ean, dainty fur, or cause the slightest smell. In fact,
Stripes was altogether one of the cleanest and daintiest and most
gentlemanly of all the wild creatures. But when he _had_ to, he could
contract those muscles around the oil sac with such violence that the
deadly oil--blinding and suffocating--would be shot forth to a distance
of several feet, right into the face of the enemy. And _that_, let me
tell you, was never good for the enemy!"

"Why?" demanded the Babe.

But Uncle Andy only eyed him scornfully. "When Stripes, quite civilly,
looked at the bear, and then proceeded to smell around under the
juniper bush for that bird's nest, which didn't seem to be there, the
bear was much puzzled. He put out his paw again--and again drew it
back.

"Then he said 'Wah!' quite loud and sharp, to see if that would
frighten the imperturbable stranger. But Stripes didn't seem to mind
noises like that. His bright, intelligent eyes were on the bear all
the time, you know, though he seemed to be so busy hunting for that
bird's nest.

"'Pooh!' said the bear to himself, 'he's just plain idiot, that's
what's the matter with him. I'll eat him, anyway!' and he bounced
forward, with paw uplifted, intending to gather Stripes as he would a
fat cricket."

Here Uncle Andy was so inconsiderate as to pause and relight his pipe.
The Babe clutched his arm.

"Well," he went on presently, "just at this moment Stripes made as if
he was going to run away, after all. He whisked round and jumped about
two feet, and his fine tail flew up over his back, and in that very
instant the bear thought the whole side of the hill had struck him in
the face.

"He stopped with a bump, his nose went straight up in the air, and he
squalled: 'Wah-ah! Wah--' But in the middle of these remarks he
choked and strangled and started pawing wildly at his nose, trying to
get his breath.

"His eyes were shut tight, and that deadly oil clung like glue. His
paws couldn't begin to get it off, and so he fell to rooting his nose
in the turf like a pig, and plowing the grass with his whole face,
fairly standing on his head in his efforts, all the time coughing and
gurgling as if he was having a fit.

"His behavior, in fact, was perfectly ridiculous; but there was no one
there to laugh at it but Stripes, and he was too polite. He just
strolled on quietly to another bush, and kept looking for that bird's
nest.

"At last the bear, what with pawing and rooting