easiest way to
kill them is when they are in their holes in the hollow trees."

"How do you get them out?"

"Why, we knock the tree with our axes, and they come out to see what's
the matter, and as soon as they put their heads out, we shoot them."

"Are you in earnest, Martin?"

"Yes, ma'am; quite in earnest," replied Martin.

"It's all true, ma'am," said the hunter; "the bears about here are not
very savage. We had much worse down in Maine. I've seen the Indians in
a canoe on a river watching the bears as they swam across, and kill in
the water six or seven in one day."

"Still a hear is an awkward sort of animal when it's angry," replied
Martin; "and, as we may have them down here in the autumn, it is as well
not to let them be thought too lightly of."

"Indeed, there's no fear of that," said Emma; "as for Malachi, he thinks
nothing dangerous; but I have no wish to see a bear. You say we may
expect them, Martin. Why so?"

"Because, miss, they are very fond of maize, and we have a field of it
sown, which may tempt them."

"Well, if they do come, I must trust to my rifle," replied Emma,
laughing; "at all events, I do not fear them so much as I did when I
first came here."

"Don't fire, miss, without you're sure of killing," said Malachi. "The
creatures are very dangerous when wounded."

"Don't be afraid; I'll only fire in self-defence, Malachi; that is, when
I have no other chance left. I had rather trust to my heels than my
rifle. Were you ever hugged by a bear?"

"Well, I wasn't ever hugged; but once I was much closer to one than ever
I wish to be again."

"Oh! when was that? Do, pray, tell us," said Emma.

"It was when I was young, that one day I sounded a tree in the forest
with my axe, and I was certain that a bear was in it; but the animal did
not shew itself, so I climbed up the tree to examine the hole at the
top, and see if the bear was at home, as, if so, I was determined to
have him out. Well, miss, I was on the top of the hollow trunk, and was
just putting my head down into the hole, when, all of a sudden, the edge
of the tree which I kneeled upon gave way, like so much tinder, and down
I went into the hollow; luckily for me I did not go down head foremost,
or there I should have remained till this time, for the hole in the
middle of the tree, as I found, was too narrow for me to have turned in,
and there I must have stuck. As it was, I went down with the dust and
crumbles smother