104 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



herself up as lost. The bear was bewildered by this con- 

 duct. He approached and looked at her; he walked 

 around and surveyed her. Probably he had never seen 

 a colored person before, and did not know whether she 

 would agree with him. At any rate, after watching her 

 a few moments, he turned about, and went into the 

 forest. 



6. When I had climbed the hill, I set my rifle against 

 a tree, and began picking berries, lured on from bush to 

 bush by the black gleam of the fruit, penetrating farther 

 and farther through leaf-shaded cow-paths flecked with 

 sunlight, into clearing after clearing. I could hear on all 

 sides the tinkle of bells, the cracking of sticks, and the 

 stamping of cattle that were taking refuge in the thicket 

 from flies. Occasionally, as I broke through a covert, I 

 encountered a meek cow, who stared at me stupidly for a 

 second, and then shambled off into the brush. I became 

 accustomed to this dumb society, and picked on in silence, 

 attributing all the wood -noises to the cattle, thinking 

 nothing of any real bear. 



7. In point of fact, I was thinking of a nice, romantic 

 bear, which I was weaving into a tale, the moral of which 

 was to be kindness to animals, when I happened to look 

 some rods away, to the outer edge of the clearing, and 

 there was the bear. He was standing on his hind-legs, 

 and doing just what I was doing picking blackberries. 

 With one paw he bent down the bush, while, with the 

 other, he clawed the berries into his mouth green ones 

 and all. To say that I was astonished is inside the mark. 

 I suddenly discovered that I didn't want to see a bear, 

 after all. 



8. At about the same moment the bear saw me, 

 stopped eating berries, and regarded me with a glad 

 surprise. It is all very well to imagine what you would 



