hing the
thing, he held it down with one paw while he tightened his teeth on the
other end, and bearing down as it slid away, the trap jaws opened and the
foot was free. It was mere chance, of course, that led him to squeeze both
springs at once. He did not understand it, but he did not forget it, and he
got these not very clear ideas: "There is a dreadful little enemy that
hides by the water and waits for one. It has an odd smell. It bites one's
paws and is too hard for one to bite. But it can be got off by hard
squeezing."

For a week or more the little Grizzly had another sore paw, but it was not
very bad if he did not do any climbing.

[Illustration]

It was now the season when the Elk were bugling on the mountains. Wahb
heard them all night, and once or twice had to climb to get away from one
of the big-antlered Bulls. It was also the season when the trappers were
coming into the mountains, and the Wild Geese were honking overhead. There
were several quite new smells in the woods, too. Wahb followed one of these
up, and it led to a place where were some small logs piled together; then,
mixed with the smell that had drawn him, was one that he hated--he
remembered it from the time when he had lost his Mother. He sniffed about
carefully, for it was not very strong, and learned that this hateful smell
was on a log in front, and the sweet smell that made his mouth water was
under some brush behind. So he went around, pulled away the brush till he
got the prize, a piece of meat, and as he grabbed it, the log in front went
down with a heavy _chock_.

It made Wahb jump; but he got away all right with the meat and some new
ideas, and with one old idea made stronger, and that was, "When that
hateful smell is around it always means trouble."

[Illustration]

As the weather grew colder, Wahb became very sleepy; he slept all day when
it was frosty. He had not any fixed place to sleep in; he knew a number of
dry ledges for sunny weather, and one or two sheltered nooks for stormy
days. He had a very comfortable nest under a root, and one day, as it began
to blow and snow, he crawled into this and curled up to sleep. The storm
howled without. The snow fell deeper and deeper. It draped the pine-trees
till they bowed, then shook themselves clear to be draped anew. It drifted
over the mountains and poured down the funnel-like ravines, blowing off the
peaks and ridges, and filling up the hollows level with their rims. It