Never shall I forget the
desperation in that cat's face as it appeared between the squeezing
arms of the bear. Their attitude had such a resemblance to the
"Huguenot Lovers" I have not been able since to look at that celebrated
picture with proper countenance.

At this point, my companion and I came to the rescue. Finding all
attempts at separating them by hand resulted in the usual wages of the
peacemaker, we grabbed the chain and hauled the war to the pump. The
pump was only a short distance way, yet it took us several minutes to
make the trip, as every time we turned and gazed at them, their rigid
adherence to their relative positions, no matter what condition as a
whole this mode of locomotion caused them to assume, and the leering,
bourgeois complacency of the victorious bear, contrasting with the
patrician despair of the vanquished, caused such a weakness to come
over us that we had to sit upon the ground for a while.

Water is the universal solvent. About half a minute under the pump
formed the solution of this problem. A wet and skinny-looking cat, her
elegance departed, streaked back to the wood shed and her offspring,
while a sober and bedraggled little bear trotted behind his captors to
Mr. D----'s menagerie.

This was my introduction to this bear. We called him "Cat-thumper,"
after the Indian fashion of christening a child from some marked
exploit or incident in his career. This became contracted to
"Thumper," an appropriate title, for, with the fat pickings of the
restaurant, his bearship grew with a rapidity that made it a puzzle how
his hide contained him.

Under these genial conditions Thumper developed humour. It became
possible for one to romp with him, and in the play he was careful not
to use his strength. So exemplary became his conduct that his owner, a
man who never could learn from experience, or even from Billy Buck,
decided to take him on Main Street. Mr. D----'s novelties were a
standing menace to the security of the town and his own person as well.
The amount of vanity that fat little man possessed would have supplied
a theatrical company. One of his first acts, on entering a town, was
to purchase the fiercest white hat, and the most aboriginal buck-skin
suit to be obtained, and then don them. Almost the next act on the
part of his fellow-townsmen was to hire a large and ferocious looking
"cow-puncher" to recognise in Mr. D---- an ancient enemy, and make a
vicious attack up