black bull a
shrewd glance out of his little cunning eyes, and paid no further
attention; and the bull, seeing no incentive to a quarrel, snorted
doubtfully and lay down again. After this he saw several more bears,
but, being well fed and lazy, they made no effort to molest him. Then,
one unfortunate day, as he came up dripping from his favourite pool,
he met one face to face.

The bear was surprised, and halted. He half-settled back upon his
haunches, as if to turn aside and yield the path. Then he thought
better of it and held his ground, being at the moment good-natured
enough, but careful of his dignity, as a bear is apt to be. The young
bull, however, was enraged at this obstinate intrusion upon his trail.
He was unlucky enough to remember how often he had seen bears slink
off to avoid his mother's charge. With an angry bellow, he lifted his
tail, lowered his head, and launched himself upon the intruder.

The bear, poising himself upon three legs, gracefully and lightly
avoided the attack, and at the same instant delivered a terrific
buffet upon the young bull's neck. The blow struck low, where the
muscles were corded and massive, or the neck would have been broken.
As it was, the bull went staggering to his knees at one side of the
trail, the blood spurting from his wounds. In that moment he realized
that he was not yet a match for a full-grown bear. Smarting with pain
and wrath, he rushed on up the trail, and hid himself in the old lair
under the hemlock. When again, some days later, he met another bear,
he made haste to yield the right of way.

In the wild, as in the world, to be once beaten is to invite the fist
of fate. While the young bull's wounds were still red and raw, there
came a big-antlered, high-shouldered bull-moose to the bluff
overlooking the Quah-Davic. The moose was surprised at sight of the
short-legged, black animal on the bluff. But it was rutting season,
and his surprise soon gave way to indignation. The black bull, whose
careless eyes had not yet noticed the visitor, began to bellow as was
his evening wont. The moose responded with a hoarse, bleating roar,
thrashed the bushes defiantly with his antlers, and shambled up to the
attack. The bull, astonished and outraged, stood his ground boldly,
and at the first charge got in a daunting blow between the enemy's
antlers. But he was not yet strong enough or heavy enough to hold so
tough an antagonist, and, after a very few minutes of fierce gr