lungs, against a
stump some ten feet down the slope.

As the bear struggled to his feet, furious but half-daunted with
amazement, the ram danced backward a pace or two on his nimble feet,
as if showing off, and then delivered his second charge. The
bewildered bear was again caught unready, irresolute as to whether he
should fight or flee; and again he was knocked headlong, a yard or two
further down the slope. His was not the dauntless spirit that most of
his kindred would have shown in such a case, and he would willingly
have made his escape at once if he had seen his way quite clear to do
so. But at this moment, while he hesitated, he heard a man's voice
shouting loudly, and saw the tall backwoodsman running toward him up
the hill. This sight turned his alarm into a blind panic. His feet
seemed to acquire wings as he tore madly away among the thickets. When
he was hidden by the leafage, his path could still be followed by the
crashing of dry branches and the clattering of loosened stones.

The woodsman had seen the whole incident, and was wild with enthusiasm
over the prowess of his prize. Bears had been the most dreaded scourge
of the settlement sheep-farmers, but now, as he proudly said to
himself, he had a ram that could "lick a b'ar silly!" He bore no
grudge on account of his discomfiture that morning beside the spring,
but rather thought of it with appreciation as a further evidence of
his favourite's cunning and prowess; and he foresaw, with a chuckle,
that there were painful surprises in store for the bears of the
Ringwaak range. He had made a wise purchase indeed when he saved that
splendid beast from the butcher.

Hearing the man's voice, the ram had halted in dismay just when he was
about to charge the bear a third time. He had no mind to go again into
captivity. But, on the other hand, for all his lordliness of spirit,
he felt that the man was his master. At first he lowered his head
threateningly, as if about to attack; but when the backwoodsman
shouted at him there was an authority in those tones which he could
not withstand, and he sullenly drew aside. With a good-natured laugh,
the man picked the lamb up in his arms, whereupon the mother stepped
timidly to his side, evidently having no fear. The man rubbed her nose
kindly, and stroked her ears, and gave her something from his pocket
which she ate greedily; and, as the ram looked on, the anger gradually
faded out from his yellow eyes. At length the m