62 TKUE BEAR STORIES. 



decaying salmon in such abundance that 

 his flesh is not good in the salmon season. 



It was with this last described specimen 

 of the bear family that a precocious old 

 boy who had hired out to some horse drov 

 ers, went in swimming years and years 

 ago. The two drovers had camped to re 

 cruit and feed their horses on the wild 

 grass and clover that grew at the headwa 

 ters of the Sacramento River, close up un 

 der the foot of Mount Shasta. A pleasant 

 spot it was, in the pleasant summer 

 weather. 



This warm afternoon the two men saun 

 tered leisurely away up Soda Creek to 

 where their horses were grazing belly deep 

 in grass and clover. They were slow to 

 return, and the boy, as all boys will, began 

 to grow restless. He had fished, he had 

 hunted, had diverted himself in a dozen 

 ways, but now he wanted something new. 

 He got it. 



A little distance below camp could be 

 seen, through the thick foliage that hung 



