THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR 199 



Not having a knife, I of course could not skin 

 the bears, nor could I pack them over to Coley, 

 or vice versa,, as Coley has never tried toboggan- 

 ing to my knowledge. There was nothing to do 

 but to hurry back to camp and get George up 

 with his knife to do considerable skinning and 

 pack some bear meat to camp. As I rode into 

 camp I found George had also just returned, and 

 from his broad smile and the blood on his hands 

 I knew he had a deer hanging up somewhere. 

 George greeted me with: "See anything this 

 morning?" 



"I sure did," said I. 



"Did you see any bear, I mean?" 



"Yes, that's what I mean, too," I retorted. 



"Did you kill one?" said he, finally. 



"I killed two." 



This was too much for George. "If you had 

 told me you had killed one, I w r ould have believed 

 you, but two is one too many," he insisted. 



"Get your whetstone and knife, saddle up your 

 horse again, and I will show you two of the 

 best-looking bear you have seen in many a day. 

 By the way, we will have to let that deer of yours 

 go until to-morrow, before packing him in." 



It had stopped snowing, the sun was out bright 

 and had melted most of the snow before we 



