"Another time I was out in our cornfield, and hearing a rustling, looked
through the stalks, and saw a brown bear with two cubs. She was slashing
down the corn with her paws to get at the ears. She smelled me, and
getting frightened began to run. I had a dog with me this time, and
shouted and rapped on the fence, and set him on her. He jumped up and
snapped at her flanks, and every few instants she'd turn and give him a
cuff, that would send him yards away. I followed her up, and just back
of the farm she and her cubs took into a tree. I sent my dog home, and
my father and some of the neighbors came. It had gotten dark by this
time, so we built a fire under the tree, and watched all night, and told
stories to keep each other awake. Toward morning we got sleepy, and the
fire burnt low, and didn't that old bear and one cub drop right down
among us and start off to the woods. That waked us up. We built up the
fire and kept watch, so that the one cub, still in the tree, couldn't
get away. Until daylight the mother bear hung around, calling to the cub
to come down."
"Did you let it go, uncle?" asked Miss Laura.
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