merriment
which soon succeeded, the most of us had entirely forgotten it, I
think. At least we were all in the midst of another scrimmage over the
"last biscuit," when a loud snort, like that of a startled horse, a
sort of "woof! woof!" accompanied by a great rustling in our evergreen
hedge, startled us; and turning, we saw--I shall never forget the
sight--an enormous black creature coming through our _fence_, with all
the independence of a sole proprietor! Of course, as Zeke afterwards
expressed it, "if _he_ was _coming in_, we wanted to _go out_."

The girls were not of the fainting sort; but they did scream some, and
we all sprang away like cats through the opposite side of the hedge.
The gun had been left standing near the place where the bear had
broken in, and was not to be got at, of course. But, catching out my
pistol, as we scrambled through the hemlock, I discharged it at the
old fellow, hitting him, I guess; for he growled and came straight
after me. 'Twas no time to be loitering. Down the slope we all ran
together, slumping and sprawling full length in the soft snow! Up and
on again, knocking out spiles and kicking over sap-buckets, bumping
and grazing ourselves against the rough bark of the maples; for it was
pitch dark in the woods. But on we went for dear life, expecting every
moment to feel the bear's teeth or claws from behind. At first I had a
sort of impression that we boys should have to wait and put ourselves
between the girls and the bear; but I soon found I had all I could do
to keep up with them. Such girls to run I never saw before! And we
never stopped till, at a distance of a mile below, the forest opened
out into a cleared field.

There we began to discover that the bear was not after us, and
gradually came to a halt. After getting breath, however, we kept
on--at a little slower pace, though--down to the "corners," where,
after seeing the girls to their respective dwellings, guns were
procured, and, rallying out Mr. Bubar and Mr. Murch, senior, with
several other men, we all started back to hunt up the bear. Going
quietly up through the woods, we cautiously approached to a point
where the gap we had made in rushing out of our enclosure enabled us
to see what was going on inside; and there by the firelight we beheld
the bear sitting cosily before the coals, and gazing wistfully into
the boiling kettles. He had probably found them too hot for his use.

Raising their guns, the men all fired