' POINTED ' BY A BEAR. 307 



church toll, as they invited all, rich and poor, happy 

 and afflicted, to the quiet repose, and to listen to the 

 good words to be heard within its walls ; but this I 

 do know, I was far away in mind from my position 

 and circumstances. Ruthlessly my dreams were 

 broken and dispelled. An angry grunt, half of alarm 

 and defiance, fell upon my ear ; in a moment my gun 

 on my shoulder fell to the port, and instinctively 

 both barrels were cocked, as the eye hastily scanned 

 the immediate vicinity of my position. Not a mo- 

 ment too soon had I taken these precautions, twenty 

 yards to my front and left was a full-grown grizzly- 

 bear, absolutely 'pointing' me. 



In the earlier portions of my life I have never 

 done the duty of the breed of dogs that bear this 

 name, but have frequently been their backer ; so it 

 is not surprising that I felt nervous at such a novel 

 situation. I profess to have let the reader decide 

 with what amount of justice a knowledge of the 

 habits, possibly of the motives, of game, but never 

 till this moment did I realise thoroughly a poor 

 partridge's feelings. Not without an effort I re- 

 covered the proud dignity of a descendant of Adam, 

 and prepared myself to do my progenitor credit. 



A gun like mine carries a heavy bullet, a re- 

 gular bone-crusher, but to enable it to do its work 

 in a finished manner the range must be short ; so 

 I bridled my impatience, and endeavoured to better 

 the distance between me and Bruin. 



If I had selected the loads for the job in hand 



