f hard wood. Then when Mr. Bar gets caught
he has nothing solid to pull against to tear himself free. He marches
off with nineteen pounds of trap and the clog dragging from his foot.
The clog catches in the brush and between trees and usually he disna get
very far, because the heavy drag tires him. Besides that, every time
he's pulled up short it must hurt like the mischief and take the heart
out of him. Sometimes we find where he has stopped to fight the clog.
Once in a while a swivel breaks or something else gives way and he gets
rid of the clog, but still has the trap fast to his foot. Then he's
likely to dig out for parts unknown. I've known a trapper to camp two or
three nights on the trail of a bar that had gone off with a trap before
he could catch up with the critter. Mostly they will go a ways and then
make a bed, lie down a while, get uneasy and move on to do the same
thing all over again. Sometimes they won't lie in the bed after they've
made it, but move on and try again."

Sparrer's eyes were bulging. "Do youse mean dey really make a bed same
as us?" he asked.

"Surest thing you know," replied Pat. "When a bear dens up for the
winter he makes himself comfortable. Does it when he's traveling, too.
Don't know how he got wise to the danger of rheumatiz from sleeping on
the bare ground, but he seems to be on all right. Breaks a lot of brush
and makes a regular bough bed. Sometimes he uses rotted wood when it is
handy and brush isn't. Oh, he's a wise proposition, is Mr. Bear. If he
once gets nipped in a trap and gets away it is a smart trapper who can
get him in another."

Meanwhile Hal had been examining the trap and trying to force down the
springs. "I'm blessed if I see how you set one of the things," said he
at last.

"I'll show ye, only when it's set ye want to keep away from it. It's
more dangerous than a bar himsel'."

He brought forth two screw clamps and adjusted them to the double
springs of the traps. By turning thumb-screws the springs were
compressed and held so that the jaws of the trap could be opened and the
pan set to hold them. The boys noticed that in doing this he worked from
underneath, sure sign of the careful and experienced trapper. In the
event of the clamps slipping there would be no chance of his hand or arm
being caught in the jaws.

"How does the bear get caught?" asked Sparrer, to whom traps were an
unknown quantity.

"By stepping on that pan," explained Pat. "I'll show you