The Happy Hooligan 115 



poke the bear with it. He punched it in the belly 

 and the bear was furious, slashed at the stick, gnashed 

 its teeth, and made a most terrifying fuss, but refused 

 to move. Tommy, however, kept on poking and in 

 a few minutes the bear got over its anger, appeared to 

 grow interested in the game, and before they got 

 through, it was actually playing. Tommy took to 

 tickling its feet, and it would raise first one and then 

 the other and try to catch the pole with its teeth and 

 claws, all in a high good humor. Tommy finally dis- 

 lodged him by climbing higher yet and fairly threshing 

 the branches with his pole, and they got an excellent 

 photograph that they subsequently published in the 

 *S^ Nicholas magazine. 



The Black Bear is very fond of water, and seldom 

 stays for any length of time where it cannot get its 

 daily bath. The grizzly also bathes, especially in hot 

 weather or to rid itself of vermin, but the Black Bear 

 loves water for its own sake. They have regular bath- 

 ing holes and after taking a swim either stretch them- 

 selves out on a grassy bed near by, or climb up into 

 a convenient tree, where the sun and wind soon dries 

 them off. We found one such beards bath tub in a 

 beautifully situated glade among the mountains and 

 spent a good deal of time concealed in some nearby 

 shrubbery, hoping to get a picture of Ursus emerging 

 from the bath. During one of these waits a small 

 Black Bear sauntered up to the edge of the pool, looked 



