ctober is the month for them. They are nice when real glossy
black and ripe, after the first frosts. The trees are just loaded down
with them, sometimes; and right there, by that double tree, is where
Uncle Henry and Uncle Edmund (your father) saw a bear in the tree, or in
a tree that stood there then; it may not be the same one, but it was a
cherry tree. The bear was up in the tree, getting cherries. He would
reach out and pull in the branches with his paws, and then draw the
little twigs, all covered with cherries, through his big mouth and
scrape off a lot at once. That was what he was doing there, and he had
broken the top of the tree half off. The boys heard the green limbs
creaking and cracking, and the tree shaking under the bear's weight. So
they stole up and stood on the wall to look; and pretty soon they saw
his black hair amongst the leaves; but the bear was so busy eating
cherries that he did not notice them. They had no gun, so they each
picked up a good big stone and both threw at once; and one of them hit
the bear, thump, on his back! It took him by surprise, I expect, and his
mouth being so full of leaves and cherries, he sucked some of them down
the wrong way, maybe; for they said the old fellow gave an awful
cough!--and then started to slide down the tree. At that they both
turned and ran, like sport, for the house; for they imagined the old
bear meant to pay them back for that stone that had hit him."

"Did the bear chase them?" I cried.

"I rather think not," replied Theodora. "I didn't hear that he did."

"Are there bears around here now?" I inquired.

"Not many; they don't come around the buildings now as they did when our
fathers were boys."

"Old 'Three-Legs' comes into the sheep-pasture after the sheep," said
Ellen.

"Yes, and Halstead says he saw him when he was looking for the cows, one
night this spring," said Wealthy.

"Is 'Three-Legs' a bear?" I asked, greatly interested.

"Yes, a very bold, cunning old bear that lost his right foot in a trap
years ago," Ellen explained. "Halstead says he saw him about a month
ago."

"Halstead sees lots of bears," said Theodora, laughing. "I suppose there
are a few about, yet," she added. "They come down out of the Great Woods
once in awhile. But Gramp says there is no danger in our going out in
the pastures and the woods around the farm, except perhaps a little
while in the spring, when they first come out of their winter dens and
are very gaunt