e? Waal, I didn't go to do it."

"It is unconscious wit, Mr. Bickford," said Kellogg.

"Pooty good joke, ain't it?" said Joshua complacently. "Susan-cide,
and her name is Susan. Ho! ho! I never thought on't."

And Joshua roared in appreciation of the joke which he had
unwittingly perpetrated, for it must be explained that he thought
susan-cide the proper form of the word expressing a voluntary
severing of the vital cord.

Years afterward, when Joshua found himself the center of a social
throng, he was wont to say, "Ever heard that joke I made about
Susan?" and then he would cite it amid the plaudits of his friends.

Mr. Bickford and Joe had not disposed of their horses. They had
suffered them to forage in the neighborhood of the river, thinking it
possible that the time would come when they would require them.

One fine morning they set out from the camp near the banks of the
Yuba and set their faces in a southwesterly direction. They had made
themselves popular among their comrades, and the miners gave them a
hearty cheer as they started.

"Good luck, Joe! Good luck, old man!" they exclaimed heartily.

"The same to you, boy!"

So with mutual good feeling they parted company.

"We ain't leavin' like our friend from Pike County," said Mr.
Bickford. "I often think of the poor critter trottin' off with face
to the rear."

"I hope we shan't meet him or any of his kind," said Joe.

"So do I. He'd better go and live among the wildcats."

"He is some like them. He lives upon others."

It would only be wearisome to give a detailed account of the journey
of the two friends. One incident will suffice.

On the fourth day Joe suddenly exclaimed in excitement:

"Look, Joshua!"

"By gosh!"

The exclamation was a natural one. At the distance of forty rods a
man was visible, his hat off, his face wild with fear, and in
dangerous proximity a grizzly bear of the largest size doggedly
pursuing him.

"It's Hogan!" exclaimed Joe in surprise. "We must save him."

CHAPTER XXXIV

A GRIZZLY ON THE WAR-PATH

It may surprise some of my young friends to learn that the grizzly
bear is to be found in California. Though as the State has increased
in population mostly all have been killed off, even now among the
mountains they may be found, and occasionally visit the lower slopes
and attack men and beasts.

Hogan had had the ill-luck to encounter one of these animals.

When he first saw the grizzly there w