EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 7 
that made them suspect a coon. The boy with the 
stick poked it in as far as possible until he felt some- 
thing soft. 
**T think there’s something here,’’ he remarked, 
poking with all his might. 
He was quite right. The next moment the whole 
bank of frozen snow suddenly caved out, and there 
stood a cross and hungry bear, prodded out of his 
winter sleep by that stick. The boys were up against 
a bad proposition. The snow was too deep for run- 
ning, and when it came to climbing — that was Mr. 
Bear’s pet specialty. So they did the only thing left 
for them to do: they waited. The little one with the 
stick got behind the big one with the gun, which 
weapon wavered unsteadily. 
_ “Now, don’t you miss,” he said, “ cause this stick 
ain’t very sharp.” 
Sometimes an attacking bear will run at a man like 
a biting dog. More often it rises on its haunches and 
depends on the smashing blows of its mighty arms 
and steel-shod paws. So it happened in this case. 
Just before the bear reached the boys, he lifted his 
head and started to rise. The first boy, not six feet 
away, aimed at the white spot which most black 
bears have under their chin, and pulled the trigger. 
At that close range the heavy charge of number six 
shot crashed through the animal’s throat, making a 
single round hole like a big bullet, cutting the jugu- 
lar vein, and piercing the neck vertebre beyond. 
The great beast fell forward with hardly a struggle, 
so close to the boys that its blood splashed on their 
