nd ascended
steadily till within a foot of the place where Dick stood.

At this moment Crusoe's obedience gave way before a sense of Dick's
danger. Uttering one of his lion-like roars, he rushed up the
precipice with such violence that, although naturally unable to climb,
he reached and seized the bear's flank, despite his master's stern
order to "keep back," and in a moment the two rolled down the face of
the rock together, just as Dick completed loading.

Knowing that one stroke of the bear's paw would be certain death to
his poor dog, Dick leaped from his perch, and with one bound reached
the ground at the same moment with the struggling animals, and close
beside them, and, before they had ceased rolling, he placed the muzzle
of his rifle into the bear's ear, and blew out its brains.

Crusoe, strange to say, escaped with only one scratch on the side. It
was a deep one, but not dangerous, and gave him but little pain at the
time, although it caused him many a smart for some weeks after.

Thus happily ended Dick's first encounter with a grizzly bear; and
although, in the course of his wild life, he shot many specimens of
"Caleb," he used to say that "he an' pup were never so near goin'
under as on the day he dropped _that_ bar!"

Having refreshed himself with a long draught from a neighbouring
rivulet, and washed Crusoe's wound, Dick skinned the bear on the spot.
"We chawed him up that time, didn't we, pup?" said Dick, with a smile
of satisfaction, as he surveyed his prize.

Crusoe looked up and assented to this.

"Gave us a hard tussle, though; very nigh sent us both under, didn't
he, pup?"

Crusoe agreed entirely, and, as if the remark reminded him of
honourable scars, he licked his wound.

"Ah, pup!" cried Dick, sympathetically, "does't hurt ye, eh, poor
dog?"

Hurt him? such a question! No, he should think not; better ask if that
leap from the precipice hurt yourself.

So Crusoe might have said, but he didn't; he took no notice of the
remark whatever.

"We'll cut him up now, pup," continued Dick. "The skin'll make a
splendid bed for you an' me o' nights, and a saddle for Charlie."

Dick cut out all the claws of the bear by the roots, and spent the
remainder of that night in cleaning them and stringing them on a strip
of leather to form a necklace. Independently of the value of these
enormous claws (the largest as long as a man's middle finger) as an
evidence of prowess, they formed a remarkably gra