Being taught to erect themselves on their hind legs, they will move about to the sound of music, in a clumsy, awkward kind of dance. They have been taught also to skate on roller-skates, ride on bicycles, and walk on stilts.

Their flesh is often used for food, and their skin for clothing. Bearskins are made into rugs, coats, caps, and gloves. Of all coarse furs, those of the bear are the most valuable.

In some parts of the world bear-hunting constitutes one of the chief employments of the inhabitants.

A SMART BEAR TRICK

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT knew that children love to hear stories about animals. While on his animal hunting trip in Louisiana in 1907, he did not forget to write to some of his own children about some of the things he saw and heard there. Writing to his son Archie he said: 1

1

"One of the bear-hunting planters with me told me that once he saw a bear, when overtaken by the hounds, lie down flat on its back with all its legs stretched out, while the dogs barked fu

1"Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children." Used by permission of the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, owners of the copyright.

riously all around it. Suddenly the bear sat up with a jump, and frightened all the dogs so that they nearly turned back somersaults."

PERFORMING TRICKS FOR

SWEETMEATS

LIKE some other animals, bears are willing to perform tricks for some sweet morsel of food.

For many years bears have been kept in deep pits walled in and surmounted with iron fences in the Garden of Plants, in Paris. At the bottom of these pits are caves into which the bears may go whenever they choose.

During the hours of exhibition, these pits have often been thronged with men, women, and children who have gone there to see these interesting animals perform. Some of them will lie down, roll over, assume a begging posture, make funny faces, and play many pranks for a little piece of cake or a bit of bread thrown to them. Sometimes one of them will climb up a dead tree planted in the middle of the pit. Such a feat is generally rewarded with a more generous gift of bread, cake, or sweetmeat.

Some years ago one bear in this garden named Martin was particularly noted for his numerous

feats of grimacing, tumbling, and assuming various attitudes. He knew his name, and on being called would perform for the entertainment of his admiring spectators.

BRUIN GOT THE HONEY

ONE afternoon in November, 1919, James Cunningham, of Bear Creek, Pennsylvania, went to get some honey he had found in the woods in the trunk of a fallen tree. But just as he began filling his pails, a big black bear came along, and he fled. After he had run two miles, he met a party of hunters, to whom he related his experience.

The hunters made a hasty trip back with him to the bee-tree. On seeing them coming, Bruin darted off into the forest. The hunters kept on the trail of the bear for a time, but without capturing him, while Mr. Cunningham filled his pails with the honey he had found. Darkness coming on, he decided to camp in the forest for the night.

After building a camp-fire, he went to sleep; but soon he was awakened by the snort of the bear. Jumping up, he discovered Bruin, evidently the same one seen in the afternoon, coming toward him at a rapid pace.

Again he fled, and found shelter in an old min

मे

ing-camp. When daylight came, he went back and found that the bear had devoured the honey, leaving him only his empty pails.

Like most children, bears are very fond of honey.

HUNTING A BLACK BEAR

A BLACK bear had been seen to go into a small patch of woods in Steuben County, New York, one day, near a farmhouse. Three men, armed with a gun, a hammer, and a small dog, undertook to hunt him out.

They planned that two of them, with the gun, should stand on one side of the woods, while the other, with the hammer and dog, would go around on the other side and drive the bear out on the side where the men with the gun were.

But it did not work out as they had planned. Instead, the bear came out where the man and dog were, and at once attacked the man, and would doubtless have killed him had it not been for the dog. But every time the bear made for the man the plucky dog, though small, would bite the bear's legs and hindquarters. The bear would then make for the dog, when the man would get in a few good blows on his head with his hammer. In this way he finally succeeded in killing the bear.

CONFLICT OF EARLY PIONEERS

PIONEER life in a new country often involves many hardships and dangers. So the early settlers of America found it. They were frequently attacked by both the native Indians and wild animals.

Virginia, one of the earliest sections of the country to be settled, is commonly known as the "Old Dominion." The author of "Life in the Old Dominion" says: “Ofttimes a venturesome pioneer, dissatisfied with the quality of his tobacco soil, would move out into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of a better location. On such a trip he was frequently attacked by the savage black bear of the upland country, and a duel to the death would follow."

ESCAPE FROM A GRIZZLY BEAR

THERE are few animals more tenacious of life than the bear. The chance of killing one with a single shot is small, unless the ball penetrates the brain or passes through the heart.

When the bear is merely wounded, it is very dangerous to attempt to kill him with any weapon which brings one within his reach. A wounded bear will often turn with fury on his pursuers.