On the next day, punctually at the same hour, the bear came again with another thorn, and stayed to dinner as before.  It was not much of a dinner this time—­only the cat, and a roll of stair-carpet, with one or two pieces of sheet music; but true gratitude does not despise even the humblest means of expression.  The succeeding day he came as before; but after being relieved of his torment, he found nothing prepared for him.  But when he took to thoughtfully licking one of the little girl’s hands, “that answered not with a caress,” the mother thought better of it, and drove in a small heifer.

He now came every day; he was so old a friend that the formality of extracting the thorn was no longer observed; it would have contributed nothing to the good understanding that existed between him and the widow.  He thought that three or four instances of Good Samaritanism afforded ample matter for perpetual gratitude.  His constant visits were bad for the live stock of the farm; for some kind of beast had to be in readiness each day to furnish forth the usual feast, and this prevented multiplication.  Most of the textile fabrics, too, had disappeared; for the appetite of this animal was at the same time cosmopolitan and exacting:  it would accept almost anything in the way of entremets, but something it would have.  A hearthrug, a hall-mat, a cushion, mattress, blanket, shawl, or other article of wearing apparel—­anything, in short, that was easy of ingestion was graciously approved.  The widow tried him once with a box of coals as dessert to some barn-yard fowls; but this he seemed to regard as a doubtful comestible, seductive to the palate, but obstinate in the stomach.  A look at one of the children always brought him something else, no matter what he was then engaged on.

It was suggested to Mrs. Pinworthy that she should poison the bear; but, after trying about a hundredweight of strychnia, arsenic, and Prussic acid, without any effect other than what might be expected from mild tonics, she thought it would not be right to go into toxicology.  So the poor Widow Pinworthy went on, patiently enduring the consumption of her cattle, sheep, and hogs, the evaporation of her poultry, and the taking off of her bed linen, until there were left only the clothing of herself and children, some curtains, a sickly lamb, and a pet pigeon.  When the bear came for these she ventured to expostulate.  In this she was perfectly successful:  the animal permitted her to expostulate as long as she liked.  Then he ate the lamb and pigeon, took in a dish-cloth or two, and went away just as contentedly as if she had not uttered a word.

Nothing edible now stood between her little daughters and the grave.  Her mental agony was painful to her mind; she could scarcely have suffered more without an increase of unhappiness.  She was roused to desperation; and next day, when she saw the bear leaping across the fields toward the house, she staggered from her seat and shut the door.  It was singular what a difference it made; she always remembered it after that, and wished she had thought of it before.