l lunch, boiled venison, ham, doughnuts and biscuits.

After following the trail about two hours from the place where I had
left it, we came onto a man's track that had taken the trail of our
bear. This roiled the temper of the Vermonter somewhat, and if I did
not say anything, I had a mighty think on. But we had no cause for
alarm at this time. The man after following the trail for a mile or
two gave up the chase as a bad job, I guess. He stood and stamped
about for some time (we judged by the tracks he had made) and then
started back nearly in the same course that he had come.

We followed on until dark when we came to a wagon road. Apparently
several persons had seen the bear trail, for there was a beaten path
for a few yards on either side of the road. We knew nothing about the
road or where it went, but finally concluded to take the road leading
south for a little ways. If we saw no signs of habitation then we
would camp, as that was what we expected to be compelled to do when
starting from camp and each had taken a blanket for the purpose.

We had not gone far when a man with a sleigh overtook us, and we
learned that we were about one and a half miles from what was called
Bunker Hill. The man gave us a ride. We went to a boarding house and
stayed over night, rather than camping on Bruin's trail, though we
got plenty of camping on the trail of Bruin before this hunt was at
an end.

The next morning we were out early and had breakfast at 6 o'clock and
started for the trail which we reached before daylight. We had gone a
little way when we heard voices coming along the road. We listened a
moment and saw that it was a party of three men who had come to take
the bear's trail. We waited until they came up to us and one man
said, "What in blazes are you fellows doing on this bear's track?"
Bill replied rather sharp, "That's our business, but what are you
here for?" Then they said that one of the men had seen the track the
evening before and as there was no one after it, they had come out to
follow up the track and kill the bear. They insisted on going after
the bear but after some talk we convinced them that we did not need
any help and they turned back.

We took up the trail and followed it pretty lively for a time, as we
did not know but those men would cut around and take the trail ahead
of us, though they did not do so. We were now on the waters of Potato
Creek and there was a good deal of laurel and here we fou