l-nurtured bears,--bears
that have been ill-licked,--those great, fierce, sullen, cross-grained
and ill-tempered beasts, that are, unhappily, to be found in every part
of this various world; but when all these unhandsome qualities are found
in one individual of the species, and that one happens to have a sore
head into the bargain, it is easy to believe the _at home_ which he
honours or dishonours with his presence can neither be very quiet nor
particularly comfortable.

Habit makes many things supportable which at first would seem beyond our
powers of endurance. Mr. and Mrs. B., and, indeed, all the other B.'s,
male and female, had got so used to the tyranny of this ill-tempered
animal, that they put up with his moroseness almost without a growl; but
there is a limit to sufferance, beyond which neither men nor bears can
travel, and that boundary was at last attained with the B.'s. As what I
am now about to relate is, however, rather an important fact in my
biography, I must inform you how the matter occurred, and what were the
circumstances which led to it.

You are, perhaps, aware that bears, being of rather an indolent
disposition, are not accustomed to hoard up a store of provision for
their wants in winter, but prefer--in their own country, at
least--sleeping through the short dreary days and long bitter nights,
and thus avoid the necessity of taking food for some weeks, although
they grow very thin during their lengthened slumbers. I forget what this
time is called in bears' language, but we give it the name of
hybernation. Now it happened that Mrs. Bruin had taken it into her head
to lay by this winter a nice little stock, which she very carefully
buried at a short distance from the mouth of the cavern, when she felt
the usual drowsiness of the season coming on, and having covered the
spot with a heap of dead leaves that she might know it again when she
woke up, she crawled into bed, and turning her back to her old partner,
who was already in a comfortable state of forgetfulness, went fast
asleep.

The whole family rather overslept themselves, for the sun was quite
brilliant when they awoke, and it was very evident that they had been
dozing away for some months. The ill-tempered bear was the first on his
legs, and kicking his two nearest brothers as he got up, just to hint to
them that he was awake again, he opened his mouth to its whole
extent--and a very great extent it was, too--and stretching his limbs
on