by Anna Sewell
CHAPTER XIII
THE BEAR WITH A COLLAR
It may interest the reader to know just how Black Bruin looked in this,his seventh year, when he had acquired his full stature, which wasenormous for a black bear.
The California grizzly occasionally reaches a thousand pounds, whilethe enormous brown Kadiak bears, the largest carnivorous animals in theworld, reach two thousand pounds; but the black bear usually averagesabout two hundred. Black Bruin had far outstripped all hiscontemporaries in size and prowess. In the fall of his seventh year heweighed upon the scales four hundred and two pounds, which fairlyearned him the title of King.
His coat was long, thick, and glossy and black in color.
He was not as high upon the shoulders as one might expect for so largea beast. A wolf that stands thirty or thirty-two inches at theshoulder will weigh one hundred and twenty-five pounds and is a largewolf. Black Bruin was probably thirty-five or forty inches high at theshoulder, but considerably higher in the middle of the back, which alsosloped off at the rear, where he was quite rotund. His tail was soinsignificant as to be hardly noticed at all at a distance. His headwas rather small for so large an animal. His eyes were also small andlooked weak. His claws, which were non-retractile, were not rakishlylong as are the grizzly's, but protruded slightly beyond the long hairupon his feet.
So altogether Black Bruin was most imposing for an eastern bear. Hewas sleek and well-groomed, with the exception of two or three monthsin the early summer when he shed his coat.
Living as he now did within easy reach of the abode of man, he wentmore and more often to the farmhouses and took toll of the farmers.His wariness in regard to men, which he had learned partly of WhiteNose and partly from sad experience, gradually wore away and his oldlife with Pedro helped him to forget how strange and fearful a creatureman is, when dealing with wild beasts.
So while he came and went much more recklessly than he would otherwisehave done, yet his knowledge of man's ways stood him in good stead.
He knew that man was a creature of the day, doing his work in broaddaylight, while the bear is a night prowler. He knew that at morningand evening man came and went from the fields to his den, where healways stayed at night.
He knew at just what hours the man-beast would be sleeping, and when hewould come forth and tend his creatures. He had often followed his ownmaster in the old cubhood days at the farmhouse, from outbuilding tooutbuilding, watching him do the morning chores.
Man's thunder and lightning he also knew and feared more than all hisother powers. Dogs he despised and he also hated them, for they ofteninterrupted him in his thieving.
One Sunday morning early in June Black Bruin had been prowling about alittle Canadian village and had satisfied his appetite with ahen-turkey, which he had happened to discover sitting far from home.He was returning to his mountain, when, in crossing one of those broadpaths in which men always traveled, he so far forgot his usualprecautions as nearly to run into a team carrying a half-witted Frenchboy to early mass, that was being celebrated in the little FrenchCatholic church near by.
Upon seeing the enormous black bear at such close quarters, the boy'shair fairly stood up with fright and whipping up his horse he was soonat the church. Throwing the lines upon the horse's back, he boltedinto the sanctuary, although mass was in progress, crying, "I see onedeevil bar, as beeg as a mountain, I deed."
Just as the boy entered the church, a large Newfoundland dog, which hadfollowed one of the worshipers to mass and was waiting for his masterupon the steps, like a good Catholic, became excited at the boy'sfrantic manner and bounded into the church after him.
Seeing the great shaggy dog appear at the same instant that the boyannounced his "deevil bar," in the dimly lighted church, the worshipersat once jumped to the conclusion that this was the "deevil bar" who hadcome to eat them all up, like the wolf in "Red Riding Hood."
Women and children screamed and rushed for a farther corner of thechurch, while the more hysterical fainted. Even strong men were for asecond startled.
But from his eminence at the altar Father Gaspard saw their mistake andsoon reassured them.
Meanwhile, the innocent cause of all the disturbance had been as muchscared by the team as had the half-witted boy by him, and was makingfor the deep woods at his best pace.
One night, early in July, Alec Pierre, a wood-chopper, came to thevillage with a startling story. He had been chopping two or threemiles back in the heavy timber. His own home was closer to theprimeval forest than any other of the many straggling farmhouses.
He had taken his dinner, going and coming at morning and evening. Eachnoon he went to a cool spring which he knew of, to eat his lunch.
This noon he had gone as usual, only to discover that some one hadgotten ahead of him. There by the spring, sitting upon his haunches,was an enormous black bear. In his paws he was holding thecoffee-bottle, looking at it intently, while his countenance plainlybespoke satisfaction with the discovery.
While the woodsman was wondering what was the best thing to do, thebear raised the bottle to his mouth, and biting upon the cork with histeeth, pulled it out. Then he put the nose of the bottle in his mouthand drank the contents with as much ease as if he had been the realowner.
"I so scart I jes' stan' there an' say nutting. He eat my doughnut, heeat my pie. He act jes' like folks. Pretty soon I keep on lookingsome more an' I see down in his har, round hees neck one peeg collar,jes' like a dog.
