22 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 



CHAPTER III. 



DEALINGS WITH THE FIRM OF BRUIN AND CO. 



FOE my own part, I always entertained a very 

 decided penchant for the whole bruin family, indi- 

 vidually and collectively. 



Whether it was the off-hand affectionate greeting 

 with which they were ever ready to welcome a stranger 

 (although, unfortunately, like that of the amiable 

 youth, Manfred, their " embrace is fatal"), or the 

 bluff, stolid, pig-headed, John Bullish way they pos- 

 sessed of " doing business," that won my affections, is 

 of no possible consequence to the reader. Suffice it 

 to say, that I own, unblushingly, the soft impeach- 

 ment ; and very seldom ever put myself out of the 

 way to murder in cold blood one of the innocents. 



Our major abominated or, more bruinically speak- 

 ing, could not bear the bare idea of bears. 



How far he was justified in his antipathy, remains 

 to be read, and, as it constituted my first expedition 



