His skin and flesh amply repaid
the farmer for any injury the grain had received. I remember seeing the
bear brought home in triumph on the top of the load of wheat. Bears often
do great mischief by eating the Indian corn when it is ripening; for
besides what they devour, they spoil a vast deal by trampling the plants
down with their clumsy feet. They will, when hard pressed by hunger, come
close to the farmer's house and rob the pig-sty of its tenants. Many years
ago, before the forest was cleared away in the neighbourhood of what is
now a large town, but in those days consisted of only a few poor
log-houses, a settler was much annoyed by the frequent visits of a bear to
his hog-pen. At last he resolved to get a neighbour who was a very expert
hunter to come with his rifle and watch with him. The pen where the
fatling hogs were was close to the log house, it had a long, low, shingled
roof, and was carefully fastened up, so that no bear could find entrance.
Well, the farmer's son and the hunter had watched for two nights, and no
bear came, on the third they were both tired, and lay down to sleep upon
the floor of the kitchen, when the farmer's son was awakened by a sound as
of some one tearing and stripping the shingles from the pen.
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