about it, so I plucked up courage. I remembered what I came
for and got down my camera. But when I glanced at the sky, and gauged
the light--near sundown in the woods--I knew the camera would not serve
me; so I got out my sketch book instead, and made the sketch which is
given on Plate XXXVIII; I have not changed it since.

[Illustration: XLI. While I sketched the Bears a brother camera hunter
was stalking me without my knowledge
_Photo by F. Linde Ryan, Flushing, L. I._]

[Illustration: XLII. One meets the Bears at nearly every turn in the
woods
_Photo by E. T. Seton_]

Meanwhile the old Bear had been sizing me up, and evidently made up her
mind that, "although that human being might be all right, she would take
no chances for her little ones."

[Illustration]

She looked up to her two hopefuls, and gave a peculiar whining "_Er-r-r
er-r_," whereupon, like obedient children, they 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 these 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 back of it, for, had they not done as she had told them, they
would have got such a spanking as would have made them howl. Yes, it is
quite the usual thing, I find, for an old Blackbear to spank her little
ones when in her opinion they need it, and she lays it on well. She has
a good strong paw, and does not stop for their squealing; so that one
correction lasts a long time.

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.

THE DAY AT THE GARBAGE PILE

[Illustration]

Early next morning I equipped myself with pencils, paper and a camera,
and set out for the garbage pile. At first I watched from the bushes,
some seventy-five yards away, but later I made a hole in the odorous
pile itself, and stayed there all day long, sketching and snapshotting
the Bears which came and went in greater numbers as t