It was from just outside the door that I tumbled downhill.

It must have been early in the year, because the ground was still very
wet and soft, and the gully at the bottom full of snow. Of course, if I
had not been a cub I should never have fallen, for big bears do not
tumble downhill. If by any chance anything did start one, and he found
he could not stop himself, he would know enough to tuck in his head and
paws out of harm's way; but I only knew that somehow, in romping with
Kahwa, I had lost my balance, and was going--goodness knew where! I went
all spread out like a squirrel, first on my head, then on my back, then
on my tummy, clutching at everything that I passed, slapping the ground
with my outstretched paws, and squealing for help. Bump! bang! slap!
bump! I went, hitting trees and thumping all the wind out of me against
the earth, and at last--souse into the snow!

Wow-ugh! How cold and wet it was! And it was deep--so deep, indeed, that
I was buried completely out of sight; and I doubt if I should ever have
got out alive had not my mother come down and dug me out with her nose
and paws. Then she half pushed and half smacked me uphill again, and
when I got home I was the wettest, coldest, sorest, wretchedest bear-cub
in the Rocky Mountains.

Then, while I lay and whimpered, my mother spent the rest of the day
licking me into the semblance of a respectable bearskin again. But I was
bruised and nervous for days afterwards.

That tumble of mine gave us the idea of the game which Kahwa and I used
to play almost every day after that. Kahwa would take her stand with her
back against the rock by our door, just at the point where the hill
went off most steeply, and it was my business to come charging up the
hill at her and try to pull her down. What fun it was! Sometimes I was
the one to stand against the rock, and Kahwa tried to pull me down. She
could not do it; but she was plucky, and used to come at me so
ferociously that I often wondered for a minute whether it was only play
or whether she was really angry.

Best of all was when mother used to play with us. Then she put her back
to the rock, and we both attacked her at once from opposite sides, each
trying to get hold of a hind-leg just above the foot. If she put her
head down to pretend to bite either of us, the other jumped for her ear.
Sometimes we would each get hold of an ear, and hang on as hard as we
could, while she pretended we were hurting her dr