this time all right."

I pointed at the clump of yellow birches and said, "Don't you see him
down in the gulch there?" When Smoky got his eye on the bear, you
should have seen them sparkle. This was the first bear that Smoky had
ever seen outside of captivity. When I told Smoky that we would go up
close to the bear and he (Smoky) should shoot it, he again reached
the gun to me and again insisted that I should shoot it, saying that
he would surely miss it, the same as he declared in the case of the
porcupine. I told Smoky that he had plenty of cartridges and that it
would be some time before it would be too dark to see to shoot and
that he must shoot the bear. It took a great deal of urging to get
Smoky to shoot, he declaring all the time that he knew he would miss
it.

I said, "Smoky, you must not shoot at the bear but at the base of the
bear's ear," which he finally did and Bruin was out of his trouble
almost before the smoke from the rifle had cleared away.

The bear was a large one, measuring seven feet two inches from end to
end. We were unable to get it out of the woods whole. Smoky insisted
that he would carry it if it was as large as a mountain. He soon gave
up that idea and we cut the carcass into pieces and took part to camp
and returned the next day after the balance. That night after we got
to camp with the bear we had for supper bear steak, partridge, rabbit
and bacon with warm biscuits and honey, baked potatoes, butter and
coffee, with the necessary trimmings, which caused Smoky to remark
that the country was all right for a living, but thought that society
was rather limited.

The day after we had brought in the remainder of the bear, we could
see the smoke from the forest fires that were burning away to the
southwest, loom up thick and black. It was plainly to be seen that
the fire was steadily working in the direction of our camp and was
getting in close proximity to where we had a bear trap setting. I was
afraid that the fire would burn sufficiently hard to spoil the trap
unless it was taken up, so Smoky said that if I would "mix the
muligan" (get supper) that he would go and get the trap, which I
readily consented to do, telling Smoky to bring the trap down to a
small creek and put the trap in the water.

Smoky got back about the time I had supper ready. He came in and put
his gun up and washed ready for supper without saying a word. I saw
that Smoky was looking down-hearted but thought that he w