BEN; THE STORY OE A CUB. 



13 



The boy who had been the football, 

 was a sight for the gods. His clothes 

 were torn to ribbons and most of them 

 stripped off him. His legs, arms, 

 back and head were clawed and 

 scratched and the blood was running 

 from him in at least 50 streams. The 

 yells and shrieks of the boys had 

 brought a crowd of the neighbors. 

 The victim was hustled into the near- 

 est house, a doctor was called and the 

 boy was sewed up, bandaged, bathed 

 in arnica and put to bed. In the course 

 of 3 weeks he was able to walk about, 

 but it was nearly 6 weeks before he 

 was fit to appear in company again. 

 His father, meantime, had a big doc- 

 tor's bill to pay, besides buying the 

 boy a new suit of clothes. 



Naturally, the old man was indig- 

 nant. It happened that he was a bad 

 man, and had confided to certain of 

 his neighbors that he had killed a man 

 some years before, in the mines. As 

 soon as he learned of the damage to 

 his young hopeful he said he would 

 kill the bear and if the owner made 

 any objection he might share the same 

 fate. When I returned home that 

 evening I went to see the boy, and 

 several of the neighbors came in to 

 see me. The affair was, of course, 

 the talk of the town for weeks. With- 

 in a day or 2 after the accident, the 

 old man called on me and ordered me 

 peremptorily to kill the bear. I said 

 I did not think I would. Then he 

 said, 



"If you don't kill him, I will." I 

 said, 



"I don't think." 



Fortunately, I am bigger than the 

 old man, and younger, so he did not 

 think it best to carry out his early 



threat in the matter. He looked up a 

 policeman and tried to get him to kill 

 tne bear. The officer declined. Then 

 the old man called on a justice of the 

 peace and asked for a warrant for my 

 arrest. The justice asked him some 

 questions, and after investigating the 

 matter carefully, declined to* issue a 

 warrant. He, however, sent for me 

 privately, and I called on him. He 

 asked me to tell him all about the af- 

 fair, and I did so. He asked me if 

 the bear had been off my premises at 

 any time, and I said, 



"No, not since I brought him to 

 town." I then told him I had at first 

 kept Ben in the house and since he 

 outgrew that, had kept him in the 

 barn, with the door securely locked; 

 that the boys had gone to the barn, 

 broken into it, and had met their Wa- 

 terloo. The judge said he could not 

 see that I was to blame in any way, 

 and that if the father of the young 

 hoodlum made any further threats 

 against me, to come to him, and he 

 would issue a warrant for his arrest ; 

 so the football match rested there. 



I realized, however, that Ben had 

 outgrown my town lot, and that I 

 must part with him. I dreaded this 

 ordeal for I had grown extremely 

 fond of him ; but I was not prepared 

 to establish a zoological garden or to 

 build a bear den. It happened that a 

 circus visited the town within 2 or 3 

 weeks after the football game, so I 

 called on the manager, and asked him 

 if he did not want a black bear. At 

 first he said no, but when I offered to 

 give him one, he said that was differ- 

 ent ; so I led Ben down, consigned him 

 to the animal keeper, bade him an 

 affectionate farewell, and I trust he is 

 still alive and happy. 



