CHAPTER V
A ROLLICKING ROGUE
About Thanksgiving time Black Bruin suddenly disappeared, and althoughthe premises were searched, no trace of him could be found.
Finally, after two or three days, his master gave up the hunt,concluding that the bear had obeyed the wild instinct in his nature andreturned to the woods. He had no doubt that he was snugly curled up insome hollow tree where he would sleep away the winter months. Whetherhe would ever return to them or not, was a matter of conjecture.
All the family mourned his loss, especially the baby, who cried half aday for "Bar-Bar," as he called the bear.
One cold December evening when the farmer was bedding down the horse,he imagined he heard a deep, steady breathing under the barn floor, andafter listening for some time, was sure of it. His first thought wasthat some neighbor's dog had gone under the barn to sleep, so he wentand lifted up a trap-door that led to the cellar, which was not deep.
He whistled for the dog to come out, but no dog appeared. He couldstill hear the breathing and was much mystified by it, so he got alantern and went under the barn to settle his doubts.
To his great astonishment he found Black Bruin curled up in one corner,nearly covered with old hay that he had scraped together for thepurpose.
He was very sleepy, and only grunted when the man touched him with hisfoot and spoke to him. As he seemed well content with the winterquarters that he had selected, the man left him and went back to hischores.
Not until the middle of March did he again appear, although differentmembers of the family often went to the trap-door and called for him tocome out. He seemed to be obeying a strongly rooted habit in the bearnature, and he doubtless knew what was best for a sturdy cub likehimself.
One warm March morning the mistress thought she heard some one in theback room, and supposing that a neighbor had come in, opened the door.
The intruder was no stranger to the family, for there was Black Bruin,standing on his hind legs, licking off the sticky outside of amaple-syrup pail. He had remembered his old delight in syrup.
Perhaps he had even got a whiff of the sweet on the spring air, and hisnose had told him what was going on. The bear's scent is very keen,and this and his acute hearing make up for his poor eyesight.
Black Bruin, on his reappearance, was at once taken back into thefamily's affection, and petted and spoiled, all of which seemed to suithim admirably.
For a week or two, however, he would eat very little, and appeared tocome to his appetite gradually. At first the good people thought hewas sick, but an old woodsman explained to them that the bear wasalways fastidious after hibernation. In the wild state he will eatonly buds and grasses, and perhaps a very few roots. He is wise, afterthe way of the wild beasts, and knows that his digestive organs are notin condition to do hard work; but when the right hour comes, he willhave a meal that will make up for much fasting.
The roguishness and capacity for mischief that Black Bruin had shownduring his first year of cubhood, increased tenfold, as he grew olderand stronger.
Tree-climbing, which he had learned late in the summer of his firstyear, became a passion with him. He climbed the elms and the maplesalong the road and the fruit trees in the orchard. In the barn, too,he clambered about on the scaffolds and pried into all the corners withhis inquisitive nose.
A neighbor's boy often came to the farmhouse to romp and wrestle withthe bear-cub. Nothing pleased him more than a rough-and-tumble, and hewas quite an expert wrestler, once he learned how to floor hisadversary.
Whenever two or three boys came into the farmyard, if Black Bruin wasanywhere about, he would shuffle up to them and rearing upon his hindlegs, invite them, in the plainest language, "to come on."
His master also taught him to hold a broom in his arms in imitation ofa gun, and march up and down like a soldier. When this feat wasperformed by their shaggy friend, the children would shout withdelight, at which the cub would loll out his tongue and seem greatlypleased. He appeared to understand clearly that they thought him thesmartest bear in the world.
His old trick of hunting for hens' nests now recurred to him, and hereturned to it with renewed zest. In fact, Black Bruin seemed not toforget any of his many forms of mischief, but rapidly acquired new onesas well.
He not only hunted hens' nests outside, but frequently broke into thehen-house, just like any other chicken thief, and ate eggs freely.
He always skulked into a corner when caught and seemed to expect thethrashing that he got for such thieving.
He followed the farm-hands into the hay-field, as he had done the yearbefore, to look for bumblebees' nests, but he was not content withlawful plunder.
One day the haymakers took their dinner to a distant field where theyexpected to spend the day. All went well until the dinner-hour came,when it was discovered that Black Bruin had tipped over the coffee jug,pulled out the cork, and probably licked up the sweetened fluid. Hehad also opened the dinner-basket, and only a few crumbs and somepickles remained of what would have been dinner for three men.
To add insult to injury, the vagabond was lying asleep upon thefarmer's coat which he had thrown upon the ground, having a fine napafter his hearty meal.
There was nothing to do but for all hands to go back to the farmhousefor dinner.
The farmer had surrounded his beehives with a strong, high, barbed wirefence, and had thought them quite safe even from the prying curiosityof his bear-cub, but one day he found out differently.
On hearing a great humming about the hives, as though the bees wereswarming, he went to investigate. There in the midst of the hives wasthe old honey thief. He had dug a hole in the ground and had crawledunder the barbed wire fence. Two of the hives were overturned andpulled to pieces, and the contents of half a dozen sections licked out.
This was almost too much to bear, but the good-natured farmer dug atrench under the fence, and placed another barbed wire lower down, andthe bees were safe for a time.
