i6 The Black Bear 



tent and snuggle down beside us on our blankets. 

 During the whole five years that I kept Ben I never 

 once struck or whipped him and never allowed any one 

 to tease him, and a more gentle and playful animal I 

 never saw. 



Just in front of their little den there was a large stump 

 with a long root that sloped away down the bank. 

 One day when Spencer was playing with the cubs, he 

 picked up one of them and placing it, doubled up like 

 a ball, on the old root, sent it rolling downward. To 

 our amazement the bear did not try to regain his feet 

 until he stopped rolling some fifteen feet away, and 

 Spencer was so tickled with the act that he brought 

 him back and once more sent him tumbling down the 

 incline. The result was the same as before. The bear 

 kept whirling until he landed at the end of the root. 

 The other cub was now brought out and we found that 

 he would do the same thing. We sent them down, 

 first backward, then forward, and either way the little 

 fellows seemed to enjoy the sport as much as we; and 

 it was not long before they would climb up on the root 

 and, ducking their tiny heads, would go rolling down 

 the toboggan slide, and in the end we actually had to 

 tie them up to keep them from overdoing it. 



Sometimes they would play like kittens. They 

 would roll over and over, biting and wrestling, and we 

 would laugh until our sides fairly ached. At other 

 times they seemed to feel cranky and out of sorts, and 



