I know very well that there exists a good deal of bad feeling between boys and bears, particularly on the part of boys. The trouble began, I suppose, about the time when that old she bear destroyed more than forty boys at a single meeting, for poking fun at a good old prophet. And we read that David, when a boy, got very angry at a she bear and slew her single-handed and alone for interfering with his flock. So you see the feud between the boy and bear family is an old one indeed. But I am bound to say that I have found much that is pathetic, and something that is almost half-human, in this poor, shaggy, shuffling hermit. He doesn't want much, only the wildest and most worthless parts of the mountains or marshes, where, if you will let him alone, he will let you alone, as a rule. Sometimes, out here in California, he loots a pig-pen, and now and then he gets among the bees. Only last week, a little black bear got his head fast in a bee-hive that had been improvised from a nail-keg, and the bee-farmer killed him with a pitchfork; but it is only when hungry and far from home that he seriously molests us. The bear is a wise beast. This is, perhaps, because he never says anything. Next to the giraffe, which you may know never makes any noise or note whatever, notwithstanding the wonderful length of his throat, the bear is the most noiseless of beasts. With his nose to the ground all the time, standing up only now and then to pull a wild plum or pick a bunch of grapes, or knock a man down if he must, he seems to me like some weary old traveler that has missed the right road of life and doesn't quite know what to do with himself. Ah! if he would only lift up his nose and look about over this beautiful world, as the Indians say the grizzly bear was permitted to do before he disobeyed and got into trouble, an account of which you will find further on, why, the bear might be less a bear. Stop here and reflect on how much there is in keeping your face well lifted. The pig with his snout to the ground will be forever a pig; the bear will be a bear to the end of his race, because he will not hold up his head in the world; but the horse--look at the horse! However, our business is with the bear now. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY NOTES, I. A BEAR ON FIRE, II. MUSIC-LOVING BEARS, III. MY FIRST GRIZZLY, IV. TWIN BABIES, V. IN SWIMMING WITH A BEAR, VI. A FAT LITTLE EDITOR AND THREE LITTLE BROWNS, VII. TREEING A BEAR, VIII. BILL CROSS AND HIS PET BEAR, IX. THE GREAT GRIZZLY BEAR, X. AS A HUMORIST, XI. A GRIZZLY'S SLY LITTLE JOKE, XII. THE GRIZZLY AS FREMONT FOUND HIM, XIII. THE BEAR WITH SPECTACLES, XIV. THE BEAR-SLAYER OF SAN DIEGO, XV. ALASKAN AND POLAR BEAR, XVI. MONNEHAN, THE GREAT BEAR-HUNTER OF OREGON, XVII. THE BEAR "MONARCH"--HOW HE WAS CAPTURED, INTRODUCTORY NOTES.