THE BEARj AND HIS CALUMNIATORS. 179 
ed with fury at two which were put into the same box with them ; 
and after a minute or two of manoeuvres to escape on the part of 
the mice, so rapid that they actually became invisible, our little 
squirrels had them by the throats and instantly strangled theme 
This antipathy to the representatives of petty larceny is not sur- 
prising in the emblem of the political office-holder, himself a non- 
producer, and cousin-german to the thief, as the squirrel is of the 
mouse, yet concerned in the support of the established laws. 
For consistency's sake the squirrel must plunder our corn-fields, 
levying, like the office-holder, a tribute on agricultural production ; 
but this is all done in broad day, in an honorable manner, while 
the nocturnal, domestic larcenies of the mouse compromise the 
family character, and are subject to the intervention of our organ- 
ized police (cats, ferrets, etc.), and to disgraceful death by the 
trap, where they are found in the morning hanging by the neck 
like thieves from the gallows-beam. — T r.] 
The squirrel hunt is not a serious affair, only a boy’s game, but 
a charming diversion. It is best in the autumn, when the leaves 
have fallen, and no longer conceal the abode of the pretty crea- 
ture from the search of his enemies. A few smart thwacks on the 
trunk of the tree or aerial domicile calls out the inmate, who darts at 
once toward the highest branches near, where his red or black coat, 
or the white belly of the gray squirrel is easily distinguished. To 
bark the squirrel (as it is called) with a rifle ball, striking the spot 
against which his head rests, and bringing him down by the shock 
with a whole skin, is one of the favorite diversions of American 
hunters. The flesh of the squirrel is quite delicate. 
THE BEAR. 
Here is a poor beast unworthily calumniated, about whose imag- 
inary history ignorance and ill-will have been very busy. I know 
no infamy with which romancers and almanac makers, those in- 
exhaustible purveyors of falsehood, have forgotten to soil the mo- 
nography of this unfortunate quadruped. I have read in a fright- 
ful book, published a century since by the authority and privilege 
of some king, the history of the life and acts of a brown bear 
