crop prospects, the bears inspected the pigs in
clover. One of them presently lifted a hind foot and placed it upon
the bottom rail, and Don Mariano was about to break forth with a yell,
when he saw that the bear was only getting into a more lazily
comfortable position. Then the bear cocked his head to one side and
thoughtfully scratched his ear. The hogs were nosing around in the
clover, and the whole drove was in full view of the bears. The hogs
were still lean and athletic.

[Illustration: The Bears Inspected the Pigs in Clover.]

After contemplating the drove for about ten minutes, one of the bears
turned about, walked two or three steps upright, came down to all
fours, and, with a grunt, shambled slowly away. The other leisurely
followed, and they disappeared in the woods. Now, Don Mariano didn't
understand at the time, but he learned later that those bears were
sizing up his hogs, and after inspection they had decided that there
wasn't one in the lot fat enough to kill.

During the next month Don Mariano saw bears loafing about the edge of
the woods or lolling over his fence at least a dozen times, and he
couldn't at all make out what they were at, as they did not molest his
hogs. One day he noticed with satisfaction that the hogs were
improving and that one youngster, who had attended strictly to his
feed, was actually growing fat. The bears must have caught on at about
the same time, for that pig was missing the next morning.

From that time on the alfalfa field was raided nearly every night, and
the fattest pig was taken every time. A five-string barb-wire fence
proved to be no protection, and the bears wouldn't go near a spring
gun, and so, to save the remnant of his drove Senor Ortiz set about
building a stockade corral, so high that no bear could climb over it.
It was slow work cutting, hauling and setting the logs, and when the
corral was finished there was only an old sow left to be put into it.

The sow soon had a litter of a dozen pigs, and Don Mariano fed them and
saw them grow with satisfaction and certainty that the bears would not
get them. When they were about roasting size Don Mariano looked into
the corral one morning and counted only eleven little pigs. The
missing pig could not have got out, as there was no hole in the corral,
and Don Mariano eyed the old sow with suspicion. Still he was
inclined, like all good Mexican people, to explain inexplicable things
by the simple formul