DEPARTURE. 75 



"I don't believe it," said John: "bears don't 

 act that way leastwise, when they have cubs;" 

 and that ended the discussion, so far as John was 

 concerned ; and we, why, we thought as John did. 

 And it soon turned out that there was no bear and 

 no cubs, and they didn't come out of the woods to 

 frighten sportsmen from Boston, who hadn't said, 

 " Go up, baldhead ! " 



John was walking briskly along some distance in 

 advance of the buckboard, a heavy stick in one 

 hand, and a twig of green in the other with which 

 he was brushing away at the moving insects, when 

 suddenly he turned and motioned us to stop : com- 

 ing towards us, he pointed to a spot ahead, where 

 his keen eye had discovered a partridge with her 

 brood lurking in the bushes by the roadside. 



Jumping from the buckboard, I hurried to the 

 spot, thinking to catch a sight, a novel one to me, 

 of the young brood. When I was apparently right 

 among them, the old bird started down the road, 

 limping and dragging one wing upon the ground, 

 appearing to be very much crippled, either by the 

 hand of man or by some of the denizens of the 

 wilderness. 



John saw the bird running away, and shouted to 

 me to catch it ; which I nearly succeeded in doing, 

 several times getting my hand almost upon it, when 



