38 TRUE BEAR STORIES. 



the fire will not stop with the destruction 

 of his coat. And so, mean as it was, in the 

 olden days, when bears were as common 

 in California as cows are now, men used 

 to take advantage of this fear and kindle 

 pine-quill fires in and around his haunts 

 in the head of canyons to drive him out 

 and down and into ambush. 



Read two or three chapters here between 

 the lines lots of plans, preparations, dia- 

 grams. I was to hide near camp and wait 

 to place the crescent of pine-quill fires 

 and all that. Then at twilight they all 

 went out and away on the mountain sides 

 around the head of the canyon, and I hid 

 behind a big rock near by the extinguished 

 camp-fire, with my old muzzle-loading Ken- 

 tucky rifle, lifting my eyes away up and 

 around to the head of the Manzanita can- 

 yon looking for the fires. A light! One, 

 two, three, ten! A sudden crescent of 

 forked flames, and all the fight and im- 

 petuosity of a boy of only a dozen years 

 was uppermost, and I wanted a bear! 



