308 BRUIN SHOWING HIS TEETH. 



it could not have been more admirably suited, for 

 I had a bullet in both barrels with three drachms 

 of powder behind each, and the charging had taken 

 place a few minutes before to-day's start, with the 

 weather dry ever since. 



No miss-fire did I apprehend, for the caps were 

 in their places ; no passing piece of brush had 

 disengaged them, as I saw, so I may say I sought, 

 certainly did not avoid, the pending contest. 



Do not, gentle reader, rush off at rash con- 

 clusions, and give me credit for an unusual amount 

 of pluck. I was but doing like the gamester playing 

 at loo, who holds in his hand the queen and knave 

 of trumps ; the odds were all in my favour, although 

 it was just possible to lose. 



For me to advance on the foe was unnecessary, 

 for the brute had the fortitude to draw to me. 

 Where I stood the ground was firm and comparatively 

 smooth, so I remained upon it. My adversary had 

 a splendid box of grinders ; from their colour his 

 tooth-brush had no sinecure, and, as if proud of 

 them, he took more trouble than the veriest dandy 

 to show them ; further he curled his nose up like 

 a snarling cur (causing me to draw a comparison 

 not in his favour), making it look heavenward, but 

 at the same time giving him a most disagreeable 

 expression. 



I have tickled up ' Sampson/ Barnum's (the cele- 

 brated showman of New York) grizzly ; but then 

 the unfortunate was in a cage. The physiognomy 



