12 



RECREATION. 



anything only what their mothers 

 teach them ; but he is away off the 

 trail. When the cold winds of Octo- 

 ber began to blow Ben knew it was 

 time to get ready for winter, though 

 his mother died when he was 2 weeks 

 old. He dug a big hole under the 

 floor of the woodshed and carried into 

 it all the old clothes, rags, shavings 

 and straw he could get hold of. In 

 3 days he had a good, warm place to 

 hibernate, but the poor cub never got 

 to occupy it. 



The boys taught Ben to lie on his 

 back and play with a football or a 

 small keg, as you have seen a juggler 

 do in a circus. The cub was as fond 



back fence, pulled the staple from the 

 barn door and went in to have some 

 fun with Ben. He had grown to be a 

 big bear by that time, yet the boy3 

 thought it would be perfectly safe to 

 play circus with him as before. Ben 

 was always ready for anything, and 

 gave them a warm welcome. I learned 

 the particulars of the interview on the 

 installment plan. One boy told me 

 a part of it, then another boy told 

 another part, and thus it all came out, 

 It seems that at first one of the boys 

 got on Ben to take a ride. This was 

 all right, and Ben raced around the 

 barn floor with him, a la circus ring. 

 Then 2 of the boys got on. That was 



SOLID COMFORT. 



of this kind of sport as the boys were, 

 and would keep a football in the air 

 20 minutes without letting it touch 

 the floor. 



Finally Ben got too big for the 

 house. At times he would depart from 

 the gentle ways of his childhood and 

 become decidedly rough in his play, so 

 we had to relegate him to the barn at 

 the foot of the lot. I kept the door of 

 this barn securely locked, and would 

 not allow anyone to go in unless I 

 were there to chaperon the visitor. 



All the boys in town had, of 

 course, cultivated Ben's acquaintance 

 before he got so big, and they still 

 longed to romp with him. One Sun- 

 day afternoon when we were all away 

 a dozen of these boys met at my house 

 and finding it vacant climbed over the 



all right, too, and Ben gave them a 

 lively whirl. Then 3 got on. Ben 

 was faithful to his training, and spun 

 around the ring a few times with the 

 trio. He finally got tired of that, con- 

 cluded they were rather rubbing it in, 

 and that he would change the feed on 

 them. Suddenly he dropped on his 

 back and commenced to play foot- 

 ball with the boys. Two of them es- 

 caped, but the third was not so for- 

 tunate. Ben seemed to have doubled 

 him up into a ring, a ball, or 

 something of that kind, and set him 

 spinning in the air. He kept that up 

 until the other boys thought their pal 

 was being torn to pieces, when they all 

 rushed in and rescued him. They 

 then went out of the barn with all 

 possible speed. 



