282 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



earthly animal walking upon four legs. I could never 

 have convinced either of them of this had not the servant 

 come running in the next day at dinner-time to say that 

 a bear was in the garden eating sweets stolen from my 

 host's beehives, and on my pursuing him, hroom in hand, 

 had he not retreated through the fence into the grave- 

 yard. It immediately occurred to me that this was our 

 unhappy ghost, and I resolved to see if the death of 

 the former would not relieve us of the presence of the 

 latter. 



" The priest readily consented, and I proceeded to lay 

 my plans, after which I retired behind a garden-house 

 and awaited developments. As I had expected, the bear 

 returned after a few hours to finish his interrupted feast, 

 glancing around suspiciously and advancing with the 

 greatest caution, watching the windows of the parsonage 

 and starting like a guilty thief at every noise. When 

 he reached the scattered sweets he began to make away 

 with them most gluttonously, at every gulp showing an 

 increased pleasure in his feast and an added gayety of 

 demeanor. After the last bit had disappeared he began 

 a series of clumsy gambols like a dance, ending in his 

 falling on his back with his legs in the air and his eyes 

 closed in contentment — or sleep. Slipping from my 

 hiding-place, I crept cautiously up and buried a knife 

 deep in his shoulder where I knew it would do the most 

 good. He never stirred. The parson was greatly sur- 

 prised at my success, until I confessed that a quart of 



