With maple sugar, the farmers' wives never need lack a
tart nor a dish of fruit and cream The poor Irish emigrants' children go
out and gather pailsful, which they carry to the towns and villages to
sell. The birds, too, live upon the fruit, and flying away with it to
distant places, help to sow the seed. A great many small animals eat the
ripe raspberry, for even the racoon and great black bear come in for their
share.
"The black bears! O nurse! O Mrs. Frazer!" exclaimed Lady Mary, in great
astonishment. "What! do bears eat raspberries?"
"Yes, indeed, my lady, they do. Bears are fond of all ripe fruits. The
bear resembles the hog in all it's tastes very closely; both in their wild
state will eat flesh, grain, fruit, and roots."
"There is a story about a beat and an Indian hunter, which will show how
bears ear berries. It is from the Journal or Peter Jacobs, The Indian
missionary:--
"At sunrise, next morning," he says, "we tried to land, but the water was
so full of shoals, we could not without wading a great distance."
"The beach before us was of bright sand, and the sun was about, when I saw
an object moving on the shore: it appeared to be a man, and seemed to be
making signals of distress. We were all weary and hungry, but thinking it
was a fellow-creature in distress, we pulled towards him.
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