THE BEAR MAKES A JOURNEY 75 



One morning there was great excitement about 

 the camp. During the night there had been a 

 tragedy on the farm : a relative of Bruno's had 

 come down from the mountain into the pasture, 

 killed one of the squire's sheep, and gone off with 

 the carcass. There was blood and wool on the 

 ground where the deed had been done, and from 

 this spot a trail of down-trodden grass showed 

 where the bear had dragged his victim into a 

 thicket. Here the earth was torn and trampled and 

 soaked with blood. A few ribs and the bones of the 

 legs lay scattered about, and near-by we found the 

 pelt of the sheep done up neatly into a roll with the 

 wool side out. The bear had skinned the sheep, 

 quite as a man would have done, before he carried 

 off the meat. He must have been disturbed at his 

 work, for some distance away in his flight he had 

 dropped and left in his tracks a good hind-quarter 

 of mutton. 



Thinking that old Bruin would come back in the 

 night for the rest of his plunder, the squire set a 

 bear-trap and used the meat for bait. But the bear 

 was too wary or too well satisfied with what he 

 already had taken ; for though the trap lay a long 

 time with its powerful jaws open to receive him, 

 he failed to return for what he had left. That he 

 and perhaps several other bears were still in the 

 neighborhood was evident : a few days later we 