"Heem one beeg deevil. I so scart when he drink out uv de bottle, I nosay nutting. He eat my pie, I no say nutting. I 'fraid he take my gunby the tree an' shoot me. By gar.
"By and by he go way and I go up an' look. Perhaps I t'ink I beendreaming. So I pinch my lage an' it hurt, an' then I look aroun' an'there bar-track beeg as snow-shoe.
"Eet so queer I t'ink heaps an' heaps. Then pretty soon I t'ink hesome puddy tame bar run away. He break he chain. That why heemcollar. I say to myself, no chain, no collar.
"Heem one tame bar run away. He know how do treeks. I catch heem inone small log-house I beeld. When circus come round next week, or two,I seel heem get pig money."
Those villagers who listened to Alec's tale agreed that his reasoningwas good, but most of them characterized the story as one big lie, andthought no more of it. But not so Alec. He had seen that day in thewood the most wonderful sight of his life, a bear eating like folks,and he could not get out of his head the idea that the capture of thatbear meant a fortune to the trapper who should accomplish the feat.
Perhaps, there was also some superstition linked with his curiosity,for nearly all Canucks are superstitious; but at any rate the very nextday he set about building the trap that should capture the "deevilbar," and make him a rich man.
The trap upon which Alec relied for the capture of Black Bruin was apen-trap. It was made in the following manner:
Alec looked about until he discovered four trees, growing in two pairsten or twelve feet apart. These sets of pillars were to be the fourcorners of the trap. He then set to work to cut small logs eight orten inches in diameter. These were a couple of feet longer than thepen was to be and were built up one above another on the inside of thepillars, being held in place against the trees by strong stakes drivendeep into the ground.
In this manner the two sides and the back end of the pen-trap wereformed. The top was covered with poles, weighted down with stones.The trap-door, which was at the front, was made of plank and slid upand down in a groove. When it was raised, it was held in place by acord which passed over the top of the pen-trap and down on the backside, finally attaching to a trigger connecting with a spindle insidethe pen, at the farther end. The bait was to be placed on this spindleand a tug upon it would let go the trap-door. As this was weightedwith stones, it came down with a bang and anything unfortunate enoughto be inside was caught in a prison of great strength.
It took Alec two days to build the trap, and when it was finished hecarefully r
emoved all chips and traces of his carpentering.
Usually a bear will not go near anything so new and apparently man-madeas a green pen-trap. So Alec did not expect success for several days.In the meantime he took pains to bait Black Bruin and keep him in thevicinity by placing near the spring meat and other food, that hiswoodsman's instinct told him would be appreciated by a hungry bear. Hedid not forget an occasional bottle of coffee. Although he did not seethe bear again for several days, yet the meat and the coffee alwaysdisappeared, which was pretty good evidence that he was near by.
Black Bruin heard Alec hacking and hewing at the trap, but did notconsider it anything out of the ordinary. This queer creature wasalways hacking and hewing at the trees. He had often seen hishandiwork piled up in long straight piles. Once for mere amusement hehad scattered a pile in every direction.
When he at last came suddenly upon the pen-trap one day, after it hadbeen baited for some time, he gave a surprised grunt and backed off afew feet to get a better view. It looked very queer and verysuspicious. He was quite sure that it had not been there a week ago,for he was well acquainted with the region.
It was made of trees, but trees usually grew upright, and they alwayshad limbs upon them. The ends of the logs were hacked and green likethe sticks in the wood-pile.
Black Bruin circled around and around the pen-trap, gradually drawingnearer and nearer to it. Finally he came close enough to peep in atthe doorway. Inside it was rather dark, but at last he both saw andsmelled the calf's head that hung from the spindle. Meat had also beenrubbed about the doorway, which was most tantalizing, especially asBlack Bruin had not had any for three days.
He licked the particles of meat that still stuck to the logs about thedoorway and then started to go in, but it seemed dark and suspicious;beside there was a very faint suggestion of man-scent inside. Outsidethe rain and the wind had obliterated all foreign scents. Man-scentmeant danger. Man was no friend of the wild creatures, so Black Bruinbacked out and very reluctantly went away.
When Alec visited his trap the next day, he did not go near enough tosee the bear-tracks in the fresh dirt about the door, for he did notcare to leave fresh man-scent in its vicinity; so he was ratherdiscouraged with the failure of his efforts. The trap had now been setfor a week and nothing apparently had been near it.
The next day Black Bruin again visited the trap, but his suspicionswere still keen and as he had killed a wood-chuck that morning, hisappetite was not ravenous, so he again left the bait untasted.
The third time that he came near the spot, which somehow had afascination for him, he smelled a new and bewitching odor, one that abear is almost powerless to resist. It brought back to his mind thatold tantalizing picture of the row of white beehives in the back yardof the farmhouse.
The scent made his mouth drip saliva, and his manner, which a momentbefore had been suspicious and guarded, was now eager and full ofcuriosity and impatience.
He went at once to the doorway of the pen-trap and thrust in his head.It was as he had thought,--the ravishing scent came from inside.
