The bear had twisted his neck to seize the spear-handle, and when
Perry hit him, was bowled over on his side.

The spear-handle snapped in his teeth, and as he wrenched
frantically at the fragment, its tines were twisted, cutting deeper
into his flesh.

This wound, the first he had ever received, set Solomon crazy.

He paid not the slightest heed to boy or cow, but rolled and
threshed, biting at the fragment of spear-handle, giving vent to
his rage and pain in a hoarse, distressful roar.

Perry might easily have scrambled to his feet and escaped, but he
also was flung at full length on the floor, and instantly Solomon,
in distress, rolled over him, crushing the breath from his lungs.

The terrified Rufe, looking down upon his brother's blackened face
and the bear's wicked claws waving above it, leaped to his feet and
started to run to the barn-loft door, to scream for help.

At less than half the distance, his feet caught in the meshes of
the unrolled net, and he measured his length on the floor.

As he quickly untangled a foot, the thought flashed into his mind,
"Throw this net upon the bear's legs!" In a flash he was at the
edge of the open floor and hauling the big seine in coils at his
feet.

When he had a heap to the height of his knees he gathered it in his