BRUNO IN BELMONT 91 



effort, cover so much ground in one leap. Bruno's 

 paws hung inertly in front of him and his tongue 

 lolled stupidly from his mouth. His breath came 

 in short explosive gasps. 



Suddenly the toad hopped again, and with a 

 "Whoofy whoof, whoofy" away ran the bear round 

 the corner and out of sight. No more toads for 

 him ; one was enough for a lifetime ! 



Bruno apparently had a similar horror of frogs 

 (rather strangely too, for wild bears eat frogs) 

 whenever they jumped unexpectedly from the 

 grass as he played about the pond. If one leaped 

 in sight, he whined and snorted with terror, and 

 waved his paws in the air as if to ward off the evil 

 thing. Even a mouse that I liberated from a trap 

 drove him to distraction. The tiny creature 

 chanced to run in his direction, but it did not reach 

 him, for Bruno was off and away at breakneck 

 speed, and the mouse was left far behind. 



The cub was growing rapidly now. On Novem- 

 ber 8, he weighed forty-three pounds. Once a 

 week I got out the scales and had him stand on the 

 platform to have his weight recorded. He was 

 also gaining in strength, and although his out- 

 bursts of temper were less frequent as he grew 

 older, they were more violent when they did occur. 



As with a spoiled child, everything was lovely 

 as long as he could do as he wished. I was fre- 



