Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-04

hurt him. but not as It had hurt him the
preceding evening. His discomfort was not
all in his shoulder, and 1t was not In any
one place in particular He was sick, and
had ne been human he would have been
in bed with a thermometer under his tongue
and n doctor holding his pulse. He walked
up the gorge slowly and laggingly. An
indefatigable seeker Of food. he no longer
thought Of food. He was not hungry and
he did not want TO eat
with his hot tongue he Tapped frequently
at the cool water Of the creek. and oven
more frequently he turned half about and
shifted the wind. He knew that the man
smell and the strange thunder and the still
mere ineXplcable lightning lay behind him.
All night he had been on guard, and he was
cautious now.
For particular hurt Thor knew of no
particular remedy. He was not botanist
in the finest sense OF the word, but in Great
ing him the Spirit Of the Wild had ordained
that he should be his own physician. As
cat seeks catnip, so Thor sought certain
things when he was not feeling well. All
bitterness is not quinine, but certainly Bit
ter things were Thor's remedies, and as he
made his way up the gorge his nose hung
close TO the ground and he shifted in the
low copses and thick bush-tangles he
passed
He came to n small green spot covered
with kinniknic, a ground plant two inches
high, which bore red berries as big as Il
small pea. They were not red now. but
green bitter as gall. and contained an
astrlngent tonic called uvaursi, Thor ate
them,
After that he found soap berries grow
Ing on bushes that looked very much like
currant bushes Tho fruit was already
larger than currants, and turning pink.
Indians ate these berries when they had
fever, and Thor gathered half pint be-
fore he went on They, too, were bitter.
He nosed the trees, and found at last
what he wanted. II was a jackpne and at
several places within his reach the fresh
pitch was oozing. A bear seldom passes
bleeding iackpine. II Is his chief tonic, and
Thor licked the fresh pitch with his tongue.
In this way he absorbed not only turpentine
but also, in roundabout sort of way,
whole pharmaCopeia Of medicines made from
this particular element.
BY the time he arrived at the end of the
gorge Thor's stomach was a fairly we'll
stocked drug emporium Among other
things he had eaten perhaps half quart
of spruce and balsam needles. When dog
is sick he eats grass when a bear is sick
he eats pine or balsam needles II he can get
them. Also he pads his stomach and intes-
tines with them in the last hour before dem
ming himself away for the winter.
The sun was not yet up when Thor came
TO the end Of the gorge, and stood for a few
HloHtuNH AT NIt llouln OF a low cave tfdt
reached back into the wall of the mountain.
How far his memory went back IL would be
impossible 10 say; but in the whole world
as he knew 1t, this cave was home.
il was not more than four feet high and
twice as wide, but il was many times as
deep and was carpeted with a soft white
floor Of sand. In some past age a little
stream had tricllled out Of this cavern
and the far end of II made a comfortable
bedroom for a sleeping bear when the tenn
perature was fifty degrees below zero.
Ten years before Thors mother had gone
in there to sleep through the winter, and
when she waddled out to get her first
glimpse Of spring three little cubs waddled
with her. Thor was one Of them He was
still half blind, for II is five weeks after
grizzly cub is born before he can see and
there was not much hair on his body for
a grizzly cub Is born as naked as a human
baby. His eyes open and his hair begins
to grow at just about the same time. Since
then Thor had denned eight times in that
cavern home
He wanted to go in now. He wanted to
lie down in the far end OF IL and wait until
he felt better. For perhaps two or three
minutes he hesitated smiling yearningy
at the door to his cave, and then feeling
the wind from down the gorge. Something
told him that he should 20 on.
To the westward there was a sIopng
ascent up out Of the gorge to the summit,
and Thor climbed this The sun was we'll
while he rested again and looked down on
| the other half OF his domain.
Even more wonderful was this valley
| than the one into which Bruce and Lang
don had ridden a few hours before. From
range to range II was good two miles
In width, and IN the opposite directions
Il stretched away In great rolling pano-