hain would allow him to go, and, while playing various
antics on the lower limbs of the tree, he fell. The chain was on one
side of the limb and he was on the other, where he dangled like a
culprit on the gallows.

He kicked and choked and tried desperately to catch the limb with his
fore-paws, but it was just out of reach and there seemed nothing for
him to do but strangle.

The tighter the collar grew and the shorter became his breath the more
he kicked and thrashed, until finally the collar broke, and the
half-strangled bear fell to the ground with a great thud. Feeling that
he had been cruelly treated and insulted, he picked himself up with a
groan and a growl, and making for the woods, was not seen again for two
days.

Finally Black Bruin returned to his friends, having had enough of wild
life for that time. He seemed delighted to see them again and wanted
to be petted more than ever, and, as if to make amends for his recent
bad behavior, was very good for a couple of weeks.

One day the farmer took a super of honey from one of the hives in the
back yard, and, as a sort of reward of merit, gave Black Bruin a pound
for his share.

This was an imprudent act upon the part of the bear's master, for honey
to the bear is what whisky is to the drunkard. Not that it intoxicated
him, but he craved it with an almost insatiate desire.

This pound was but a taste, so he fell to watching the hives again and
perhaps plotting as to how he might get at their contents. But the
hives seemed quite safe. They were surrounded by a barbed wire fence
six feet high. They were located under a broad spreading apple-tree,
however, and this fact gave Black Bruin his chance.

He waited until the farmer had gone to a distant field to work, then
climbed into the tree, and out on a long limb that overhung the hives.

The limb bent lower and lower until it nearly touched the barbed wire
fence, but it was just strong enough for him to make the spring and
land in the midst of the hives.

The good housewife heard the humming and buzzing as the bees swarmed
out to punish the intruder, and looking out of the back window,
discovered the thief.

Not much damage had been done, as he had been detected almost at the
outset; but one thing was now certain; the hives would not be safe from
Black Bruin any longer.

So the farmer repaired the broken collar and again secured the bear to
the maple, and once more he took up the life of a convic