L OF GOLD']

But hearing words so sweet as these to me, still I did not tell her what
secret was in my soul. Each day I said to myself that presently she
would be strong enough to bear it, and that then I would tell her. Each
day that other world seemed vaguer and farther away. But each day passed
and I could not speak. Each day it seemed less worth while to speak. Now
I could not endure the thought of losing her. I say that I could not.
Let none judge me too harshly who have not known the full measure of
this world and that.

There was much sign of bears in our thickets, and I warned her not to go
out alone after berries where these long-footed beasts now fed
regularly. Sometimes we went there together, with our vessels of bark,
and filled them slowly, as she hobbled along. Our little dog was now
always with us, having become far more tamed and docile with us than is
ever the case of an Indian dog in savagery. One day we wandered in a
dense berry thicket, out of which rose here and there chokecherry trees,
and we began to gather some of these sour fruits for use in the pemmican
which we planned to manufacture. All at once we came to a spot where the
cherry trees were torn down, pulled over, ripped up by the roots. The
torn earth was very fresh, and I knew that the bear that had done the
work could not be far away.

All at once our dog began to growl and erect his hair, sniffing not at
the foot scent, but looking directly into the thicket just ahead. He
began then to bark, and as he did so there rose, with a sullen sort of
grunt and a champing of jaws like a great hog, a vast yellow-gray
object, whose head topped the bushes that grew densely all about. The
girl at my side uttered a cry of terror and turned to run as best she
might, but she fell, and lay there cowering.

The grizzly stood looking at me vindictively with little eyes, its ears
back, its jaws working, its paws swinging loosely at its side, the claws
white at the lower end, as though newly sharpened for slaughtering. I
saw then that it was angered by the sight of the dog, and would not
leave us. Each moment I expected to hear it crash through the bush in
its charge. Once down in the brush, there would be small chance of
delivering a fatal shot; whereas now, as it swung its broad head
slightly to one side, the best possible opportunity for killing it
presented itself immediately. Without hesitation I swung up the heavy
barrel, and drew the small silver be