Bear Traits 



whether I was being gobbled by an angry 

 grizzly. 



I dragged the bait back to its old position 

 under a solitary dead spruce stub in the cen- 

 ter of the meadow, and reinforced its attrac- 

 tions with some more choice dainties. Every 

 night for several in succession, it was visited 

 by a bear, but always during the darkness. I 

 watched each evening until my sights went 

 out, and was there again at daybreak, only to 

 find a diminished bait and no bear. When 

 you feed a creature for any length of time you 

 are apt to acquire a sense of proprietorship in 

 it, and I came quite to feel as if I had a 

 brand on that bear. But the work was hard, 

 and my patience began to run low. Finally, 

 one afternoon I was delayed in starting for 

 the bait until almost sunset. Though I hur- 

 ried my horse down the three or four miles of 

 rough mountain before me, the evening shad- 

 ows gained so rapidly that when I finally 

 leaped off to tie him a quarter of a mile above 

 the bait, it was almost dark. Looking back 

 from a hundred yards away, the pony was in- 

 distinguishable against the woods that bor- 

 dered the meadow where I had tied him. In 

 my tennis slippers I trotted silently down 



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