neck. The lawn was, as before, the
scene of their exploits, the prairie on which the fearful monster was
to be overcome; and, to the credit of their courage be it spoken,
neither Austin, Brian nor Basil, manifested the slightest token of
fear.

Jowler was led by them among the bushes of the shrubbery, that he
might burst out upon them all at once; and this part of the
arrangement answered excellently well, only that Jowler arrived on the
prairie first instead of last; add to which, the bushes having so far
despoiled him of his grizzly hide, the white apron, as to have pulled
it off his back, he set to work mouthing and tearing at it, to get it
from his neck. At last, in spite of a few untoward and unbearlike
actions on the part of Jowler, the attack took place. With undaunted
resolution, Austin sustained Jowler's most furious charges; Brian
scarcely manifested less bravery; and little Basil, though he had
broken his lance, and twice fallen to the earth, made a desperate and
successful attack on his fearful antagonist, and caught him fast by
the tail. It was on the whole a capital adventure; for though they
could not with truth say that they had killed the bear, neither could
the bear say that he had killed them.

The bear hunt being at an end, they set off for the cottage; for the
hunter had promised to describe to them some of the games of the
Indian tribes, and he was soon engaged in giving them an account of
the ball-play of the Choctaws. "At the Choctaw ball-play thousands of
spectators attend, and sometimes a thousand young men are engaged in
the game."

_Hunter._ It is played in the open prairie, and the players have no
clothes on but their trowsers, a beautiful belt formed of beads, a
mane of dyed horse-hair of different colours, and a tail sticking out
from behind like the tail of a horse; this last is either formed of
white horse-hair or of quills.

_Brian._ And how do they play?

_Hunter._ Every man has two sticks, with a kind of hoop at the end,
webbed across, and with these they catch and strike the ball. The goal
on each side, consisting of two upright posts and a pole across the
top, is set up twenty-five feet high; these goals are from forty to
fifty rods apart. Every time either party can strike the ball through
their goal, one is reckoned, and a hundred is the game.

_Basil._ What a scuffle there must be among so many of them!

_Hunter._ When every thing is ready for the game to begin, a gun is