i8 



BEARS AND BEAVERS, 



! 



may be — remember I say may be — some truth in the 

 yarn. 



About a week after I had been deprived of my 

 fish, I returned to the bovver house, intent on mis- 

 chief to the interesting family, for I had with me a 

 powerful trap, my gun, and my invaluable companion, 

 Prince. 



As anticipated, when I reached the scene of action 

 I found ^he bait gone and ♦^he structure considerably 

 damaged. In fact, the surroundings looked very 

 much as if there had been an effort to do as much 

 mischief to my edifice as possible. It was not 

 without a chuckle I repaired the damage, thinking 

 all the time that my turn would come to play the 

 winning game. 



With great satisfaction I hung up some most 

 alluring fish, then scratched away soil suflficient to 

 sink the trap, over which I sprinkled numbers of 

 capsful of water, to remove the slightest taint from 

 my touch, and then covered the whole over with an 

 inch deep of withered spines from the adjacent pine 

 trees. Everything was done carefully, and therefore 

 well done. So Prince — who knew all about traps — 

 and myself surveyed my handiwork with much 

 complacency. Even now, as I write this, I can 

 imagine I see the comical, intelligent look of that 

 little wee dog, as with one ear up and the other 

 down, he was ever wont to survey any snare or pit- 

 fall I was constructing to beguile the unwary 

 denizens of the forest. In fact, this terrier's know- 

 ledge in these matters was a great saving of trouble 

 and anxiety to me, for he always took precious good 

 care not to get into these snares. Moreover, his 

 intelligence several times saved me a good skin, for 

 of his own accord he would visit traps which were 

 within a mile or so of my residence, when, if he 

 found a 7nink or martin secured, he would at once 

 return to tell me so. At first he did this by 



