fun. Say, what do you think of the
Senator, anyway?

"Don't you know him? Of course you know Senator Bear! We call him the
Senator because he doesn't amount to half as much as he thinks he
does, and goes around pushing his chest out as if he were the most
dangerous thing in the big woods, when all of us at the club know that
he's only a big bunch of fur that doesn't dare to make any kind of
fight, large as he is, unless Mr. Man gets him in a corner where it's
a case of putting in the big licks to save his own skin. I do think a
bear is about the most useless creature we have among us; he spends
the whole winter long sleeping, and when he finally comes out of his
den all he does is to go pottering around stealing honey from the
bees, or watching for a chance to get hold of what some smaller fellow
has gathered in.

"Mr. Crow says there are bears who really do amount to something--big,
big fellows who wouldn't think anything of making one bite of a boy
like Tommy Man, and who are the very worst kind of fighters; but we
don't have any such in these woods. Why, do you know, there have been
lots of times when I've really felt ashamed for the Senator because of
his showing himself to be such a coward! Bobby Coon has thrown it in
my face more than once that I'm the most scared thing to be found in
the big woods, but I've seen the Senator run many a time at the
littlest kind of noise when I'd held my ground, at least, until I'd
found out what really was the matter.

"You can't make out why I should be talking about Senator Bear when
I'd started to tell about Mr. Towser's chasing me, eh? Well, it's
because the Senator got mixed up with Mr. Towser and me a good bit
before that chase came to an end. I suppose you want me to go back and
tell about it in what Mr. Crow would call a 'proper manner,'--he's
mighty particular about the way he tells a story, and always kicks up
a terrible fuss if one of us so much as wags an ear when he's holding
forth with one of his long-winded yarns.

"Let me see, I'd got to where Mr. Towser took after me, without paying
any attention to Bobby Coon, and I was making my legs move the best I
knew how, being all out of breath at the beginning of the race because
of having started so suddenly. Well, I kept my nose pointed straight
ahead, and if I'd run far in that direction I'd brought up in the
swamp where I'd found more water than dry land, though I didn't think
of anything like that at the time.