The Life Story of a Black Bear

ry, 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 ev

ime my fore-leg was broken, like Cinnamon's, and I never dared to stop long enough to wash it in the streams. It seemed to me that the chase lasted for days and days, over hills and across valleys, and always, apparently, in a circle, because[40] I never managed to get any distance away

-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,

ch for a time at least drove man an

t for weeks, so that the earth was parched dry, and[41] 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

easy, 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,

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 de

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 pl

ering 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 an

travel faster than you. It may drive you before it for days, until you are worn out, and there's no k

ed to pay much attention, and soon went on again, leaving us to face

d, 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

g by the bank where it was deep. All the time the noise of the roaring of the flames grew[45] louder and the light in the sky brighter, until, as we went forward, everything in front of us looked black against it, and if we looked behind us everything was

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[46] 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 thei

yond, 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[47] instant the whole line of the mountain ridge was a mass of

to the other bears about not being able to run awa

le 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.[48] There was nothing for it but

d 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 [49]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.

ED MY FATHER IF WE

lar

the flames; and I wondered what the chances were that the bears who had declined[50] 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

o? 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 in

me 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. And nothing more desolate than the landscape can be imagined.[52] Wherever we looked there was not a speck of green to be seen-nothing but blackness. The earth everywhere was black, and out of it in long rows in every directio

to 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 fill

s 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 f

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 witho

d woodchucks and rats which had taken refuge in their holes, and had at first[55] 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 afterwa

ng 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; for everything around us was of the same[56] colour as ourselves, and all we had to do was to squat perfectly still, and it was impossible even for us, at a little distan

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 br

slept-for the first time since

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