bird. As she surveyed his ample proportions Mrs. Gammit murmured
thoughtfully: "I reckon as how I'm goin' to feel kinder sick o' turkey
afore I git this all et up!"

On the following day Mrs. Gammit carefully polished the gun with a
duster, removing all trace of the indignities she had put upon it, and
stood it away behind the dresser. She had resolved to conduct the
rest of the campaign against the bears in her own way and with her own
weapons. The way and the weapons she now proceeded to think out with
utmost care.

Being a true woman and a true housewife, it was perhaps inevitable
that she should think first, and, after due consideration given to
everything else, including pitchforks and cayenne pepper, that she
should think last and finally, of the unlimited potentialities of
boiling water. To have it actually boiling, at the critical moment,
would of course be impracticable; but with a grim smile she concluded
that she could manage to have it hot enough for her purpose. She had
observed that this bear which was after the pig had learned the way
into the pen. She felt sure that, having found from experience that
loud noises did not produce bodily injuries, he would again come
seeking the pig, and this time with more confidence than ever.

On this point, thanks to her ignorance of bears in general, she was
right. Most bears would have been discouraged. But this bear in
particular had learned that when men started out to be disagreeable to
bears, they succeeded only too well. He had realized clearly that Mrs.
Gammit had intended to be disagreeable to him. There was no mistaking
her intentions. But she had not succeeded. Ergo, she was not, as he
had almost feared, a man, but really and truly a woman. He came back
the next night fully determined that no squeals, or brooms, or flying
petticoats, or explosions, should divert him from his purpose and his
pork. He came early; but not, as it chanced, too early for Mrs.
Gammit, who seemed somehow to have divined his plans and so taken time
by the forelock.

The pen of the white pig, as we have already noted, was in a corner of
the barn, and under one end of the loft. Immediately above the point
where the bear would have to climb over, in order to get into the pen,
Mrs. Gammit removed several of the loose boards which formed the
flooring of the loft. Beside this opening, at an early hour, she had
ensconced herself in secure ambuscade, with three pails of the hottest
poss