384 
THE BEAR. 
“ I don’t wonder they never call him by 
it,” said Sidney, after making several at¬ 
tempts to pronounce the word. “ But I 
think, notwithstanding their opinion of the 
old. gentleman’s sense, it shows rather a 
weakness in him to he ashamed of his own 
name.” 
“However that may be,” said Miss Win¬ 
ston, “they are careful never to wound his 
sensibilities by applying it to him, lest he 
should take vengeance for the affront upon 
their flocks. But their consideration for his 
feelings does not prevent them from killing 
him whenever they can and eating him 
afterwards. In the city of Berne in Switzer¬ 
land, which derives its name from the bear, 
a number of these animals are kept at the 
public expense; and several noble families 
of the North of Europe carry the bear in 
their coats of arms.” 
“But the North American Indians perhaps 
excel all others in the great respect they 
show to the bear. One author, after giving 
an account of the way in which one of 
these animals was killed, by cutting down 
a hollow tree in which it had taken refuge 
for the winter, goes on to say, ‘The bear 