Sweet apples and pears were also to Black Bruin's liking. This was allright in itself, but it led to other things.
One summer morning while the farmer was milking, he was startled byhearing apples coming down in showers from the Golden Sweet tree backof the barn. Thinking that some mischievous boy had climbed the treeand was shaking off apples for sport, he rushed into the back yard,determined to punish the offender severely.
"Here, you rascal," he shouted as he neared the tree, "what in theworld are you trying to do?"
The shaking in the tree ceased immediately, but at first the man couldnot locate the truant. Finally he discovered Black Bruin away up inthe top of the tree, where he was well screened by the thick foliage.
"Come down here," cried the farmer in considerable wrath. "Come downhere and I'll give you a good drubbing."
Black Bruin clearly understood from the man's tone that he was angry,so he stayed where he was.
The man then threw apples at him, but they had no more effect upon theculprit than did the grass upon the bad boy in the fable; so the farmergot a long pole and prodded the apple thief until he whined and camescratching down the tree.
Black Bruin was very fond of the Golden Sweets, especially when theywere baked, and probably thinking that there were not enough on theground for family use, he had taken matters into his own hands. Heseemed very penitent, however, so the family finally forgave him, asthey had done so many times before.
When the following week he tried the same tactics upon a winterpear-tree, the consequences were more serious. Black Bruin not onlygot a good drubbing for the prank, but his master secured a dog-collarand chained him to a maple-tree in the yard.
For a while he pulled and sulked, but finally, seeing that it wasuseless, he yielded to the chain. He would beg so hard, though, to belet loose whenever any one went through the yard, that he was alwaysallowed to be unchained and go free, when the family were about andcould watch him.
Once the chain and collar,
together with the bear's uneasiness, nearlycost the cub's life. He would climb up the tree to which he was tiedas far as the chain would allow him to go, and, while playing variousantics on the lower limbs of the tree, he fell. The chain was on oneside of the limb and he was on the other, where he dangled like aculprit on the gallows.
He kicked and choked and tried desperately to catch the limb with hisfore-paws, but it was just out of reach and there seemed nothing forhim to do but strangle.
The tighter the collar grew and the shorter became his breath the morehe kicked and thrashed, until finally the collar broke, and thehalf-strangled bear fell to the ground with a great thud. Feeling thathe had been cruelly treated and insulted, he picked himself up with agroan and a growl, and making for the woods, was not seen again for twodays.
Finally Black Bruin returned to his friends, having had enough of wildlife for that time. He seemed delighted to see them again and wantedto be petted more than ever, and, as if to make amends for his recentbad behavior, was very good for a couple of weeks.
One day the farmer took a super of honey from one of the hives in theback yard, and, as a sort of reward of merit, gave Black Bruin a poundfor his share.
This was an imprudent act upon the part of the bear's master, for honeyto the bear is what whisky is to the drunkard. Not that it intoxicatedhim, but he craved it with an almost insatiate desire.
This pound was but a taste, so he fell to watching the hives again andperhaps plotting as to how he might get at their contents. But thehives seemed quite safe. They were surrounded by a barbed wire fencesix feet high. They were located under a broad spreading apple-tree,however, and this fact gave Black Bruin his chance.
He waited until the farmer had gone to a distant field to work, thenclimbed into the tree, and out on a long limb that overhung the hives.
The limb bent lower and lower until it nearly touched the barbed wirefence, but it was just strong enough for him to make the spring andland in the midst of the hives.
The good housewife heard the humming and buzzing as the bees swarmedout to punish the intruder, and looking out of the back window,discovered the thief.
Not much damage had been done, as he had been detected almost at theoutset; but one thing was now certain; the hives would not be safe fromBlack Bruin any longer.
So the farmer repaired the broken collar and again secured the bear tothe maple, and once more he took up the life of a convict.
But it must not be imagined that Black Bruin led a very lonely lifeeven upon the chain, for the children frequently took him berrying, orto the deep woods for nuts.
When the apples had been picked and most of the honey taken from thehives, he was again given the freedom of the place to come and go as hewished.
But the very worst of all Black Bruin's mischief and thieving cameabout the second week in November, when he had been upon his goodbehavior for several weeks, and the family hoped that he had reformed.
One night the household was awakened by the most violent and persistentsquealing of a pig. It did not seem to be any of the pigs at the farm,but the sound came from down the road and it steadily drew nearer tothe buildings.
What it all meant the farmer could not imagine, so he hurriedly dressedand went out-of-doors to find out.
He was just in time to see Black Bruin come shambling into the yardcarrying a pig, of perhaps twelve pounds' weight, in his mouth. He washolding him by one hind leg and the load was so heavy that the culpritcould barely keep the poor pig's nose from dragging on the ground.
The farmer at once went to his assistance and rescued him, to the greatdisgust of Black Bruin, who growled and plainly gave his master tounderstand that he considered the pig his own property. He had not gothim out of the home sty, so that his master had no right to interfere.
Again Black Bruin paid the penalty for misbehavior and was chained up,while next morning, the farmer had the humiliation of carrying the pighome.
After about a week more of life upon the chain, the culprit slipped hiscollar and disappeared. This time the farmer remembered hisdisappearance of the fall before and finally looked under the barn,where he found him curled up for his winter's sleep.