esently
these strong bars would break and he would rush into the wilderness and
flee far from the haunts of men.

Then the slow and curious procession started. One of the men drove the
cattle and the other two walked by the side of the crate, prodding and
beating Black Bruin whenever he strained too frantically at the
prison-bars.

Slowly they drew out of the woods with its long dark shadows and its
aroma of pine and balsam. Gradually the forest with its dells and its
thickets, its ferns and witch-hazel, its bird-song and its chattering
squirrels, its sense of freedom and peace, was left behind and they
emerged into dusty roadways bordered by fields of grass and grain.

This was the habitat of man, his world, with which Black Bruin
associated a chain and a collar, a sharp stick and curses and endless
tricks.

At last he ceased to struggle and strain and stood with his head at the
rear of his cage, looking back at his vanishing world. Slowly the
green plumes of the forest faded. Even the outline of the distant
mountains was at last lost and the flat farmlands, dotted with
farmhouses and carpeted with grain-fields, took its place.

The old world and the old life were left far behind, and when the last
blue hilltop faded, the heart went out of Black Bruin. He no longer
exulted in his strength and his cunning, for man had again undone him.

CHAPTER XIV

THE WRECK

For weary hours the ox-cart plodded along the country road, and at last
the long shadows deepened into twilight and the stars came out and it was
night, but still they journeyed on.

The soft night-winds quickened into being the fragrance of many a flower
that had not been noticed in the full heat of day. But wind and
fragrance, night and daylight were all the same to Black Bruin, for that
which made the world beautiful, and his strong free life worth living,
was gone. Freedom was no longer his, and he cowered upon the floor of
his prison, laid his head between his paws, and acted more like a whipped
puppy than the great strong brute that he was.

Finally the ox-team drew up at a long, low building, and the men unloaded
the crate upon a narrow platform.

Here they were soon joined by another man who came from the building.

"How long before the night freight ter H---- comes along, Bill?" drawled
one of the men in charge of Black Bruin. "Alec, here, has got a bar as
big as a cow that he is a-takin' to the circus which'll be at H----
to