32 TKUE BEAK STOEIES. 



passed away forever with the Indian, the 

 pioneer, and the music-loving bear. It is 

 strange how a man I mean the natural 

 man will feel a presence long before he 

 hears it or sees it. You can always feel the 

 approach of a but I forget. You are of 

 another generation, a generation that only 

 reads, takes thought at second hand only, 

 if at all, and you would not understand; 

 so let us get forward and not waste time 

 in explaining the unexplainable to you. 



Father got up, turned about, put me be 

 hind him like, as an animal will its young, 

 and peered back and down through the 

 dense tangle of the deep river bank be 

 tween two of the huge oxen which had 

 crossed the plains with us to the water's 

 edge; then he reached around and drew me 

 to him with his left hand, pointing between 

 the oxen sharp down the bank with his 

 right forefinger. 



A bear! two bears! and another coming; 

 one already more than half way across on 

 the great, mossy log that lay above the 



