and quarrelsome, and more than once took +upon myself to dispute the path with other bears; but they always gave +way to me, and I felt that I pretty well had the mountains and the +forests for my own. But I was still lonely, and that summer I felt it +more than ever. + +The late spring had ruined a large part of the berry +crop, and the consequence was that, wherever there was a patch with any +fruit on it, bears were sure to find it out. There was one small +sheltered patch which I knew, where the fruit had nearly all survived +the frosts. I was there one evening, when, not far from me, out of the +woods came another bear of about my size. I liked her the moment I +obtained a good view of her. She saw me, and sat up and looked at me +amicably. + +I had never tried to make love before, but I knew what was the right +thing to do; so I approached her slowly, walking sideways, rubbing +my nose on the ground, and mumbling into the grass to tell her how +much I admired her. She responded in the correct way, by rolling on +the ground. So I continued to approach her, and I cannot have been +more than five or six yards away, when out of the bushes behind her, +to my astonishment, came a he-bear. He growled at me, and began to +sniff around at the bushes, to show that he was entirely ready to +fight if I wanted to. And of course I wanted to. I probably should +have wanted to in any circumstances, but when the she-bear showed +that she liked me better than him, by growling at him, I would not +have gone away, without fighting for her, for all the berries and +honey in the world. One of the most momentous crisis in my life had +come, and, as all such things do, had come quite unexpectedly. + +He was as much in earnest as I, and for a minute we sidled round +growling over our shoulders, and each measuring the other. There was +little to choose between us, for, if I was a shade the taller, he was a +year older than I, and undoubtedly the heavier and thicker. In fighting +all other animals except those of his kind, a bear's natural weapons are +his paws, with one blow of which he can crush a small animal, and either +stun or break the neck of a larger one. But he cannot do any one of +these three things to another bear as big as himself, and only if one +bear is markedly bigger than the other can he hope to reach his head, so +as either to tear his face or give him such a blow as will daze him and +render him incapable of going on fighting. A very much larger bear can +beat down the smaller one's arms, and rain such a shower of blows upon +him as will convince him at once that he is overmatched, and make him +turn tail and run. When two are evenly matched, however, the first +interchange of blows with the paws is not likely to have much effect +either way, and the fight will have to be settled by closing, by the use +of teeth and main strength. But, as I had learned in my fight that day +when I had been stung by the bees, the moral effect of the first may be +great, and it was in that that my slight advantage in height and reach +was likely to be useful, whereas if we came to close quarters slowly the +thicker and stockier animal would have the advantage. So I determined to +force the fighting with all the fury that I could; and I did. + +It was he who gave the first blow. As we sidled up close to one another, +he let out at me wickedly with his left paw, a blow which, if it had +caught me, would undoubtedly have torn off one of my ears. Most bears +would have replied to that with a similar swinging blow when they got an +opening, and the interchange of single blows at arms' length would have +gone on indefinitely until one or the other lost his temper and closed. +I did not wait for that. The instant the first blow whistled past my +head I threw myself on my hindquarters and launched myself bodily at +him, hitting as hard as I could and as fast, first with one paw and then +with the other, without giving him time to recover his wits or get in a +blow himself. I felt him giving way as the other bear had done, and +when we closed he was on his back on the ground, and I was on the top of +him. + +The fight, however, had only begun. I had gained a certain moral effect +by the ferocity of my attack, but a bear, when he is fighting in +earnest, is not beaten by a single rush, nor, indeed, until he is +absolutely unable to fight longer. Altogether we must have fought for +over an hour. Two or three times we were compelled to stop and draw +apart, because neither of us had strength left to use either claws or +jaw. And each time when we closed again I followed the same tactics, +rushing in and beating him down and doing my best to cow him before we +gripped; and each time, I think, it had some effect--at least to the +extent that it gave me a feeling of confidence, as if I was fighting a +winning fight. + +The deadliest grip that one bear can get on another is with his jaws +across the other's muzzle, when he can crush the whole face in. Once he +very nearly got me so, and this scar on the side of my nose is the mark +of his tooth; but he just failed to close his jaws in