my great love for Shakoona, to try and kill that
bear. It was well for me that I had some steel-pointed arrowheads,
obtained at the traders' shop. These I had not been using, as they were
too valuable to risk losing in shooting small game. However, here was
game big enough. So I at once removed the flints from three of my best
arrows, and quickly lashed on these long steel points with sinew.

"All this time the bear was still fooling with that child. He would
turn it round and round, and then sometimes he would set it down, as
though he wanted it to walk off with him. At length, after failing in
this, it seemed to me as if he were going to start off and carry the
child with him. When I saw this I knew that I must now try and shoot
him. So I crawled along on the mossy ground, and dodged from tree to
tree until I was very near him. Once or twice I was going to shoot, but
I was afraid of hitting the child. All at once I saw him drop the
cradle and straighten himself up and listen. He had heard something
that startled him. It was the mother coming back. Now in the distance
I, too, could see her coming. She had a large bundle of moss on her
head which she was supporting with both hands. She had neither gun nor
knife.

"I could wait no longer. I drew my arrow to the head of my bow and, as
the bear was standing up with his side toward me, and his paws were well
up, I aimed for his side, just under the leg, and sent the arrow with
all the force I could. I was perhaps twelve years old, but I well knew,
like Indian boys, how to use the bow. My arrow struck just where I
wanted it to. It entered his side near the heart. With a savage growl
he jumped, but he had not seen or heard me. He only saw and felt the
arrow, and so that was his only enemy, he thought. That is the
advantage of hunting with the bow over the gun. If you can keep hidden,
with bow and arrows the animals are not alarmed at your presence, but
with a noisy gun the animal knows where you are and comes for you. So
it was in this case; the bear only tried to get hold of the arrow that
was sticking into his side. He twisted himself round and round and
tried to pull it out with his paw on the opposite side, but I had sent
it with such force that he could not succeed. The more he worked at it
the more the blood poured out of the wound. He seemed to have forgotten
now all about the child and the coming mother, so I was sure he was
badly hurt. B