58 The Grizzly Bear 



did not come every day. Judging from the trails, I took 

 it that they did. They had, without a doubt, been there 

 that morning, and so I curled down and prepared to 

 wait. At first it was not uncomfortable. The sun shone 

 in upon me and I found myself dozing several times. 

 Later, when the sun sank behind the mountains, I began 

 to feel the need of a coat, but still I did not care to give 

 up, and determined to stick it out until I got an elk or it 

 became too dark to see. 



Every few minutes I raised my head above the bushes, 

 but nothing seemed to be stirring. Finally it became so 

 cold that my teeth began to chatter and I looked at my 

 watch and made up my mind to stay just five minutes 

 more. When these were gone I raised up, took another 

 look, and seeing nothing in sight, concluded to remain 

 another five. This I did several times. Finally I was 

 nearly frozen and I determined that the next five minutes 

 should be the last and that I would not wait longer for all 

 the elk in the country. When the time was up I took a 

 good look about, but not a living thing could be seen. 

 Then I looked up-stream and, just around the point of the 

 hill and out in the bottom about a hundred yards away, 

 I saw what seemed to me to be the old grizzly I had seen 

 in the cage when I was a boy. He had the same carriage, 

 had the same big forearms and the gait I would know 

 again anywhere as long as I lived. Best of all the brute 

 was headed straight for my log. I ducked back to my bed 

 and waited almost breathless for him to get nearer. I 

 had laid no plans. I simply wanted him to get near 

 enough that there might be no possibility of his escaping. 

 It now seemed certain that my dream was to come true. 



