BEARS I HAVE MET 265 



good little wife was awaiting my return. The trail 

 was a lonely one, abounding in tall grey stumps 

 and the shades of night were approaching. Lin- 

 gering around to give the bears a good fair start 

 I met a big rough Western barkeeper and a packer 

 for a lot of pack horses. Both of these men be- 

 longed in a camp up beyond mine on the same 

 trail so I evolved a brilliant idea. I would let them 

 go first. With this plan fixed I engaged in a 

 game of mumbly-peg with a soldier from another 

 camp. But bless my soul, the packer and the bar- 

 keeper became so deeply interested in our game 

 that I suspected that they saw through mine. At 

 any rate it was soon evident that all three men 

 were each waiting for one or the other to lead, so 

 shutting up my pocket-knife, with which I had been 

 playing mumbly-peg, with a snap and shutting 

 my teeth together in the same way, I started down 

 the now dark trail with the packer following me 

 and the big barkeeper following the packer. 



Each grey stump which loomed up in the gloam- 

 ing caused me to stop to let the packer lead, but he 

 did not take advantage of the opportunity and 

 neither did the barkeeper. 



That night I was awakened by some large ani- 

 mals sniffing the hem of our canvass house; as 

 I was only armed with a five-ounce trout rod, 



I LET THEM SNIFF. 



In the morning I was not surprised to find the 

 big human-like footprints of a mother bear 



