BRUNO IN BELMONT 81 



Toward midsummer, when the cub was seven 

 months old, there came a very rapid change in his 

 appearance. His brown woolly coat was soon 

 hidden beneath a heavy growth of straight black 

 silky hair. This outer fur first made its appearance 

 as a dark line down the middle of his back ; then 

 quickly it spread, until it covered his whole body 

 and he became a typical black bear. 



One day, as he played about on the lawn, he 

 came across the shining brass nozzle of a garden 

 hose, propped up on a stick in the grass. The valve 

 had been partly shut off and only a small trickle 

 of water gurgled forth from the opening. Bruno 

 approached it cautiously a step at a time, twisting 

 his head and viewing it first from one angle and 

 then from another. The noise of the stream seemed 

 to give him the idea that the thing was alive. I 

 was standing at the farther end of the hose, and 

 when at last he reached the nozzle and put his paw 

 out to investigate, I turned the valve full open and 

 the stream rushed forth. Instantly the bear re- 

 coiled and, standing upright, looked with astonish- 

 ment at the spectacle of water running up hill. 

 Never had he seen the like of this before. When he 

 grew older, he learned to admire the cool flow of 

 water. 



On a hot day in August he loved to sit on the 

 lawn and let the gardener play the hose upon him 



