92 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



" Well, when they got away I took your old bear- 

 trap down the canon and set it. A bear had been 

 around the night before where a calf had died, and I 

 thought I might get him in the trap. We got a 

 bear in the trap sure enough, and when they came 

 down the mountain Rhea had a good mess of liver in 

 the pan frying for them. Talk about hungry wolves. 

 Those fellers were the hungriest set you ever saw. 

 They hadn't had a square meal since they left, and 

 as soon as they got in the house they began grabbing 

 everything in sight. They couldn't wait for dinner, 

 but took cheese, crackers, and everything else they 

 could lay their hands on. Well, they sat down and 

 began eating. They couldn't tell what kind of meat 

 it was. They thought it tasted like liver, but knew 

 I hadn't butchered, and when they asked, we told 

 them it was the bear's liver they told us to cook." 



The others here broke in with so many interrup- 

 tions that Harvey was compelled to desist. But he 

 had told his story, and now it was Fly's time to tell 

 what he knew. 



" I'll tell you that story straight. I've been listen- 

 ing to them talk for the last two years and I've got 

 the whole thing straight. I'm onto the true in- 

 wardness of the whole business. We had a hard 

 time up in the mountains after the bear we didn't 

 get, and when we got back we had the bear-liver for 

 supper all right enough, but you never saw two such 

 scared people in all your born days as Harvey and 

 his wife. I knew there was something back of their 

 story, so I just kept my ears open, and this is the 

 story of 'how we killed the bear.' 



