32 TRUE BEAR STORIES. 



passed away forever with the Indian, the 

 pioneer, and the music-loving bear. It is 

 strange how a man I mean the natural 

 man will feel a presence long before he 

 hears it or sees it. You can always feel the 

 approach of a but I forget. You are of 

 another generation, a generation that only 

 reads, takes thought at second hand only, 

 if at all, and you would not understand; 

 so let us get forward and not waste time 

 in explaining the unexplainable to you. 



Father got up, turned about, put me be- 

 hind him like, as an animal will its young, 

 and peered back and down through the 

 dense tangle of the deep river bank be- 

 tween two of the huge oxen which had 

 crossed the plains with us to the water's 

 edge; then he reached around and drew me 

 to him with his left hand, pointing between 

 the oxen sharp down the bank with his 

 right forefinger. 



A bear! two bears! and another coming; 

 one already more than half way across on 

 the great, mossy log that lay above the 



