fle, slipped in a cartridge, and coolly threw open the cabin door.
He was a tall, ruddy-faced, wide-mouthed man, much like the kindly
manager of the show. At sight of him, standing there in the door, the
bear was overjoyed, and broke into a shuffling run.

Seeing what seemed to them such reckless ferocity, the lumbermen cried
out in amazement, and shouted hoarse warnings to the boss. But the
boss was a man of nerve. Raising his rifle to the shoulder, he stepped
right out clear of the door. He was a dead shot, and very proud of the
fact. When the bear was within thirty paces of him, he fired.

The massive bullet sped true; and the exile fell forward on his snout
without a gasp, shot through the brain.

The men gathered about the body, praising the shot, praising the
prize, praising the reckless audacity which had led the beast to rush
upon his doom. Then in the long, loose fur that clothed his bones they
found the heavy collar. At that they all wondered. The boss examined
it minutely, and stood pondering; and the frank pride upon his face
gradually died into regret.

"I swan, boys," said he, presently, "if that ain't the b'ar that run
away from the circus las' fall! I heard tell he was reckoned always
kind!"

The Little Wolf of the Pool

The bottom of the pool (it was too small to be called a pond) was
muddy, with here and there a thicket of rushes or arrow-weed stems.
Down upon the windless surface streamed the noon sun warmly. Under its
light the bottom was flecked with shadows of many patterns,--circular,
heart-shaped, spear-shaped, netted, and barred. There were other
shadows that were no more than ghosts of shadows, cast by faint,
diaphanous films of scum which scarcely achieved to blur the clear
downpour of radiance, but were nevertheless perceived and appreciated
by many of the delicate larval creatures which made a large part of
the life of the pool.

For all its surface tranquillity and its shining summer peace, the
pool was thronged with life. Beneath the surface, among the weeds and
stalks, the gleams and shadows, there was little of tranquillity or
peace. Almost all the many-formed and strange-shaped inhabitants of
the pool were hunting or being hunted, preying or being preyed
upon,--from the goggle-eyed, green-throated bullfrog under the willow
root, down to the swarming animalculae which it required a microscope
to see. Small crawling things everywhere dotted the mud or tried to
hide under