w??vi 



as much as comets are to the earth. 

 The very tricks that had made him 

 valued were being forgotten as Jack 

 grew up in chains. 



At first a butter-firkin had made him 

 an ample den, but he rapidly passed 

 through the various stages butter- 

 firkin, nail-keg, flour-barrel, oil-barrel 

 and had now to be graded as a good 

 average hogshead Bear, though he was 

 fa* from filling that big round wooden 

 cavern that formed his latest den. 



The ranch hotel lay just where the 

 foothills of the Sierras with theirgroves 

 of live oaks were sloping into the 

 golden plains of the Sacramento. Na- 

 ture had showered on it every wonder- 

 ful gift in her lap. A foreground rich 

 with flowers, luxuriant in fruit, shade 

 anc ^ sun r ^ r y pastures, rushing rivers, 

 an d murmuring rills, were here. Great 

 trees were variants of the view, and the 



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