BEN; THE STORY OF A CUB. 



ii 



his tent. Our efforts to stalk him 

 took the conceit out of us completely. 

 On one occasion we were camping 

 on a trout stream. Ben was sunning 

 himself on a gunny sack near the tent 

 apparently sound asleep. Suddenly 

 he jumped, looked up the creek, 

 stood up, listened some more, then 

 circled about the camp, sniffing the 

 air and occasionally stopping to lis- 

 ten. He kept this up 10 or 15 min- 

 utes. Then he sought the seclusion 

 of his moosehide tent. We kept lis- 

 tening and looking up the creek, but 

 during all that time we could see 

 nothing, nor could we hear anything 

 but the roar of the water. Half an 

 hour after Ben gave the first alarm, 

 a man came in sight, fishing down 

 the creek. Then we knew what had 

 been troubling the cub all that time. 

 Ben liked Spencer very well, but 

 always hated the Irishman. He was 

 especially fond of me, naturally, be- 

 cause I fed him and cared for him 

 more than Spencer did. If I lay down 

 in camp during the day, Ben would 

 immediately come and cuddle up be- 

 side me, laying his head on my arm. 

 He would sleep as soundly as I 

 did for any length of time if all went 

 well; but if he heard any unusual 

 noise, or if the breeze brought a sus- 

 picious scent to camp, Ben would jump 

 as if someone had prodded him with a 

 sharp stick. His sudden awakening 

 would, of course, arouse me, and in 

 almost every instance someone would 

 come into camp ; or perhaps we would 

 hear an elk or a deer passing through 

 the brush somewhere within 100 or 

 200 yards of camp. 



We returned home in September. 

 Ben was by that time a lusty cub, and 

 while the family immediately learned 

 to love him, he was a great trial to 

 us all. We turned him loose in the 

 house, and he seemed to think he 

 could run through it just as he did 

 about the camp. He would play with 

 the children as a puppy would, chas- 

 ing them from room to room ; and in 

 his eagerness would upset chairs, ta- 



bles, or any other furniture that came 

 in his way. Two or 3 times when the 

 table was spread for a meal he grabbed 

 the cover, yanked it off and smashed 

 the china to bits. He seemed not to 

 care a blank for expense. 



I gave Ben an old piece of garden 

 hose, about 10 feet long, to play with. 

 He seemed to take great delight in 

 shaking it, just as a puppy would, and 

 often amused himself in this way for 

 an hour at a time. Occasionally I 

 would get hold of one end of it, put 

 it to my mouth and shout at him 

 through it, calling him by name. He 

 would stop and look about until he 

 found that the noise came from the 

 end of it nearest to him. He would 





BEN S PRIVATE TELEPHONE LINE. 



then take this up, put it to his ear, 

 and listen carefully. Placing my end 

 of the hose to my mouth I would 

 again shout, Ben. He would listen 

 intently, look down along the outside 

 of the hose, and then sitting up on 

 his haunches, would hold up the end 

 of the hose to one eye and look into 

 it as if he thought I were inside of it, 

 and as if he were trying to find 

 me. 



He tried to cultivate the acquaint- 

 ance of the cat, but it was shy of him. 

 His greatest ambition was to catch 

 it and play with it, but it was afraid 

 of him from the start, and they had 

 some terrific races through the house. 

 Long says wild animals do not know 



