METAPHYSICS OF BEAR HUNTING. 363 
would be sure to tell, and I should be besieged all night; 
so I picked up some round pebbles that were strewed along 
the hill side, and took deliberate aim at his broad, innocent 
face. The first one cut the moss, just above his head. 
He looked up, with a quick movement, and low growl, 
evidently wondering prodigiously where it came from. He 
had no suspicion of me at all, and looked down again very 
friendly, and very inquisitive. 
I tried it again. This time I struck the limb near him, 
and the stroke rang sharply. He clapped his paw over the 
-place, clawed it and smelt. The simple fellow didn’t look 
at me, at all. I felt almost ashamed to be imposing upon 
him so. But while he was thus engaged, I sert another, 
this whistled past him on the other side. He wheeled and 
clawed at the sound. At last I struck him, plmmb! He 
saw the pebble fall, and go rolling down the hill, and with 
a savage growl leaped out of the tree after it, and went 
chasing it down into the valley. It was clear he thought 
the place bewitched; for he didn’t come back again until 
it had grown quite dark, if he came even them! 
I took some of the choicer pieces of the bear and hung 
them to a swinging limb, where they would be out of reach, 
and then ascended the live oak. I climbed and climbed 
until I got so high, that, by standing straight, I could look 
out above, the top, and see the stars twinkling in a very 
sleery sort of fashion, as if they had been called up too 
early, and had not decided whether they should wake at all, 
yet a while. 
- The moon was just wheeling up her chaste disc from 
behind the mountains. They all looked too much like old 
times to be pleasant just then; so I dodged my head beneath 
the shade of the moss again, and made my arrangements 
with the most accommodating forks for the night. That 
settled, I went to sleep counting the answers to the nearest 
panther’s cry, guessing how many there were to the acre, 
