minute a great white bear jumped into the boat, as wet as a drowned
rat.

Well, the sailors thought they had got to die, sure enough. What could
they do? The first thing that they thought of, was to try to kill the
bear with their oars. But they soon gave that up. They saw that the
bear was too large and strong to be killed in that way. The next thing
they thought of doing, was to jump into the water. But they knew they
would die if they did that. What should they do? "I wonder which of us
the old fellow will take first," one of the men said to the other.
Each of them had his oar ready, so that when the bear made a spring at
them, he would get his ears boxed pretty sharply. That was all they
could do.

Well, the bear did not seem to be at all in a hurry. The first thing
he did, after he got into the boat, was to shake himself as hard as he
could, to get the water out of his coat. After that, he walked slowly
to one end of the boat, just as if he was quite at home there, and lay
down upon a coat which one of the men had brought along, and went to
sleep.

The sailors saw then that all they had to do was to row the bear to
the shore. So they went to work. When they got to the ship, the
captain and all the sailors laughed a good deal, you may be sure. The
shore was not far off. The sailors rowed until the boat touched the
shore, and the bear got out, and walked slowly away. He did not so
much as thank the men for the ride he had been taking. But the men
were glad to get rid of him, thanks or no thanks.

[Illustration]

CATCHING WHALES.

I went in a whale-ship once. I was gone from home that time more than
three years. When we came back, we had our large ship all full of oil
and whalebone. We got the oil and the whalebone out of the whales
which we had caught. Whales, you know, are very large fish. They
sometimes get two or three hundred barrels of oil from one single
whale.

I never shall forget what a long chase I had with a whale once. Shall
I tell you about it, little friend? There was a man in the ship who
was looking out for whales. In a whale-ship there is always one man
who gets up as high as he can, and keeps a bright look-out all round
for whales. Whales do not stay under water all the time. The trout,
and the shad, and the eel, and most other kinds of fish can stay under
water all the time. They cannot live out of the water only a few
minutes, and I suppose they feel almost as bad out of the wa