You may not believe it, but the bear I am going to tell you about really
had a bank account! He lived in the woods, as most bears do; but he
had a reputation which extended over all Norway and more than half of
England. Earls and baronets came every summer, with repeating-rifles
of the latest patent, and plaids and field-glasses and portable
cooking-stoves, intent upon killing him. But Mr. Bruin, whose only
weapons were a pair of paws and a pair of jaws, both uncommonly good of
their kind, though not patented, always managed to get away unscathed;
and that was sometimes more than the earls and the baronets did.

One summer the Crown Prince of Germany came to Norway. He also heard of
the famous bear that no one could kill, and made up his mind that he was
the man to kill it. He trudged for two days through bogs, and climbed
through glens and ravines, before he came on the scent of a bear, and a
bear's scent, you may know, is strong, and quite unmistakable. Finally
he discovered some tracks in the moss, like those of a barefooted man,
or, I should rather say, perhaps, a man-footed bear. The Prince was
just turning the corner of a projecting rock, when he saw a huge, shaggy
beast standing on its hind legs, examining in a leisurely manner the
inside of a hollow tree, while a swarm of bees were buzzing about its
ears. It was just hauling out a handful of honey, and was smiling with
a grewsome mirth, when His Royal Highness sent it a bullet right in the
breast, where its heart must have been, if it had one. But, instead of
falling down flat, as it ought to have done, out of deference to the
Prince, it coolly turned its back, and gave its assailant a disgusted
nod over its shoulder as it trudged away through the underbrush.
The attendants ranged through the woods and beat the bushes in all
directions, but Mr. Bruin was no more to be seen that afternoon. It was
as if he had sunk into the earth; not a trace of him was to be found by
either dogs or men.

From that time forth the rumor spread abroad that this Gausdale Bruin
(for that was the name by which he became known) was enchanted. It was
said that he shook off bullets as a duck does water; that he had the
evil eye, and could bring misfortune to whomsoever he looked upon.
The peasants dreaded to meet him, and ceased to hunt him. His size was
described as something enormous, his teeth, his claws, and his eyes as
being diabolical beyond human conception. In the meanwhile Mr.