88 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



Into this crotch he got and seated himself, the dogs 

 yelling all around it ; and there he sat eyeing them as 

 quiet as a pond in low water. 



'' A greenhorn friend of mine, in company, reached 

 shooting distance before me, and blazed away, hitting 

 the critter in the centre of his forehead. The bear 

 shook his head as the ball struck it, and then walked 

 down from that tree, as gently as a lady would from a 

 carriage. 



" 'Twas a beautiful sight to see him do that — he was 

 in such a rage, that he seemed to be as little afraid of 

 the dogs as if they had been sucking pigs ; and the dogs 

 warn't slow in making a ring around him at a respectful 

 distance, I tell you; even Bowiekuife himself, stood 

 off. Then the way his eyes flashed ! — why the fire of 

 them would have singed a cat's hair ; in fact, that bear 

 was in a wrath all over. Only one pup came near him, 

 and he was brushed out so totally with the bear's left 

 paw. that he entirely disappeared ; and that made the 

 old dogs more cautious still. In the mean time, I came 

 up, and taking deliberate aim, as a man should do, at his 

 side, just back of his foreleg, if my gi0i did not snap^ 

 call me a coward, and I won't take it personal. 



" Yes, stranger, it sjiapjoed, and I could not find a 

 cap about my person. While in this predicament, I 

 turned round to my fool friend — ' Bill,' says I, ' you're 

 an ass — you're a fool — you might as well have tried to 

 kill that bear by barking the tree under his belly, as to 



