30 WILD BROTHER 



up that she had been foster-sister to a bear. "It 

 would be fine, sir," said he, "if you could only 

 think of some such name." 



I told him that, after I reached home, I would do 

 my best to find one that would be appropriate. 

 My head was now too full of this strange adventure 

 to give heed to anything else. 



The next thing on my programme was to get a 

 picture of Bruno ; but this was not so easy. He 

 was a helpless little creature, not yet able to 

 stand up on his legs and walk, though with his fat 

 little black-clothed body resting on the floor, he 

 could wriggle and push himself about to some ex- 

 tent, like a baby just learning to creep. On Feb- 

 ruary 19, the day before my arrival, he had opened 

 his eyes for the first time. "I guess he heard you 

 were coming, Mr. Underwood, and he wanted to 

 see you," said one of the little girls. The natural- 

 history books tell us that black bear-cubs get their 

 eyes open when they are thirty or forty days old, 

 so this would make Bruno's birthday about the 

 1 5th of January. 



First, I weighed and measured him. From the 

 end of his short stubby tail, which was only five 

 eighths of an inch long, to the end of his nose, his 

 length was twelve and a half inches. From the end 

 of his nosf to the back of his head, he measured 

 three inches. Around his stocky little chest, the 