time. And, as it +proved then, it is a dangerous game to play, for it leaves you exposed +if you miss your grip, and in this case it gave me the opportunity that +I wanted, to get my teeth into his right paw just above the wrist. My +teeth sank through the flesh and tendons and closed upon the bone. In +time, if I could hold my grip, I would crush it. His only hope lay in +being able to compel me to let go, by getting his teeth in behind my +ear; and this we both knew, and it was my business with my right paw to +keep his muzzle away. + +A moment like that is terrible--and splendid. I have never found myself +in his position, but I can imagine what it must be. We swayed and fell +together, and rolled over and over--now he uppermost, and now I; but +never for a second did I relax my hold. Whatever position we were in, my +teeth were slowly grinding into the bone of his arm, and again and again +I felt his teeth grating and slipping on my skull as I clawed and pushed +blindly at his face to keep him away. More and more desperate he grew, +and still I hung on; and while I clung to him in dead silence he was +growling and snarling frantically, and I could hear his tone getting +higher and higher till, just as I felt the bone giving between my teeth, +the growling broke and changed to a whine, and I knew that I had won. + +One more wrench with my teeth, and I felt his arm limp and useless +in my mouth. Then I let go, and as he cowered back on three legs I +reared up and fell upon him again, hitting blow after blow with my +paws, buffeting, biting, beating, driving him before me. Even now he +had fight left in him; but with all his pluck he was helpless with +his crippled limb, and slowly I bore him back out of the open patch, +where we had been fighting into the woods, and yard by yard up the +hill, until at last it was useless for him to pretend to fight any +longer, and he turned and, as best he could, limping on three legs, +ran. + +During the whole of the fight the she-bear had not said a word, but sat +on the ground watching and awaiting the result. While the battle was +going on I had no time to look at her; but in the intervals when we were +taking breath, whenever I turned in her direction, she avoided my eye +and pretended not to know that I was there or that anything that +interested her was passing. She looked at the sky and the trees, and +washed herself, or did whatever would best show her indifference. All of +which only told me that she was not indifferent at all. + +Now, when I came back to her, she still pretended not to see me until I +was close up to her, and when I held out my nose to hers she growled as +if a stranger had no right to behave in that way. But I knew she did not +mean it; and I was very tired and sore, with blood running from me in a +dozen places. So I walked a few yards away from her and lay down. In a +minute she came over to me and rubbed her nose against mine, and told me +how sorry she was for having snubbed me, and then began to lick my +wounds. + +As soon as I was fairly rested, we got up and made our way in the +bright moonlight down to the river, so that I could wash the blood off +myself and get the water into my wounds. We stayed there for a while, +and then returned to the patch and made a supper off the berries, and +later wandered into the woods side by side. She was very kind to me, and +every caress and every loving thing she did or said was a delight. It +was all so wonderfully new. And when at last we lay down under the +stars, so that I could sleep after the strain that I had been through, +and I knew that she was by me, and that when I woke up I should not be +lonely any more, it all seemed almost too good to be true. It was as if +I had suddenly come into a new world and I was a new bear. + + +THE END. + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + Page 11: 'We bears comes out' left as printed. + Page 18: 'impetus was so terriffic' changed to 'terrific'. + Page 20: 'for a hunch of the' left as printed. + Page 27: 'slaping the surface' changed to 'slapping'. + Page 35: 'man smell by the first whiff' changed to 'man-smell'. + Page 40: 'knocked a Wooff' changed to 'Woof'. + Page 45: 'a strong winds' left as printed. + Page 50: 'intolerably hot.' changed to 'hot,'. + Page 51: hyphen removed from 'brush-wood was completely'. + Page 57: 'at a little dis-stance' changed to 'distance'. + Page 59: "beaver's pool which" changed to "beavers'". + Page 62: 'just the blue-berry bushes' changed to 'blueberry'. + Page 75: hyphen added to 'round my father's foreleg'. + Page 94: 'range throught the buildings' changed to 'through'. + Page 104: 'thicker under it' changed to 'thicker. Under it'. + Page 109: 'wookpecker was as busy as' changed to 'woodpecker'. + Page 113: 'wookpecker scurried away' changed to 'woodpecker'. + Page 110: 'ran and smuggled up' left as printed. + Page 124: 'was that, whereever' changed to 'wherever'. + Page 130: 'close up to her. and' changed to 'up to her, and'. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bear Brownie, by H. P. 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