94 TBTJE BEAR STORIES. 



and looked out over the stockade; and then 

 he shouted and shook his hat and laughed 

 as I had never heard him laugh before. For 

 there, breathless, coatless, hatless, came 

 William Cross, Esq., two small wolves and 

 a very small black bear! They were all 

 making good time, anywhere, anyway, to 

 escape the frantic cattle. Father used to 

 say afterwards, when telling about this lit- 

 tle incident, that "it was nip and tuck be- 

 tween the four, and hard to say which was 

 ahead." The cattle had made quite a 

 "round-up." 



They all four straggled in at the narrow 

 little gate at about the same time, the 

 great big, lazy sailor in a hurry, for the 

 first time in his life. 



But think of the coolness of the man, as 

 he turned to us children with his first gasp 

 of breath, and said, "Bo bo boys, I've 

 bro bro brought you a little bear!" 



The wolves were the little chicken 

 thieves known as coyotes, quite harmless, 

 as a rule, so far as man is concerned, but 



