128 TKUE BEAR STORIES. 



a pole and we all went back home, the 

 blacks singing all the way some barbaric 

 half French song at the top of their melod- 

 ious voices. 



But Colonel Bloom was afraid that the 

 one who had fallen in the river might take 

 the fever, and so as soon as we got safe 

 back he drank what was left in the bottle 

 General Beauregard had sent him and he 

 went to sleep; while the superstitious 

 blacks huddled together under the great 

 levee and skinned the bear in the silver 

 moonlight, below the mighty river. I gave 

 them each a silver dollar very bright was 

 the brand new silver from the mint of New 

 Orleans, but not nearly so bright as the 

 moon away down there by the glowing 

 rim of the Mexican seas where the spec- 

 tacled bear abides in the classic land, 

 Barra Tarra, Kingdom of Sancho Panza. 



