hoot him," at the same time handing me the gun.
I now saw that Smoky was in earnest and surely thought we had a bear
and I burst out with laughter. Smoky was amazed and said, "You
blooming simpleton, what is the matter with you?" The look of anxiety
and the manner in which Smoky spoke still caused me to laugh the
harder.

When I could cease laughing long enough to tell Smoky what was in the
trap, Smoky's change of looks of excitement and anxiety to one of
disgust was pitiful. Smoky began to condemn the country and tell how
foolish we were to come to such a forsaken place as that was to trap
where there was nothing but porcupines.

After resetting the trap we went on to the third trap, which was
setting about a mile farther north. It was necessary to cross two
narrow ridges in order to reach the trap. Smoky was in a moody state
of mind and lagged along behind, hunting partridges, killing two or
three.

When we reached the top of the second ridge and the trap was in the
hollow beyond, I heard some sort of a noise where the trap was
setting, but I was unable to tell what it was. Smoky was behind
somewhere on the line, but while I stood listening he came on in
great haste. He had heard the same noise and was hurrying up to
inquire what it was.

I told him that I was unable to tell just what it was, but was afraid
that some dog had got caught in the trap as the sound came from the
direction in which the trap was. Smoky said that it was a different
noise than he had ever heard a dog make.

I told Smoky that I feared that it was some hound that was in the
trap and was making the pitiful sort of a howl and that we must hurry
on and get him out of the trap. When we were half way down the side
of the hill, the noise ceased, but I could now see that the noise
came from some distance farther down the run than where the trap had
been set and I knew that no dog could move the trap and clog. We now
went a little more quietly. I soon got sight of Bruin rolling and
tumbling in a bunch of small birch saplings where the trap clog was
fast, good and stout.

Smoky had not got his eye onto the bear yet, when I stopped and
pointed in the direction of the bear and said, "Smoky, there is the
gentleman that you have been so anxious to see." Smoky had not yet
got his eye onto the bear and he said, "That's no darned dog that
makes that noise. What is it? I don't see anything." "No, Smoky, it
is no dog; neither is it a porky; it is a bear