He sniffed several times and with each whiff of the honey became moreimpatient. There, dangling from the spindle, was a section of thecoveted sweet.
Black Bruin stepped inside and stretched out his muzzle toward thehoney; then he detected a man-scent about the frame that he had notnoticed before. He backed out and the hair rose on his neck.
He then smelled all about the sides of the pen. There was nosuggestion of man-scent there. Again he returned to the honey.
The taint about that was certain, but the honey almost drove himfrantic. So with a sudden motion he snatched the coveted prize in hismouth and gave a hard tug at it. He would seize it before theman-scent had power to injure him and then flee.
But quick as were the motions of Black Bruin, the trap was quicker, forthe moment the trigger was loosed, the cord let go the drop-door anddown it came with a great bang. The bear was suddenly in darkness.
With a loud "Uff" he dropped the honey and turned in the pen, but thedoorway by which he had entered was closed. He sprang upon it with agrowl and pushed with all his might, but he was pushing against thepillars, which were two trees nearly a foot in diameter, and he mightas well have pushed against the side of a cliff.
Then he whirled about and, seizing the spindle in his mouth, pulledviolently upon it, but it availed him nothing.
Then he assailed first one wall and then another in rapid succession.He tore the bark and also great pieces from the logs with his teeth,but the logs were thick and he merely strewed the inside of the trapwith bark and splinters, leaving it still as strong as ever. Then hebraced crosswise upon the trap and tried to push the logs from theirplaces. They gave a very little when he put forth his giant strength,but the effort was futile.
Then he stood upon his hind legs and tried to reach the poles overheadwith his paw, but the trap was too high for this.
For hours he raged and tore at the logs which held him so effectively.He stripped the inside of the pen entirely free of bark, and litteredthe floor with a bushel of splinters; but all his tearing and biting,pushing and straining, prying and growling, availed him nothing.
At last his great strength was worn out and in the place of rage atbeing restrained fear came over him. It was man that had done thisthing. The scent on the honey-frame plainly said as much. He wasagain in the clutches of that dread creature.
Now his fear grew tenfold. The giant lay down in a corner, as far aspossible away from the honey that had cost him his freedom, and coweredlike a whipped dog, with his head between his paws and fear clutchinghim like an awful force that he was powerless to resist.
The following morning when Alec visited his trap, he found to his greatjoy that it was sprung. Going up cautiously, he peeped through a crackbetween the logs. There was the gigantic black bear cowering inside.
When Alec's eyes became accustomed to the gloom of the pen, he saw thatthe bear wore the heavy collar about his neck, although it was deeplyimbedded in the fur, and at this assurance, Alec gave a shout ofdelight.
"Heem, my deevil bar, sure enough," he exclaimed, and at the hatedman-sound Black Bruin drew farther into his corner.
That afternoon an ox-cart, bearing a mammoth crate made of two by fourtimbers, came creaking into the woods and was backed up to thepen-trap. For an hour or so there was a sound of hammering while aplank-covered gangway was being built from the pen-trap to the strongcrate.
Then, to the great astonishment of Black Bruin, the door of thepen-trap slowly lifted, and the way to freedom seemed plain.
With a sudden rush he scrambled up the gang-plank into the crate, and asecond trap-door, as strong as that in the pen-trap, closed behind himand he was a prisoner in a new house.
For a long time Black Bruin could not realize that he was still aprisoner. The light streamed in between the strong bars. He could seehis captors all about him. They were three excited, gesticulating men,all dark, and to Black Bruin's eyes, sinister-looking like Pedro.
He put his paws between the bars and strained with all his might.
They pounded his paws and prodded him to make him desist, but he didnot mind their blows any more than he would those of a child. Freedomwas so near at hand. The green woods, the sweet wild woods, his woodswere all about him. The blue sky was above him. The fragrant windblew fresh through his prison-bars.
It could not be that he was helpless so near to freedom. Presentlythese strong bars would break and he would rush into the wilderness andflee far from the haunts of men.
Then the slow and curious procession started. One of the men drove thecattle and the other two walked by the side of the crate, prodding andbeating Black Bruin whenever he strained too frantically at theprison-bars.
Slowly they drew out of the woods with its long dark shadows and itsaroma of pine and balsam. Gradually the forest with its dells and itsthickets, its ferns and witch-hazel, its bird-song and its chatteringsquirr
els, its sense of freedom and peace, was left behind and theyemerged into dusty roadways bordered by fields of grass and grain.
This was the habitat of man, his world, with which Black Bruinassociated a chain and a collar, a sharp stick and curses and endlesstricks.
At last he ceased to struggle and strain and stood with his head at therear of his cage, looking back at his vanishing world. Slowly thegreen plumes of the forest faded. Even the outline of the distantmountains was at last lost and the flat farmlands, dotted withfarmhouses and carpeted with grain-fields, took its place.
The old world and the old life were left far behind, and when the lastblue hilltop faded, the heart went out of Black Bruin. He no longerexulted in his strength and his cunning, for man had again undone him.
