When mother was a young girl, she taught school in Illinois. Very few
people lived there at that time. The settlements were far apart. The
schoolhouse was built of rough logs, and the chinks were filled with
clay and straw. Instead of glass windows, they had oiled paper to let
in the light.
One night mother staid late at the schoolhouse, to help the girls trim
it with evergreens. It was almost dark when she started for home. She
walked very fast, as she felt lonely. Her way lay through a thick,
tall woods, and the path was narrow.
All at once she saw a big animal in front of her. What was it? A calf?
No; it was a big black bear.
Was she afraid? Of course she was afraid. Shouldn't you be afraid if
you met a big bear in the woods? She had an umbrella in her hand, and
she held the point close to the bear's nose, and opened and shut it as
fast as she could. She called him all the bad names she could think
of, and he walked off, growling.
He was a brave bear, wasn't he, to be afraid of an umbrella? Mother
hurried on, and just as she got to the edge of the woods, out he came
again. Then she opened the umbrella at him again, and shouted as loud
as she could, and away he went.
Mother was so tired and frightened she almost fainted when she got
home. "I don't believe it was a bear; it must have been neighbor
Clapp's big heifer," grandma said.
But just as she said it, they heard a loud squeal. They ran to the
door, and there was the bear carrying off a pig. He had jumped into
the pen and got it.
[Illustration: THE BEARS AT THE ZOÖLOGICAL GARDEN.]
Aunt Stella seized the dinner horn and blew a loud blast. That was
the way they used to call the settlers together when anything was the
matter. There was a great rush for grandfather's house, and when the
men heard about the bear they said. "We must kill him as soon as
possible."
So they had a great hunt for him. They hunted all that night and the
next day. They found him, at last, sitting upon the stump of a hollow
tree, and they killed him.
What do you think they found in the hollow stump? Three little cubs.
The hunters brought the cubs to grandfather's farm, and uncle Stephen
kept one of them for a pet.
My little daughter Anna often asks to hear the story of how the "Bear
wanted to eat grandma." Last summer I took Anna to the Zoölogical
Garden. There we saw a family of bears.
One old bear was sitting in a tree, with his arms folded.
"Why, how pleasant he looks," said Anna. "I don't believe he would eat
anybody."
"No, I don't think he would," I said. "He is tame, and he would rather
have a sweet bun to eat than anything else."
[Illustration: {A LIZARD ON A GRASSY BANK.}]
[Illustration: SHETLAND PONIES AT HOME.]