d got as fat as butter. We took
dogs and worried him, and ran him from one place to another, and shot
at him, till at last he dropped. We took his meat home, and had his skin
tanned for a sleigh robe.

"One day I was in the woods, and looking through the trees espied a
bear. He was standing up on his hind legs, snuffing in every direction,
and just about the time I espied him, he espied me. I had no dog and
no gun, so I thought I had better be getting home to my dinner. I was
a small boy then, and the bear, probably thinking I'd be a mouthful for
him anyway, began to come after me in a leisurely way. I can see myself
now going through those woods hat gone, jacket flying, arms out, eyes
rolling over my shoulder every little while to see if the bear was
gaining on me. He was a benevolent-looking old fellow, and his face
seemed to say, 'Don't hurry, little boy.' He wasn't doing his prettiest,
and I soon got away from him, but I made up my mind then, that it was
more fun to be the chaser than the chased.

"Another time I was out in our cornfield, and hearing a rustling, looked
through the stalks, and saw a brown bear with two cubs. She was slashing
down the corn with her paws to get at the ears. She smelled me, and
getting frightened, began to run. I had a dog with me this time, and
shouted and rapped on the fence, and set him on her. He jumped up and
snapped at her flanks, and every few instants she'd turn and give him a
cuff, that would send him yards away. I followed her up, and just back
of the farm she and her cubs took into a tree. I sent my dog home, and
my father and some of the neighbors came. It had gotten dark by this
time, so we built a fire under the tree, and watched all night, and told
stories to keep each other awake. Toward morning we got sleepy, and the
fire burnt low, and didn't that old bear and one cub drop right down
among us and start off to the woods. That waked us up. We built up the
fire and kept watch, so that the one cub, still in the tree, couldn't
get away. Until daylight the mother bear hung around, calling to the cub
to come down."

"Did you let it go, uncle?" asked Miss Laura.

"No, my dear, we shot it."

"How cruel!" cried Mrs. Wood.

"Yes, weren't we brutes?" said her husband; "but there was some excuse
for us, Hattie. The bears ruined our farms. This kind of hunting that
hunts and kills for the mere sake of slaughter is very different from
that. I'll tell you what I've no patience