The Life Story of a Black Bear

ays asleep in the shadow of cool brushwood down by the streams, and in the nights and early mornings roaming where we would. Ultimatel

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 d

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

ou?' asked my father, while

n, with a growl that m

m 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[27] when the snow came brought us back stories of man in the spring. The coyotes knew him and fear

n's shattered leg was evidence that h

mon told u

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 further and further 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[28] the holes. They built themse

es that they built of the chopped trees. The fires were terrible to look at, but the men did not seem to be afraid o

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 go

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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 s

(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[30] hit his leg and smas

d been obliged to be down for a few hours in the bushes during the morning; but now h

n 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

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 imme

fear where we would, careless of anything but our own inclinations. Now a sudden terror had arisen, that[32] threw a shadow over every minute of the day and night. Man was near-man, who seemed to love to kill, and who could kill; not by his strength, but by virtue of some cunning which

way from the neighbourhood of the hated human beings. In any emergency he would be sadly crippled by

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

that they shared the

much myself, except that they were very long and nerve-racking. I will tell

s-either of their greediness or their curiosity. It was curiosity which led me into the difficulty with Porcupine. It was Cinnamon's greedi

radually working nearer to the place where Cinnamon had told us that man was. I knew what[34] was happening, but would not have mentioned it for worlds, lest if we talked about it we should chan

! 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! chuck! It

and suddenly in one whiff we all knew that it was man. I felt my[35] skin crawling up my spine, and I saw my father's nose go

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! 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

what Cinnamon said was true: he went, of course, on his hind-legs, and did not travel fast. It was

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 the hill, with his head rising and falling a

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 talki

it was our turn

s 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

rdly different from what in our terrified ima