The Irish standard., 1889-02-23

made it drop the ha1c; but felt nightly re-
ieved-at least did-to see it scuttle like
thief out of the shack. The funniest thing
to me about both these ourglarious varmint
was that neither Of 'en showed & tooth, Or
seemed to lose temper, as we broke IN on
'eu. From what we could see of 'em they
impressed us as good-natured animals, who
regarded the situa ton of affairs as any thing
but tragical. Seattle had had similar ex-
periences of the friendly advances Of griz-
lilies before, especially in the old times. be-
fore the s5Os, but I never had, and, had
been alone, should certainly have taken to
my Winchester and tried to drive 'em OF.
But it was very evident by this time that
Seattle knew what he was talking about,
and the bears in this gulch were visiting Us
in spirit OF prying curiosity, if not pos
tive friendliness. and were also, most like
ly, attracted by the aroma of friz2ling bacon.
We were in the back room looking over
the mischief the last bear had wrought
among our provisions, when the same ami
NAL, as far as we could judge, thrust his
head inquir1ngly into the front door Seat
tie swore good-natured oath about this re-
markable exhibition Of cheek, and hurled
a tin dough-pan at him. The noise Of the
pan scared him away, but he stopped and
turned round before he had gone many
steps, and seemed half inclined to come
back The taste of ham hung around his
chops, and but for his dread OF the torches
believe he'd have come back and disputed its
possession with us anyhow, for if there IS
one thing q bear likes better than any thing
else it's a nice sugar-cured hatE. a bear
will stow away moro ham than a Sioux,
which is saying good deal more for the
bear than you might suppose.
AS we sat by the lire and slowed away
f1a7rjacks and bacon and coffee, one OF the
biggest Of the grizzlies sat on his launches
just beyond the circle Of the glow, survey
ing us with wistfui leer and licking his
chops as though hegrudging as every mouth
ful we took. hate any body, man, Inlun
or bear, to sit and stare and look hungry
and wistful while eat; but Seattle allowed
we'd have to put up with it, as it would
never DO to shoot or abuse them hard
enough to make 'em fight back. The bear
acted more like a big dog, who was afraad
to come too near for fear OF q Kick, but was
in no unfriendly mood. Now and then, as
we tossed a pancake over, and the aroma Of
bacon fat foated down his way, be seemed
nightly tempted to come up to the FIRE and
make himself at home. Seattle, however,
was prompt to check any undue familiarity
by tossing pine knots at him. The best
way, Seattle said, with both bears and In
iuns, is to draw the line at familiarity
Both Of 'e1n will steal from white man,
even whom on the friendliest terms, and
unless you keep 'em in their place they'll
run oyer you sure.
When Seattle threw pine knots at him the
grizzly simply shufled over to one SIDE a
little and sat down as before. He looked SO
friendly and good natured as the blaze
leaped up and revealed his face that Seattle
finally tossed him hot pancake sprinkled
with sugar. The grizzly picked it up with
his paw, and waving it in the air until it
became COOL holted it with . relish SO keen
and comical that we both roared with laugh
ter. The bear sidled up foot or two
closor as we burst out t}aughing, and Seattle
swore by all the grizzlies he'd ever seen
that this one grinned broad, good-natured
smile in response to our own merrimeut.
He allowed, however, that it would never
do to lei the bear presume too far On our
good nature, or the first thing we knew it
would do hobnobbing with us over our sup
per and helping itself to cakes and bacon.
We became so absorbed over our supper
and the friendly attentions Of Old Eph, AS
Seattle called him, that we forgot about the
rest of the herd. They didn't suffer us to
ignore them long, however; for the door OF
the shack, which we had taken care to close
and fasten, gave way with crash, and we
looked round to sec the big, numbering
grizzly that had burst it in topple into tue
shack with it. The noise of the forcible
entry rather startled the BOLD burglar,
however, and he backed out OF che shack
with laughable haste, looking over his
shoulder at US to see whether he had been
discovered. Seattle jumped up and hurled
pine knot at him. He hesitated moment,
as if to make sure whether we were really
in earnest about objecting to his going in
side; then, as Seattle grabbed up another
firebrand, he scurried of around the shack.
his ground about the edge Of the glimmer
and looked at us, so we fancied, in mild re-
proach for not being more hospitable. Sup
per ended, we tossed him the bacon rinds
and another pancake, and then lit our pipes
and talked the situation over.
Evidently there was no getting rid OF our
unweleome guests that night at any rate,
50 we moved the fire over to the door of the
shack, and took turns in sitting up to keep
it going. All night long the weird shapes OF
the grizzlies loomed up here and there, just
beyond the circle of the camp fires glow,
and several times woolly mead peeped
round the corner of the shack. It was the
queerest night ever spent as regards
bears; as old Seattle's theory about ''friend-
" seasons'' was no longer subject to the
shadow of doubt in my mind, spent .
good part Of my watch musing over the
probable explanation.
Well, the morning came and at the first
streak of dawn the bears disappeared for
the time being. AS my own musings failed
to enlighten me, I appealed again to Seattle;
"I told you it's the moon and the sum-"
said he. task any old-timer if you don't
believe me''
The old-timers, however, are about all
gone where they can not answer the ques-
tions of mortalss and since Seattle was
right about the s' friendly seasons"
reckon he must be right, TOO. about the
moon and SUM-. Y. Sun.
Noiseless Light-Giving Clock.
A curious invention has been produced in
the shape Of noiseless clock, for use more
especially in sick rooms. In place Of the
usual pendulum the hands are set in motion
by the unrolling Of chain, the end Of which