ined tightly round two
neighbouring boughs. I longed for daylight, which might enable me to
take some active measures one way or the other. At last, as I looked
out beyond the tops of the neighbouring trees, I could see a pale pink
and yellow hue suffusing the eastern sky, and the light crept forward,
as it were, on one side, while the forest on the other remained shrouded
in darkness. Not as in our own land, however, did the birds welcome the
coming sun with a full chorus of song. They were not altogether silent;
but even in that spring time of the year they only exhibited their
pleasure by a faint untuneful twittering and chirping. Bruin was, I
found, an early riser. I saw first one leg come out of his bed-place,
then another, as he stretched them forth; then up went his arms, and I
heard a loud yawn. It was rather more like a grunt. Then he began to
growl, and to make all sorts of other strange noises, and finally he
lifted up his head and gradually sat upright on his haunches. He winked
at me when he saw that I was safe up the tree, and I fancied that he
nodded his head, as much as to say, "Stay a bit, I'll soon be up to
you." Then he turned one leg out of the bed-place and then another, and
then he walked up to the tree, and sat himself down under it, and began
to growl.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

I EXHAUST BRUIN'S PATIENCE--MANUFACTURE SOME FISHING-LINES, AND DESCEND
FROM MY PERCH IN THE TREE--CATCH A BIG FISH TO MY GREAT JOY, WITH NO
LITTLE TROUBLE, AND COOK IT--MANY A SLIP BETWEEN THE SPIT AND THE LIP--
MY FISH IS ADMIRABLY DRESSED BUT DISAPPEARS, THOUGH NOT DOWN MY THROAT--
I SET TO WORK AGAIN AND CATCH MORE FISH--CONTINUE MY JOURNEY; AM ALMOST
STARVED--MY AMMUNITION EXHAUSTED--SEE SOME HORSES--FALL IN WITH SOME
INDIANS--THEY PROVE TO BE FRIENDS--ACCOMPANY ME ON MY JOURNEY, AND
CONDUCT ME TO THE CAMP OF THE RAGGETS--WE REACH CALIFORNIA, WHERE I
TERMINATE THE ADVENTURES WHICH I NOW GIVE TO THE PUBLIC.

I do not mind confessing that I felt anything but happy perched up at
the top of a tree in that wild American forest, with a hungry and
cunning bear growling away for his breakfast below me. I too was
beginning to feel faint for want of food. The bear seemed to know that,
and to have hopes of starving me into submission. On that point,
however, I determined to disappoint him. Sooner than go down and be
eaten I resolved to die up in the tree, and then he would get nothing
but my dry bones for his pa