Cherry 



it, "you could have struck a match" on any 

 part of him. Realizing that discretion was the 

 better part of valor, Cherry, like Brer Rabbit, 

 "laid low/' and with bulging eyes watched the 

 bear as he finally landed with one hind foot 

 square in the number six trap. This would 

 have doomed an ordinary bear, but not so this 

 one, and with the most intense astonishment 

 Cherry watched him with the greatest deliber- 

 ation press down the springs with his front 

 feet, and then open the trap with his disen- 

 gaged hind foot, and step out, apparently little 

 the worse for his experience. 



Up to this time Cherry had been so much 

 interested in the bear's operations that he had 

 forgotten all about his rifle, and it was not 

 until bruin had dodged the spear and started 

 to make off with his booty that he remem- 

 bered it. He got in two shots on the bear 

 then, but seemingly with no other effect than 

 to put him into an extreme state of irritation, 

 and in this disagreeable mood he started for 

 Cherry on the run. The situation was cer- 

 tainly precarious. Cherry tried another shot, 

 but, as ill-luck would have it, the cartridge 

 missed fire and the ejector refused to work. 

 In the next second or two Cherry thought of 



61 



