nished, as much as to say, "Now
what does that mean? I didn't see a bee about."

Black Bruin also made other interesting discoveries in the pasture.
One day, either by chance or design, he turned over a small rotten log
and found that on the under side it was swarming with ants and grubs.
Then how his tongue did fly as he licked them up and how the ants
scampered in every direction trying to hide before he should get them!

But ants and grubs were not the only game under the logs. One day when
he had turned over a larger log than usual, he was astonished to see a
tiny four-footed creature run squeaking out. Black Bruin hopped
clumsily after the field-mouse. Pat, pat went his heavy paws, but the
mouse ran this way and that, dodging and squeaking, and several times
he missed, although by this time he was quite expert with his paws.
Finally he landed fairly upon the poor mouse, and its life was crushed
out. Then he swooped it into his hungry mouth, and found it much
better than grubs and ants. After that, whenever a mouse ran out from
under a log or stone that he overturned, he made a desperate effort to
get it.

One day while sniffing about a hollow log, as was his wont, the bear
discovered still a new scent that was neither grubs, ants nor
field-mice, so he began tearing the log apart, for it was quite rotten.

He had been at work but a few minutes, when with a great chipping a
small striped animal, several times larger than the field-mouse, ran
between his legs and scurried away in the grass. Although much
astonished, the bear hurried in hot pursuit. This little creature,
like the mouse, ran hither and thither, dodging and twisting. Finally
after several misses, he landed his paw squarely upon it and the hunter
had bagged his first chipmunk.

[Illustration: The Bear Hurried in Hot Pursuit]

This game was so much larger than the field-mouse that he thought it
well worth while, and after that whenever he scented a chipmunk about a
log or stone wall, he would spend an hour, if need be, until he was
satisfied that he could not get at it.

Finally the summer passed and the autumn came, and the bear-cub
followed the children to the woods for chestnuts, beech-nuts and
walnuts.

He, too, learned the secret of the sweet meat under the hard exterior.
Beechnuts he would discover and eat by himself, but walnuts and
butternuts he could not crack, and as for chestnuts, he wanted them
taken out of their prickly jack