The Story of Ben 21 



Lockasaw Fork of the Clearwater were among the 

 curiosities of the region. We had put Ben, still in his 

 sack, on the ground while we got things settled for the 

 night, and Old Jerry, seeing the sack moving, asked 

 what we had in it. When he heard that it was a 

 Black Bear cub he asked permission to turn it out and 

 have a look at it and we told him to go ahead. After 

 loosening the cord that closed the mouth, he took the 

 sack by the two lower corners and gave it a shake, and 

 out rolled Ben in his favorite toboganning posture of a 

 fluffy ball. The cub seemed to think this a variation 

 of the pine root game, and to the astonishment and 

 delight of Old Jerry continued turning somersaults 

 for ten or fifteen feet. Old Jerry is still alive, and to 

 this day I never meet him that he does not speak of 

 my performing cub. 



The next day we again put Ben in the sack, but this 

 time we cut a hole in the side of it, so that he could ride 

 with his head out. For a while he was contented with 

 this style of riding, but after some days he got to work- 

 ing on the sack until he was able to crawl through the 

 hole. Then, as we found that he could keep his seat 

 very nicely and would even, when his pony passed 

 under a branch or leaning tree, dodge to one side of the 

 pack and hang there until the danger was past, we 

 adopted his amendment and from this time on never 

 again put him in the sack when on the march. In- 

 stead, we arranged to give him a good flat pack to ride 



