THE BEAR THAT CAME BACK 



know that you have no fire-arms, and act with insolent 

 presumption upon the knowledge. 



The only way open to you is to shout at the bears 

 or bang your fist against the side of the tent — both 

 pretty futile procedures. The bear is used to it, but 

 the tourist is not used to him ; so the animal scores all 

 the time. 



All the bears but one went off that night — I suppose 

 they knew of a richer camp. For a while the remaining 

 tormentor lay low. Then he called attention to himself 

 by a mighty rattUng of tins. We started shouting — 

 I wonder if he understood the things we said, the 

 hopes we expressed concerning his fate here and 

 hereafter ? At any rate, I heard him shuffle off and 

 felt quite pleased with myself. Even Balaam could not 

 have done better in his particular line. I was thinking 

 of setting up as an expert, and turned proudly to Dick 

 Randall with the remark : 



" He 's got something to be going on with this 

 time. His ears must be burning properly." 



But I was a little too previous. I may have hurt the 

 feelings of that bear by the things I said, but he soon 

 forgave me. At least, I suppose he did so. At any 

 rate, he was soon back to show there was no maHce on 

 his part ; probably also to see what we had left about. 

 We said more things, still unkind things, reflecting 

 on his pedigree and his habits, but he took no heed 

 of them. Perhaps he had heard them all before, 



303 



