“Everybody hated bears, and hadn’t much pity for them; still they were only getting their meat as other wild animals do, and we’d no right to set such cruel traps for them as the steel ones.  They had a clog attached to them, and had long, sharp teeth.  We put them on the ground and strewed leaves over them, and hung up some of the carcass left by the bear near by.  When he attempted to get this meat, he would tread on the trap, and the teeth would spring together, and catch him by the leg.  They always fought to get free.  I once saw a bear that had been making a desperate effort to get away.  His leg was broken, the skin and flesh were all torn away, and he was held by the tendons.  It was a foreleg that was caught, and he would put his hind feet against the jaws of the trap, and then draw by pressing with his feet, till he would stretch those tendons to their utmost extent.

“I have known them to work away till they really pulled these tendons out of the foot, and got off.  It was a great event in our neighborhood when a bear was caught.  Whoever caught him blew a horn, and the men and boys came trooping together to see the sight.  I’ve known them to blow that horn on a Sunday morning, and I’ve seen the men turn their backs on the meeting house to go and see the bear.”

“Was there no more merciful way of catching them than by this trap?” asked Miss Laura.

“Oh, yes, by the deadfall—­that is by driving heavy sticks into the ground, and making a box-like place, open on one side, where two logs were so arranged with other heavy logs upon them, that when the bear seized the bait, the upper log fell down and crushed him to death.  Another way was to fix a bait in a certain place, with cords tied to it, which cords were fastened to triggers of guns placed at a little distance.  When the bear took the bait, the guns went off, and he shot himself.

“Sometimes it took a good many bullets to kill them.  I remember one old fellow that we put eleven into, before he keeled over.  It was one fall, over on Pike’s Hill.  The snow had come earlier than usual, and this old bear hadn’t got into his den for his winter’s sleep.  A lot of us started out after him.  The hill was covered with beech trees, and he’d been living all the fall on the nuts, till he’d got as fat as butter.  We took dogs and worried him, and ran him from one place to another, and shot at him, till at last he dropped.  We took his meat home, and had his skin tanned for a sleigh robe.

“One day I was in the woods, and looking through the trees espied a bear.  He was standing up on his hind legs, snuffing in every direction, and just about the time I espied him, he espied me.  I had no dog and no gun, so I thought I had better be getting home to my dinner.  I was a small boy then, and the bear, probably thinking I’d be a mouthful for him anyway, began to come after me in a leisurely way.  I can see myself now going through those woods—­hat gone, jacket flying, arms out, eyes rolling over my shoulder every little while to see if the bear was gaining on me.  He was a benevolent-looking old fellow, and his face seemed to say, ‘Don’t hurry, little boy.’  He wasn’t doing his prettiest, and I soon got away from him, but I made up my mind then, that it was more fun to be the chaser than the chased.