ndians on Lake Superior
when Fort Mackinaw was taken by Indians. This was in the time of the
Indian war which is called Pontiac's War, because the great chief
Pontiac started it.

Nearly all the white men in Fort Mackinaw were killed, but Mr. Henry
was saved. He had an Indian friend named Wawatam, who paid for his
life. He went to live with Wawatam. He had his head shaved, and put on
the dress of an Indian. He lived and hunted as the Indians did.

One day Mr. Henry saw a very large pine tree. Its trunk was six feet
in diameter. The bark had been scratched by a bear's claws. Far up on
the tree there was a large hole. All about this hole the small
branches were broken.

Mr. Henry looked at the snow. There were no bear tracks in it. So he
thought that an old bear had climbed up into the tree before the snow
fell. Bears sleep nearly all winter. They do not even come out to get
anything to eat.

Mr. Henry told the Indians about the tree. There was no way of getting
up to the bear's hole. They could not get the bear out except by
cutting down the tree. But the Indian women did not believe that the
Indians could do it. Their axes were too small to chop down so big a
tree.

However, the Indians wanted the bear's oil, which is of great use to
them. It serves them for lard, and butter, and many other things. So
at the tree they went with their little axes. As many as could stand
about the tree worked at a time, and when one rested, another chopper
took his place. They all worked, men and women, and they chopped all
day. When the sun went down, they had chopped about halfway through
the tree.

The next morning they began again. They chopped away until about two
o'clock. Then the top of the great pine tree began to tremble. Slowly
it leaned a little. Then the tree began to fall. Everybody got far out
of the way. It fell down among the other trees with a crash that made
the woods roar, and lay at last upon the ground.

[Illustration]

But no bear came out of the big tree. Mr. Henry began to be afraid
that there was no bear there. He thought such a crash was enough to
wake up the sleepiest bear in the world. At last the nose of a bear
was poked out of the hole. Then came the head. Then came out the great
brown body of one of the largest bears in the woods. Mr. Henry shot
the bear dead.

Though the Indians kill and eat bears, they are very much afraid of
the ghosts of the bears after they are dead. They are more afraid of