oak, he ascended in a
minute, leaving his gun, at the bottom of it. Nor did the bear make any
difficulty of it, but ascended like a cat, though his weight was very
great. You must consider I was not a little amazed at the folly of my
man, as not perceiving any thing to occasion our laughter, till such
time as we rode up nearer, and beheld the bear mounted upon the oak, on
the beginning of the same branch, to which Friday clung at the farther
end, where the bear durst not come. Hereupon Friday cried out, _Now
master, me make much laugh, me make bear dance._ Upon which he fell a
shaking the bough, which made the creature look behind him, to see how
he could retreat. Then as if the bear had understood his stammering
English, _Why you no come farther, Mr. Bear_ said he, _pray, Mr. Bear
come farther_; and then indeed we all burst into a laughter; especially
when we perceived Friday drop like a squirrel upon the ground, leaving
the beast to make the best of his way down the tree. And now thinking it
the most convenient time to shoot the creature, Friday cried out, _O
dear master, no shoot, me shoot by and by_; when taking up the gun, _me
no shoot yet_, said he _me make one more much laugh._ And accordingly he
was as good as his word; for the creature descending backwards from the
tree very leisurely, before he could lay one foot on the ground, Friday
shot him through the ear, stone dead; and looking to see whether we were
pleased, he burst out into a hearty laughter, saying, _So we kill de
bear in my country, not with the gun, but with much long arrows._ Thus
ended our diversion, to our great satisfaction; especially in a place
where the terrible howlings struck us with a continual terror. But the
snows now growing very deep, particularly on the mountains, the ravenous
creatures were then obliged to seek for sustenance in the villages, were
coming by surprise on the country people, killed several of them,
besides a great number of their sheep and horses.

Our guide told us, we had yet one more dangerous place to pass by; and
if their were any more wolves in the country, there we should find them.
This was a small plain encompassed with woods, to get through a long
lane to the village where we were to lodge. When we entered the wood,
the sun was within half an hour of setting: and a little after it was
set, we came into the plain, which was not above two furlongs over, and
then we perceived five great wolves cross the road, wi