THE KING OP THE WILDERNESS. 187 



man, with a performing bear — a remarkably large 

 and handsome one, of the cinnamon species — stopped 

 before my mountain home one warm day and put the 

 great hulking creature through a variety of perform- 

 ances, to the infinite delight of the children. He was 

 the best of bears, good-natured — if ever there was one 

 that could be called so — and exceedingly mild-eyed ; 

 he ate the cold muffins we gave him with a " that's- 

 not-half-bad " expression, and hugged the pail of wa- 

 ter as though it were a gift never to be parted with ; 

 yet, after he had gone as peacefully as he had come, 

 he innocently spread terror among the horses he 

 passed along the highway just above, near the Profile 

 House ; and not long after I heard that our friend 

 the Frenchman was in durance vile as a disturber of 

 the peace — of horses ! 



Now, the black bear is as shrewd and cunning as 

 he is cowardly. The hunter knows this, and has to 

 take the greatest precautions to get to the leeward of 

 him, and ultimately within rifle range. Bruin is re- 

 markably keen-scented, and the first whiff he gets of 

 " a man in the air " prompts him to take to his heels 

 at so rapid a pace that the college athlete would be no 

 match for him in a race through the forest. I wit- 

 nessed for an instant a fair exhibition of his running 

 power several years ago in "Waterville, on the western 

 slope of one of the great southern ridges of the White 



