SWIMMING WITH A BEAR. 57 



of the lion; dandelion. Get down your 

 botany, now, find the Anglo- Asian name of 

 the flower, and fix this fact on your mind 

 before you read further. 



I know of three men, all old men now, 

 who have their left hands all covered with 

 scars. One is due to the wolf; the others 

 owe their scars to the red mouths of black 

 bears. 



You see, in the old days, out here in Cal- 

 ifornia, when the Sierras were full of bold 

 young fellows hunting for gold, quite a 

 number of them had hand-to-hand battles 

 with bears. For when we came out here 

 "the woods were full of 'em." 



Of course, the first thing a man does 

 when he finds himself face to face with a 

 bear that won't run and he has no gun 

 and that is always the time when he finds 

 a bear why, he runs, himself; that is, if 

 the bear will let him. 



But it is generally a good deal like the 

 old Crusader who "caught a Tartar" long 



