cries; for he made
off with me through the aperture by which he had entered, carrying me
along as easily as if I was an infant in arms. As he made off through
the window, my companions, whose responding shouts I had just before
heard, made their appearance at the door. It would have been easy for
them to shoot the bear, but in doing so they would very likely have hit
me, so I begged that they would not make the attempt. They therefore
followed the bear and me with their glittering axes in hand. If my
weight did not prove much of a hindrance to him, my axe at all events
did, and they were not long in overtaking us. A bear's winter coat is
almost as impervious as a suit of armour, and for some time, though they
hacked away at him very lustily, their axes had but little effect. At
length, Short, who had his rifle loaded in his hand, and was ever as
cool as a snow-ball, which, I conceive, is cooler than a cucumber,
managed to get ahead of the bearish marauder, and looking him full in
the face, levelled his weapon.

"Shall I fire, Dick?" he asked. "I know that I can hit him."

"Yes, yes; fire," I grunted out as well as I could; for the brute,
fearing that he was going to lose me, began to give me some unpleasantly
strong hugs. I was afraid also that should my strength fail me he might
get the axe out of his mouth, when he would soon have made mincemeat of
my nose.

"I'll hit his right eye, then," cried Short.

"Fire," I cried.

There was the crack of his rifle, a loud roar, and I found myself well
bespattered with bear's grease, rolling over and over in the snow, but
at length Bruin turned on his back, opened his claws, and to my great
delight I found myself free. On jumping out of bed I had slipped on my
thick buffalo-skin coat, which fastened round the waist with a thong,
and this had much preserved me, or I should have been mangled terribly.
As it was, I could scarcely rise to get clear of the bear; and if my
friends had not come to my assistance I could not have crawled home.
Bruin was dead and fit for smoking. While Obed helped me along, the
rest dragged him to the camp, where we found all the rest of the men
afoot to ascertain what was the matter. I went to bed feeling very much
bruised and knocked about, but by rubbing myself over plentifully with
grease I was next morning tolerably limp and pliable. After breakfast
we cut up the bear, but as may be supposed, he was in very bad
condition, nearly all