that the Bears have always kept their truce with man. However, just at
this turning point the old one stopped, now but thirty feet away, and
continued to survey me calmly. She seemed in doubt for a minute, but
evidently made up her mind that, "although that human thing might be all
right, she would take no chances for her little ones."

She looked up to her two hopefuls, and gave a peculiar whining _Er-r-r
Er-r,_ whereupon they, like obedient children, jumped, as at the word
of command. There was nothing about them heavy or bear-like as commonly
understood; lightly they swung from bough to bough till they dropped to
the ground, and all went off together into the woods. I was much tickled
by the prompt obedience of the little Bears. As soon as their mother
told them to do something they did it. They did not even offer a
suggestion. But I also found out that there was a good reason for it,
for had they not done as she had told them they would have got such a
spanking as would have made them howl.

[Illustration]

This was a delightful peep into Bear home life, and would have been well
worth coming for, if the insight had ended there. But my friends in the
Hotel said that that was not the best place for Bears. I should go to
the garbage-heap, a quarter-mile off in the forest. There, they said, I
surely could see as many Bears as I wished (which was absurd of them).

[Illustration]

Early the next morning I went to this Bears' Banqueting Hall in the
pines, and hid in the nearest bushes.