ing it impressed upon him that Ursus Americanus is nobody's
fool. Senor Mariano Ortiz of the Upper Pecos affirms upon the faith of
a descendant of the Conquistadores that this is so, and he ought to
know, for he and the bears have been joint occupants of the ranch for
years. There was a time when Senor Ortiz thought the Pecos country
admirably adapted to the raising of hogs, but that was before he tried
to raise hogs there and before he had learned to appreciate the mental
capacities of bears.

Senor Ortiz went down to Pecos town and bought some hogs, drove them up
the river, and turned them into his alfalfa field to fatten. They were
of genuine thoroughbred razor-back variety, trained down to sprinting
form, agile, self-reliant as mules, tougher than braided rawhide, and
disorderly in their conduct. They broke through the fence the first
night, went up into a quaking asp patch where there was nothing
eatable, and had a scrap with two bears who thought Senor Ortiz had
invested in edible pork. The hogs were wiry and pugnacious, and the
circumstantial evidence plainly indicated that the bears had no
walk-over. However, the bears managed to get one emaciated porker
after a long chase, and they bit several samples out of him. They
didn't devour the whole carcass, and they didn't try pork again for two
months.

After a few days, the hogs ceased breaking out of the field, and
settled down to the business of laying leaf lard upon their rugged
frames, a line of conduct which merited and received the hearty
approval of Don Mariano, and, as subsequent events proved, was joyously
appreciated by the bears. Don Mariano was fearful that the bears,
having discovered the prevalence of pork, would raid his field and
introduce difficulties into the business of hog raising, and he watched
the drove with some solicitude. But, to his surprise, he missed no
pigs.

One evening, just at dusk, Don Mariano saw two bears come out of the
woods just above the alfalfa field and waddle calmly down to the fence.
He hid behind a tree and watched them. When they reached the fence
they stood up and placed their forepaws upon the top rail. Thinking
they were about to go a-porking, Don Mariano picked up a club and
prepared to stampede them, but they made no move to climb the fence,
and he waited to see what their game might be. With their paws upon
the rail and their snouts resting lazily upon their paws, like two old
farmers discussing the