THE HAPPY HOOLIGAN 



In this chapter I would like to give some notion of 

 the Black Bear at home. I do not mean ''at home'' 

 in the society sense of being dressed up ''from four to 

 seven" to receive callers; but in the good old back- 

 woods sense of being in your shirt-sleeves with your 

 feet on the table. There is a good deal more difference 

 between the two attitudes than appears in a book on 

 etiquette. 



If you meet a man at an afternoon reception you see 

 one side of him — the outside. If you are a member 

 of the local vigilance committee and call on him officially 

 in the course of business, you get a specialized insight 

 into another phase of his character. But as an old 

 hermit with a rat-tailed file for a tongue once said to 

 me in the hills, "You never really know a man till 

 youVe watched him through the transom when he 

 thinks himself alone.'' 



It is pretty much the same with bears. We are all 

 familiar with them as seen at their public receptions 

 in the bear pits. We know their company manners. 

 Personally, I can never quite rid myself of the absurd 

 notion that when the guards put the crowds out at 



