aid again. As I could not have
made much progress in the uncertain light of the moon, I climbed into a
forked branch of the tree, and tying my arm to a bough that I might not
tumble off, I tried to get a little more sleep. It was not very sound,
for the recollection that the bear might possibly take it into his head
to pay me a visit kept me wakeful. I felt certain that the rascal must
have known that my powder was wet, or he would not have been so
impudent. Once or twice I thought that I would try and make my rifle go
off, and I withdrew the charge of small shot, and put a bullet in
instead. At last I took aim and pulled the trigger, but no report
followed.

I was thankful that I had not had to depend on my weapon for my life.
Bruin just lifted up his head when he heard the snap, but seeing that I
was safe, lay down again, and began either to snore, or to pretend to
snore, for the cunning rogue was up to any trick, I was certain of that,
to deceive me. For half an hour or more after this I lay quiet, and I
had great hopes that Bruin had really gone to sleep. The country to the
west along the banks of the stream appeared, as far as I could see by
the moonlight, pretty clear. I thought that I might make good some
distance before the bear awoke.

Down I crept very cautiously, for fear of making the slightest noise,
from my lofty perch. I had got to one of the lower forks of the tree,
and was considering whether I could not drop without much noise to the
ground, from a branch which projected below me, when a low growl
proceeded from my recent bed-place, and the ogre lifted up his head with
one eye still shut, but with the other turned towards me in the most
malicious manner--at least, so I thought. I cannot quite vouch for this
last fact; but that was my impression at the time. I was in a most
uncomfortable position, so that I had to move one way or the other. I
began by moving downwards, and he then rose more, and gave another
growl. I then climbed up again, and as I ascended higher and higher, he
gradually lay back till his head was concealed inside the hollow of the
tree. Still, when I leaned forward, I could see his snout sticking up,
and could just catch the twinkle of his wicked eye turned towards me--I
mean the eye which, awake or asleep, as it seemed to me, he always kept
open.

Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that I did not sleep very
soundly, still I did go to sleep, with my arms tw