The National tribune., 1902-06-26
WHEN YOU MEET A BEAR.
Experience of One Who Makes the Woods
and Fields His Study.
VIM. J. LONG IN THE OUTLOOK.

has the other. On your tramps and camps
| i'll the, big woods you may be on the look
| out for MOoween; you may be eager ana
even anxious to meet him; but when you
double the point or push into the blueDerry
patch and suddenly there he is, blocking
the path ahead looking straight into your
eyes to fathom at glance your intentions,
then, fancy, the experience is like that of
people who have the inquisitive habit of
| looking under their beds nightly for
| burglar, and at last find him there, slowed
| away snugly, just where they always eX-
pccted him to be.
What he will do, under the unusual cir
cunstances, depends largely, not upon him
self, but upon you. With one exception
his feelings are probably the reverse of
your own. II you are bold. he is timid- as
| a rabbit: if you are panic-stricken, he
knows exactly what to 90; if you are fear
| full he has no fear; if YOU are inqulsItiye
he is instantly shy: and, like all other wild
creatures, he has an almost uncanny way
of understanding your thought. 1t Is as
| if. i'll that intent. penetrating gaze of his
he saw your soul turned inside out for his
! inspection. The only exception is when
you meet him without fear or curiosity,
with the desire simply to attend to your
| own affairs, as if he We're Il stranger and
| an equal. That rare mental attitude he
understands perfectly-for is it not his
own and he goes his way quietly, rs if
he had not seen you.
For every chance meeting MoOween
seems to have plan of action ready,
which he applies without question or an
instant's hesitation. Make an unknown
sound behind him, as he plods along the
shore, and he hurls himself headlong into
the cover of the bushes, as if your voice
had touched a button that released coil
ed spring beneath him. Afterwards he
may come back to find out what frightened
him. Sit perfectly still, and he rises on
his hind legs for a look and a long sniff to
find out who you are. Jump ut him with
a yell and flourish the instant he appears
and he will hurl chips and dirt back nj
you as he digs his toes into the hillside for
better grip and acrambles away, within
pcring like Il scared puppy.
Once in a lifetime, as you steal through
the Autumn weed; or hurry over the trail,
you may hear sudden loud rustlings and
Ishakiiigs Oh the hardwood ridge above you,
as if Il small cyclone We're perchcd there
for while. amusing itself among the
leaves before blowing OH. Then. if you
steal up toward the sound. you will find
Mcowcen standing on a big limb of a
bcech-tree. graspinG the narrowing trunk
above with his powerful fOrearmS Juggling
and pushing nightly to shake down the
riDe bCechnutS. The rattle and dash of
the falling fruit are such music to Moo
wcen's ears that he will not hear the rustic
% your approach, nor the twig that snaps
under your careless foot.
If you cry aloud now, under the hilari-
Gus impression that you have him sure at
last, there is another surprise awaiting
you. And that suggests a bit Of advice,
which is most pertinent: don't stand under
The bear when YOU cry out. If lie is Il lit
IL: fellow, he will shoot up til. tree, faster
than ever n jumping jack went up his
tick. and hide in cluster of leaves. as
PEAR the top as he can get. But if he is Il
big bear, he will tumble down on you be-
fore you know what has happened. No
SLOW climbing for him; hone of the hating
and looking and searching of the rough
bark with his claws for a better grip.
which mark his usual cautious dnscrlt.
He just lets 90 and comes down by eravi-
tItion. As Uncle Remus savS--who has
sOn.c Ieen knowledge of amin Il ways I'M
der his storytelling humor-"Brer Par,
tree. en- den he turn everything loose en-
hit d. groun' kerbiff, Look like 'twuz nuff
ter jolt de life out'n i'm
| Somehow il never does Jolt the life out
# hm, notwithstanding his great weight;
nor does it interfere in any way with his
speed Of action. which is ike lightning,
the instant he touches The ground. Like
the c. on. who can fall from an Incredible
distarcc without hurting himself, Moo
wecn comes down perfectly limp. falling
on himself like 4 great cushion; but the
moment he strikes all his muscles seem to
| contract at once and he bounds off like n
rubber ball into the denscst bit of cover
at hand.
Twice have | seen him come down in
this way. The first time there We're two
cubs. nearly fCll-grown in n tree. One
went up at our shout; the other came
down with such startling suGlenness that
the man who stood ready with his rifle TO
shoot the hear jumped for his life 70 get
out of the way: and before he had blinked
| the establishment out of his eyes MOoween
was gone, leaving only Il violent nodding
of the ground spruces to tell what had be-
come of him.
All these plans of ready action in Moo
ween's head. for the rare occasions when
| he meets you unexpectedly, are the result
Of careful training by his mother. If you
should ever have the good fortune to
watch a mother bear and her cubs, when
| they have 10 idea that you are near them,
you will note two characteristic things.
First, when they are traveling-and Moo
ween is the most restless tramp in all the
wOOdS-you will see that the cubs follow
the mother closely and initiate her every
action with iudicrOus eXactnesS-Snfiins
Nh'i' Sii' Hi'ihH' Jumping "h'it HH'
jumps. rising on their hind legs with fore
arms hanging loosely and pointed noses
thrust sharp up into the wind, on the in
slant that she rises. and then drawing 81
lently away from the shore into the shelter
of the friendly alders when some subtle
warning tells the mothers nose that the
coast ahead is not perfectly clear So they
learn to sift the sounds and smells of the
wilderness, ard to govern their actions ac-
cordingly. And. second, when they are
playing You will see that the mother
watches the cubs every action as keenly
as they watched hers an hour ago. She
will sit fat on her launches, her fore
paws planted between her Outstretched
hind legs, her great head on one side not
ing every detail of their boxing and wrest-
ling and climbing, as if she had shown
them once how it ought to be done, and
| were watching now to see how well they
remembered their lessons. And. now and
then, one or the other of the cubs receives
a sound cutting, for which / am unable to
account, except on the theory that he was
doing something contrary to his plain in
| Struct0nS.
1t is only when Mooween meets some
new object or some circumstance entirely
outside of his training that instinct and
native wit are set TO work: and then you
see for the first time some trace of hesita-
ton on the part of this self-confident
prowler of the big woods. Once | startled