ure.

Seeing that there was no possibility of reaching the hunter by means of
mere length of limb, and not at that time having acquired the art of
building a stone pedestal for elevating purposes, the bear dropped on
its four legs and looked round. Perceiving the gun, it went leisurely
up and examined it. The examination was brief but effective. It gave
the gun only one touch with its paw, but that touch broke the lock and
stock and bent the barrel so as to render the weapon useless.

Then it returned to the coil of ropes, and, sitting down, began to chew
one of them, keeping a serious eye, however, on the branch above.

It was a perplexing situation even for a backwoodsman. The branch on
which Tim lay was comfortable enough, having many smaller branches and
twigs extending from it on either side, so that he did not require to
hold on very tightly to maintain his position. But he was fully aware
of the endurance and patience of grizzly bears, and knew that, having
nothing else to do, this particular Bruin could afford to bide his time.

And now the ruling characteristic of Little Tim beset him severely. His
head felt like a bombshell of fermenting ingenuity. Every device,
mechanical and otherwise, that had ever passed through his brain since
childhood, seemed to rush back upon him with irresistible violence in
his hopeless effort to conceive some plan by which to escape from his
present and pressing difficulty--he would not, even to himself, admit
that there was danger. The more hopeless the case appeared to him, the
less did reason and common-sense preside over the fermentation. When he
saw his gun broken, his first anxiety began. When he reflected on the
persistency of grizzlies in watching their foes, his naturally buoyant
spirits began to sink and his native recklessness to abate. When he saw
the bear begin steadily to devour one of the lines by which he had hoped
to capture it, his hopes declined still more; and when he considered the
distance he was from his hut, the fact that his provision wallet had
been left on the ground along with the gun, and that the branch on which
he rested was singularly unfit for a resting-place on which to pass many
hours, he became wildly ingenious, and planned to escape, not only by
pitching his cap to some distance off so as to distract the bear's
attention, and enable him to slip down and run away, but by devising
methods of effecting his object by clockwork, fireworks