Men and work-horses were at work at the alfalfa-cutting, and the
bear and cow and calf were sole occupants of the barn when Rufe and
Perry mounted an outside ladder and entered its loft.

This loft, with its grain-bins, its huge empty space, its
cross-beams and braces, offered an attractive gymnasium. In one of
the bins, used chiefly for storage, they discovered a lot of
fishing-tackle, seines and spears of various sorts for taking the
salmon which annually ran up the Snake River and its tributaries.

They had ventured to drag out one of the seines and unroll it on
the floor of the loft, when the cow below them broke into
distressful bawling. Peering down a square aperture, through which
hay was lifted by machine forks in the season of storing, they saw
that the calf had got in between the wheels of two buggies which
were housed on one side of the driveway.

The feeble creature was stuck fast enough, and the helpless dam
could only bellow her distress. The boys, in spite of some fear of
the cow, would have gone down to extricate the calf, but at this
instant Solomon roused in his lair, and took a hand in the
demonstration.

His uproar became frightful as the cow, more than ever alarmed for
her calf, continued to bawl. There was a trap-door raised for
ventilation over Solomon's stall, and the boys ran eagerly to have
a look at the grizzly.

They were highly entertained for a moment. Hair on end, teeth
gnashing, Solomon charged back and forth in his enclosure. Then he