PREFACE. 3 



the marshes at the mouth of the Mississippi 

 River. You will read of an encounter with 

 him further on. 



I know very well that there exists a good 

 deal of bad feeling between boys and bears, 

 particularly on the part of boys. The trou- 

 ble began, I suppose, about the time when 

 that old she bear destroyed more than forty 

 boys at a single meeting, for poking fun 

 at a good old prophet. And we read that 

 David, when a boy, got very angry at a 

 she bear and slew her single-handed and 

 alone for interfering with his flock. So 

 you see the feud between the boy and bear 

 family is an old one indeed. 



But I am bound to say that I have found 

 much that is pathetic, and something that is 

 almost half -human, in this poor, shaggy, shuf- 

 fling hermit. He doesn't want much, only 

 the wildest and most worthless parts of the 

 mountains or marshes, where, if you will 

 let him alone, he will let you alone, as a 

 rule. Sometimes, out here in California, 

 he loots a pig-pen, and now and then he gets 

 among the bees. Only last week, a little 

 black bear got his bead fast in a bee-hive 

 that had been improvised from a nail-keg, 

 and the bee-farmer killed him with a pitch- 



