ugh we were exactly opposite one another and all walking in a
parallel line, no one ran, and for two thousand feet or more, without
stick or stone between us, we had a good opportunity to study each
other. As usual, I was armed--as I always take care to be--with a
penknife and a pocket handkerchief.

Occasionally one reads in the daily press shocking stories of the
ferocity of bears. What a pity that the truth of these stories cannot
always be run to earth! Billy Le Heup, a prospector and guide of
northern Ontario, once having occasion to call for his mail in a little
backwoods settlement, opened a newspaper and was shocked to learn that
a most harrowing affliction had befallen an old friend of his, by
name--But I'm sorry I have forgotten it, so let us call him Jones. The
paper reported that while several of Jones's children were out
berry-picking, a great, black bear had attacked them, and killing the
youngest, a little girl, had devoured her entirely, save only one tiny
fragment; for when the rescue party went in search of the poor little
child they found nothing but her blood-stained right hand. Le Heup was
so overcome with sorrow and so filled with indignation that he then and
there determined to get together a few trapper friends of his and at
once start by canoe for the scene of the tragedy, only a few miles
away; there to condole with the poor father, trail the huge brute and
wreak vengeance upon the child-eating monster. So Bill, with several
of the best bear-hunters in that region, all well armed, set out in
haste for the Jones's clearing. When they arrived, Jones was splitting
wood outside his shack. The sorrowing trappers, with downcast eyes,
moved slowly toward the bereaved father, and Le Heup, appointed
spokesman, offered their condolences on the terrible death of his
favourite child. Jones was completely dumbfounded. When it was
explained to him what a dreadful thing had happened to his child, he
swore he had no idea a bear had ever eaten any one of his children; but
he was willing to put their story to the proof, so as he had a lot of
children, he called them all out of the house to check them over. To
the joyful surprise of the visitors, there among them was little
Eva--supposed to be eaten, and she even retained her right hand. Thus
another newspaper libel upon the poor old black bear--the buffoon of
the forest--was shown to be devoid of truth; yet that story was
published in the Toronto pap