218 CLIMBING TO AVOID A COLLISION. 



ing in luxurious pastures, tall grain waving in fields, the 

 summer grass clothing in richness meadows reclaimed by 

 his labor from the wilderness, and he should be at ease 

 among his children. First settlers of a new country think 

 of these things, and it is because they think of them, that 

 their hearts are strong and buoyant with hope. They live 

 in the future, enduring the darkness and privation of the 

 present, in their faith in the brightness of the years to come. 

 Thus they wait in patience for, while they command success, 

 and the end of their toil is an old age of competence, and in 

 the closing years of life, quiet and repose. Well, he was 

 enjoying these pleasant visions when he saw, some thirty 

 rods ahead of him, a huge bear, with her cubs, ' travelling 

 his way/ as the saying is, in other words coming directly 

 towards him. He was no hunter, and had with him no 

 weapon. He had heard strange stories of the ferocity of the 

 bear when her cubs were by her side, and to say that he 

 was not horribly frightened would be a departure from the 

 strict requirements of truth. He had heard, too, that a bear 

 could not climb a small, straight tree, and he. could. The 

 question then was between climbing and running. He was 

 not much in a race, and he decided to climb ; so selecting a 

 smooth-barked, perpendicular ash sapling, he started with 

 might and main towards the top. He ^ent up, as he sup- 

 posed, till he was out of the reach of the bear, and held on, 

 all the time keeping his eye on the animal, and making as 

 little noise as possible. The bear, doubtless seeing that he 

 was beyond her reach, passed "on out of sight, and after 



