with them indeed had lessened our terror. We certainly had
no desire to hurt them, and they, as they passed up and down or went
about their work digging in the ground along the side of the river or
chopping down trees, appeared to give no thought to us; and with that
fear removed, even though we kept constantly on the alert, lest they
should unexpectedly come too near us, our life was happy and free from
care. Father and mother grew to be like their old selves again, less
gruff and nervous than they had been since the memorable day when we saw
Cinnamon with his broken leg; and as for Kahwa and me, though we romped
less than we used to do--for we were seven months old now, and at seven
months a bear is getting to be a big and serious animal--we were as
happy as two young bears could be. After a long hot day, during which we
had been sleeping in the shade, what could be more delightful than to go
and lie in the cool stream, where it flowed only a foot or so deep, and
as clear as the air itself, over a firm sandy bottom? There were frogs,
and snails, and beetles of all sorts, along the water's edge, and the
juicy stems of the reeds and water-plants. Then, in the night we
wandered abroad finding lily roots, and the sweet ferns, and camas, and
mushrooms, with another visit to the river in the early morning and
perhaps a trout to wind up with before the sun drove us under cover
again. And above all there was the berry-patch.

The mere smell of a berry-patch at the end of summer, when the sun has
been beating down all day, so that the air is heavy with the scent of
the cooking fruit, is delicious enough, but it is nothing to the
sweetness of the berries themselves.

It was in the evening, after our dip in the river, when twilight was
shading into night, that we used to visit the patch. It was a great open
space in a bend of the river, half a mile long and nearly as wide,
without a tree on it, and nothing but just the blueberry bushes growing
close together all over it, reaching about up to one's chest as one
walked through, and every bush loaded with berries. Not only we, but
every bear in the neighborhood, used to go there each evening--the two
other families of whom I have spoken, and also two other single
he-bears who had no families. One of these was the only animal in the
neighborhood--except the porcupines, which every bear hates--whom I
disliked and feared. He was a bad-tempered beast, bigger than father,
with whom at