The Life Story of a Black Bear

en before, not merely because I did not have her to play with, but now, for the first time, I to

ind 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 re

the edges, and went on to our favourite 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-bu

ints 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 t

ur 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 m

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

d 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 escap

nd 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 o

or days afterwards; and then it was that I vowed to myself that, if I eve

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.[3] As I snuffed round each building, I found all sorts of new things to eat, with strange tastes, bu

d 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,

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

ight 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

e sounds came[80] 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 w

g 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.

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 incredib

void being seen. In doing so I found myself further and further away from the centre of the town, and nearer to the outskirts. The men shouted and laughed, and made so much

t she had recognised 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[83] wished she had caught him!), and, after trying for awhile to tempt her to play again, he and the other men left her and went into

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[84] 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 rea

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

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t with the strange bear, and how I had been in the town alone looking for her night after night; and she t

periences of the last few nights nothing seemed too wonderful to be true, and it was plain that all her thoughts centred 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,

r, and, promising to come again next night,

rom the way in which she ate it how good it was. Many times 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 neighbourhood

ng an eventful

gs, 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

nto the woods and take up our old life again with father and mother. Would it not be glorious, I asked? Yes, she

there was the white stuff-the sugar-she could come back once in a while-

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

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t, if she wanted to, she could come back at any time, I persuaded her to move, and we started off through the buildings on the road that I usually took back to the forest. But at the first step we were reminded of her chain, which was still attached to her collar, a

caught her, and then she had been too busy fighting to pay any attention to her surroundings. So at almost every step she must needs stop to smell something. Meanwhile it was getting[90] lighter, and we began to hear noises of men movi

iver. There was one of this last kind in particular, which stood away from all the others almost inside the forest. It was the first house that I came to each evening on approaching the town, and the last one that I passed on leaving it; but I always gave

own accustomed to dogs, and I think had really lost her fear of men.[91] So she went close up to the house, and began smelling

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 f

-stick in his hand. Kahwa[92] and the dog were all mixed up together on the ground, and I saw the man stop and stan

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 Kah

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