THE BEAR IN FABLE AND STORY. 115 



did ! She took me out so quickly that it took my breath 

 away, and the last I saw of her she was making a bee-line 

 to the thickest part of the woods." 



17. The next story, from California, exalts a new hero, 

 and makes a victim of the bear. It has something of a 

 wild Western flavor, and possibly will not bear the closest 

 scrutiny : 



THE BEAR AND THE BURRO. 



18. " On Bull Creek, in Mariposa County, resides a 

 Mr. Black, who is the possessor of a herd of cattle, which 

 he regards as the apple of his eye. In the morning, be- 

 fore going to work, he would look fondly at them, as they 

 walked out from the corral to go down to water ; and, at 

 evening, after supper, he would sit and smoke his pipe, 

 and contemplate them, finding each day a new beauty in 

 some favorite heifer, steer, or calf. They were fine cattle, 

 and their owner was justly proud of them. None were 

 sick ; none died. They increased, nourished, and grew 

 fat. In the winter, they fed upon the yellow grass upon 

 the hill-side ; in spring, when the gentle rains had caused 

 the alfalfa to send up tender shoots, they stood knee-deep 

 among the luxuriant and sweet-smelling herbage. 



19. " But all this was too pleasant to last. A serpent 

 entered Eden and a grizzly bear Mr. Black's corral. 

 Night after night the fattest and sleekest of the calves 

 were ruthlessly torn from the sides of their helpless dams, 

 and hurried away into the fastnesses of the mountains. 

 Day after day their owner saw in the once mild and placid 

 eyes of his herd a startled, hunted look an expression of 

 appeal which wrung his heart. Mr. Black was in despair, 

 and, determined, at any cost, to be rid of this fiend of a 

 bear, he published an advertisement offering a reward of 

 fifty dollars to any person who would kill it. 



20. " On Bull Creek, in Mariposa County, resides a 



