SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES. 41 



and with three other good stakes driven at each side of the logs 

 fastened the tops of the stakes together with withes to strengthen 

 them, we soon had a good, strong deadfall made, as every boy who 

 is a reader of the H-T-T, knows how to build. We baited the trap 

 and set it, getting done in time for Mr. Haskins to get home be- 

 fore dark. 



I again put bait back in the bait pen and on the bush as be- 

 fore and patiently awaited results. The second day I looked after 

 the traps but there were no signs of bear being about either the 

 deadfall or the steel traps and I feared that I had frightened Bruin 

 out of the country in building the deadfall. I put in three or four 

 days looking after other traps, thinking but little about the bear 

 that had, so far, been beyond my skill. 



After three or four days, I again went to the deadfall, won- 

 dering and imagining all kinds of things. When I came to the 

 steel traps the bait was still undisturbed and I was now sure that 

 that particular bear was not for me, but when I stepped into the 

 thicket so that I could see the deadfall, there was Bruin, good 

 and dead. When I looked at the bear I found that he had three 

 toes gone from one foot and this I thought to be the cause of his 

 being so over-shy of the steel traps. 



I learned a lesson that has since served me more than one 

 good turn. 



* * * 



In later years it was customary for many of my friends to 

 come to my camp and spend a few days with me. It was of one 

 of these occasions that I will relate. Two young men, named 

 Benson and Hill, had sent me word that they were coming out 

 to my camp and hunt a few days ; also to go with me to my bear 

 traps but added that they did not suppose that I would get a bear 

 while they were in camp, even if they would stay all winter. 



It had been drizzling sort of a rain for several days and 

 every old bear hunter knows that dark, lowery weather is the 

 sort bears like to do their traveling in. I had set the time to 

 go out on a stream known as the Sunken Branch, to look after 

 some fox traps and also two bear traps that I had in that section 

 the day I got word from Benson and Hill that they would be 



