The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of a Bear, by Alfred Elwes

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Adventures of a Bear
And a Great Bear too

Author: Alfred Elwes

Illustrator: Harrison Weir

Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28671]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF A BEAR ***

Produced by David Garcia and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
produced from scanned images of public domain material
from the Google Print project.)

[Illustration: BEARS AND BROTHERS.]

THE

ADVENTURES OF A BEAR

AND

A GREAT BEAR TOO

By ALFRED ELWES

WITH NINE ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRISON WEIR.

LONDON:

ADDEY AND CO. 21 OLD BOND STREET.

MDCCCLIII.

LONDON:

Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St. Leicester Sq.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

AT HOME 1

UPON HIS TRAVELS 10

TOWN LIFE 19

PROSPERITY 35

REVERSES 44

PROGRESS 56

DOWN HILL 66

AT REST 74

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

BEARS AND BROTHERS 8

A CLOSE EMBRACE 17

MAKING AN IMPRESSION 31

A VERY GREAT BEAR 43

THREE THROWS A-PENNY 54

SELLING THE NATIVES 63

CHEAP HARMONY 69

THE LAST LEAD 83

TAILPIECE 84

AT HOME.

Yes, it is an "at home" to which I am going to introduce you; but not
the at-home that many of you--I hope _all_ of you--have learnt to love,
but the at-home of a bear. No carpeted rooms, no warm curtains, no
glowing fireside, no pictures, no sofas, no tables, no chairs; no music,
no books; no agreeable, cosy chat; no anything half so pleasant: but
soft moss or snow, spreading trees, skies with ever-changing, tinted
clouds, some fun, some rough romps, a good deal of growling, and now and
then a fight. With these points of difference, you may believe the
_at-home_ of a bear is not quite so agreeable a matter as the at-home of
a