n; but
we got through with it at last, and then, burying all of the flesh in
the snow except a small piece that we wanted for supper, we returned to
the hut, dragging the skin after us, the Dean whistling, all the way,
'Bonaparte crossing the Alps,' which he had picked up, as he told me,
from a Frenchman in Havana.

"While we were coming up the valley towards the hut, in this lively
state of mind, the Dean stopped suddenly, and said: 'Suppose, Hardy, the
other two bears have taken a notion to come back'; and he was right; for
we came presently in sight of one of them, very near the hut, and making
directly for it. As soon as he saw us, however, he ran away. So we took
a good laugh at his expense, and, thinking the other one must be near
him, though not in sight, we proceeded on our way. Fortunately, however,
before seeing the bear, we halted long enough to secure the knife-blade
again on the end of 'Old Crumply'; and it was well that we did this,
for, when we arrived at the broken wall where the bears had made their
way out, much to our surprise, we came right upon the other bear, close
up to the mouth of the hut, busy swallowing a duck. This was the
smallest of the three bears, and he could not have been more than a
year or so old. No sooner did he hear us than he, like the other one,
became alarmed; but, seeing us in the road by which he had entered, he
did not try to escape in that way, nor did he appear to have the least
idea that he had only to charge upon us to see how quickly he would
clear the passage; for, instead of doing this, he instantly rushed
forward, and plunged into our hut, no doubt thinking that would lead to
a place of safety.

"I do not exactly know by what motive I was impelled, but I suppose the
same that governed me on several other occasions; that is, a general one
belonging to almost all human beings, and, indeed, to most animals, that
is, to chase whatever runs away, and to run away from whatever chases.

"At any rate, I rushed up to the doorway of the hut, I believe without
any idea at all in my head, and without giving much thought about it,
and had like to have got into a great scrape; for the bear, having found
that the hut gave him no chance of escape, had turned about, and was
coming out again. I was wholly unprepared for him, so hasty had I been.
I could not run, and therefore, quite mechanically, I hit him in the
face with the sharp point of 'Old Crumply,' which sent him back into th