198 TRUE BEAR STORIES. 



one meal off the carcass. As he might be 

 expected to return that night, all haste 

 was made to finish the trap. Bowers rode 

 out to Gorman's Station to get some nails 

 and honey, while the correspondent paid a 

 visit to one of General Deal's old corrals 

 and stole some planks to make a door. He 

 packed the planks up the mountain, and 

 was using the hammer and saw with great 

 diligence and a tremendous amount of 

 noise, when bruin sauntered down the 

 ridge, looked curiously at him and calmly 

 began eating an early supper, wholly in- 

 different to the noise of the hammer and 

 the presence of the man. 



It was nearly dark when Bowers rode up 

 to the trap, his horse in a lather composed 

 of equal parts of perspiration and honey, 

 the latter having leaked profusely from 

 the cans tied to the saddle. Tossing the 

 nails to the correspondent, Bowers hastily 

 dismounted and went afoot up the ridge 

 toward the dead steer, intending to place 

 a can of honey near it. In about a mim- 



