he thought the bear would come out when he was
routed from his nest, while I was to follow the trail and drive out
the bear. I followed until near the center of the patch, when I came
onto a small open place forty or fifty feet square. This open space
was covered with a heavy growth of wild grass which partly held the
snow from getting close to the ground, and I could see the trail of
the bear through this grass and loose snow very plain until nearly
the opposite side of the open space, and there I could see a bunch of
snow. I was sure that it was the bear that made the bunch.

I thought the matter over for a minute, then concluded to back out
and go after Mr. Dingman, and see what he thought would be best in
order to make a sure thing of Bruin's capture. Mr. Dingman thought
the best thing to do was to go up town and get plenty of help so as
to thoroughly surround the laurel, and make sure of Bruin. I
objected, as I thought it best to try our own luck, and if we failed
we could still get plenty of help. We followed my track back to where
I had turned, and concluded to both fire at the bunch at the same
time, hit or miss as luck would have it. When we fired at the bunch
there was a shaking of snow, and bruin rolled out but was unable to
rise to his feet. On examination we found that one ball had entered
his shoulder. It was a short job to get bruin out to the road, and
take him up to town where we sold him to Mr. Stebbins, a merchant,
and then we made tracks back to see if we could find the broken
legged doe. We found by circling the thicket that she was there, and
we had the good luck to get her. We drove her out, and thus ended one
of the liveliest day's sport that we ever had.

CHAPTER XXI.

Dog on the Trap Line.

Now, we will say first that there is as much or more difference in
the man who handles the dog as there is in the different breeds of
dogs. I have heard men say that they wanted no dog on the trap line
with them, and that they didn't believe that any one who did want a
dog on the trap line knew but very little about trapping at best.

Now those are the views and ideas of some trappers, while my
experience has led me to see altogether different. One who is so
constituted that they must give a dog the growl or perhaps a kick
every time they come in reach, will undoubtedly find a dog of but
little use on the trap line. I have known some dogs to refuse to eat,
and would lay out where they could watch