t the foot of it. If he sees you there'll be trouble. You'd
better go back to the house, and I'll come as soon as I can.'

"I saw her stop and look toward us very earnestly, and I knew she was
thinking whether she could help me out of my difficulty. Pretty soon I
saw her rest the gun over a little sapling and take sight at the bear,
who had squatted down a few feet from the foot of the tree, and sat
there looking up at me as if he was trying to make out what I was
shouting so for.

"I was just going to tell your grandmother not to shoot, for I never
once supposed she could hit the animal, when, bang! went the gun, and
the bear gave a growl and a leap into the air, where he spun around like
a top, and then dropped flat on the ground, and never stirred but once
or twice afterward.

"'You've killed him!' I shouted, and slid down from my rather
uncomfortable quarters, just as your grandmother came running up, pale
as a ghost, and almost frightened at what she had dared to do. The
minute she realized there was no danger, she drooped into my arms, and
began to cry.

"We cut up the bear and took most of it to the house. It kept us in meat
for a long time, and we used the skin for a carpet. I didn't forget my
gun after that when I went after old Brindle, you may be quite sure.

"Your grandmother had never fired off a gun before, but when she found
out that they weren't such terrible things after all as she had supposed
they must be, she practiced with my rifle until she could shoot as well
as I could, and after that she used to keep us in partridge and such
game, while I cleared off land for crops. That first shot of hers was
the best one she ever made, however."

"And so grandmother really killed a bear!" cried the children, and
straightway the pleasant-faced, smiling grandmother became a heroine in
their estimation, as they thought over the story grandfather had told.

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