THE MONARCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 97 



brusque, and expressed in a surly tone, they tended rather 

 to repel than attract. 



10. " One day, while Bruin was yet of tender years, a 

 kitten came into the yard and immediately drew his sur- 

 prised attention upon herself ; but young puss, not admir- 

 ing his looks, first cast upon him an angry glance, and 

 then sprang up and fixed her claws in his head, exciting 

 such alarm that he trotted off in nervous haste, and hid 

 himself in an outhouse. Afterward he always fled at the 

 sight of this cat, though she was the only one of which 

 he showed fear. 



11. " Whenever he could intrude into the kitchen he 

 bemeaned himself like an officious and meddlesome hus- 

 band, disordering affairs, greatly to the vexation of the 

 domestics, to whose castigations with a stout knob-stick 

 he payed little regard. One day he laid hold of a coffee- 

 pan that stood on the hearth, and was conveying it in his 

 paws to the yard, when the hot contents, overflowing on 

 his bosom, provoked him to cast it on the ground and 

 flatten it with a stroke of his paw. 



12. " As he grew older it was found necessary to im- 

 pose some check upon his movements, and for this purpose 

 a chain, with a log at the end of it, was attached to a collar 

 round his neck. Such badge of servitude and interference 

 with the liberty of a free-born bear was not to be borne. 

 At first he tried to strike off the log with his paws ; then 

 he dragged it to the river, but was vastly irritated to find 

 that, after every attempt to sink it, the audacious log came 

 to the surface again. Finally he dug a hole, put the log into 

 it, and replaced the earth, stamping or pressing it down ; 

 then, apparently satisfied with his work, he attempted to 

 move off, but found himself in a worse fix than before ; 

 however, after sundry angry jerks the chain broke, and he 

 regained his freedom, leaving his incumbrance in the grave. 



