MAINLY ABOUT BEARS 37 



mischief in him. He ate everything, including old 

 clothes and pipes. A particularly strong one that 

 he found in Mac's pocket made him sick, and 

 never afterward could he endure the smell of 

 tobacco. One of his favorite tricks was cleverly to 

 knock a pipe from one's mouth and then scramble 

 away. 



Like all bears, he had a passion for sweets. 

 Candy or a lump of sugar would command his 

 affectionate attention any time. One day I 

 rolled him out an old-fashioned molasses keg and 

 he spent a whole forenoon trying to get a two-inch 

 muzzle into an inch hole. Finally I broke it up 

 and Mose spent the next week licking the staves. 

 When he had finished, even the Sugar Trust could 

 not have gotten anything from that keg. 



In spite of his civilized surroundings he 

 remained a wild thing. He was weather wise and 

 knew when storms were coming. He had a com- 

 fortable house, but a snow-storm, twenty-four 

 hours off, would set him digging industriously to 

 prepare for it. The sign never failed. Well fed 

 and sure of his future, he ceased to hibernate. 



