Black Bruin: The Biography of a Bear
Page 10
CHAPTER IX
LIFE IN THE WILD
It was with a wild exultant sense of being free that Black Bruinshuffled through the underbrush and entered the deep woods on this, hisfirst night of actual freedom. Some of the native ferocity of his kindcoursed in his veins. Had he not within the hour slain histormentor--the inexplicable creature who had tyrannized over him andbullied and beaten him for more than a year? But mingled with histriumph was a faint sense of fear that caused him to put many milesbetween himself and the deep gorge before he stopped for food or rest.True, he had seen the limp, lifeless figure fall into the abyss andthen disappear in the dark stream. Still, he might come to life insome miraculous way and pursue him.
It was under most peculiar circumstances that this alien returned tohis native wilderness;--circumstances that we shall have to considerbriefly to understand why so many mishaps befell him during his firstyear of freedom.
From the first moment that the fuzzy little bear-cubs follow their hugemother from the den into the open world, their lessons of life begin.These lessons are acquired partly through imitation and also throughdesign upon the part of the wise old dam. Nearly all small creaturesare imitative, so, as the old bear did only those things that were forher good, the cubs soon learned by imitation which of the wildcreatures to be upon good terms with and which were to be let alone.
The cubs always stay with their mother for a year, usually denning upwith her the first fall, and only being deserted when the new cubscome; so it will be seen that this early training and discipline is ofthe greatest importance. Knowledge that is not gained in this way isusually gained by hard knocks.
At last, being winded and tired with his long flight, Black Bruincrawled into a deep thicket and went to sleep. When he awoke, it wasvery early morning, just the time of day that he and Pedro had been inthe habit of starting on the road.
No more road for him, but if Black Bruin could not get his breakfast ata farm-house, he must seek it elsewhere, for he was fairly ravenousthis balmy summer morning.
He remembered his old grub and ant-hunting habit and was soon busyturning over flat stones and pulling to pieces old rotten logs, wherethere was usually good picking. But it took a great many of theselittle crawlers and creepers to satisfy a half-famished bear.
Finally, Black Bruin scented a chipmunk in a small pile of stones, andhastily began pulling the pile apart to get at the prize.
Poor Chippy, hearing his house tumbling about his head and seeing hisretreat rapidly cut off, burrowed deeper and deeper in the stone-heap,but finally the monster was almost upon him. When one more stone hadbeen lifted, he would be at the bear's mercy. So, with a frightenedsqueak, Chippy made a break for freedom, hoping to gain a stone wallthat he knew was near by.
Thump, thump, thump, went the heavy paws all about him as he dodgedhither and thither, uttering a quick succession of terrified squeaks.
At last one of the great paws fell fairly upon him and his life wascrushed out, while Black Bruin had the keen satisfaction of feelingwarm blood in his mouth.
This success put new enthusiasm into the hunter and he pulled stonesand logs about for an hour or two in a lively manner.
He did not find any more chipmunks and was about to give up hunting forthat morning and go in search of water, when a small black and whitecreature with a bushy tail attracted his attention. It was about thesize of a cat but the body scent was not that of a cat.
Whatever it was, it was small and slow, and could be easily caught andkilled. Whether or not it was good to eat could be determined later,so the hunter hurried after the small black and white creature thatlooked so harmless.
A few quick shuffles carried Black Bruin alongside the quarry and,within striking distance, his heavy paw went up, but at that moment thewood pussy arched his back and delivered his own best defense full inthe bear's nose and eyes.
With a loud "ugh," and a grunt and squeal of pain, Black Bruinretreated into the nearest thicket.
It seemed as though liquid fire had been dashed in his eyes, and of allthe obnoxious smells that ever disgusted his nostrils, this was theworst. His eyes smarted and burned, and the more he rubbed them theworse they became.
He was nearly blinded and so had to go groping and stumbling throughthe woods to the nearest brook, to which his wild instinct guided himin some miraculous manner. Here he plunged in his face up to his earsand was slightly relieved.
For an hour he repeated the operation over and over, plunging his headunder and keeping it there as long as he could hold his breath.
At last the burning, smarting fluid was partly washed from both eyesand nostrils, and Black Bruin went upon his way a wiser and sorrierbeast.
It was two or three days before the inflammation entirely left his eyesand his nostrils got back their old sure power of discriminatingbetween the many scents of the forest.
He had learned his first lesson in the woods, which was that awell-behaved skunk when taking his morning walk, is not to be disturbed.
After this, whenever Black Bruin even scented a skunk, he kept at adiscreet distance and contented himself with chipmunks and mice.
One morning he surprised a fox eating a rabbit which it had just caughtin a briar-patch, and made such a sudden rush upon Reynard that he fledin hot haste, leaving the rabbit for the bear. In this way Black Bruinlearned that rabbit was good to eat, even as palatable as squirrel, andafter that he hunted rabbits whenever opportunity offered.
Sometimes he would find a gray rabbit's hole and with much labor digthe poor rabbit out. More frequently he would watch at the mouth of arabbit-burrow, where he had seen a rabbit enter, until bunnyreappeared, sticking his head out cautiously to reconnoitre, when oneswift stroke of the heavy paw bagged the game.
It was one day after having watched for several hours at the mouth of arabbit-burrow, that Black Bruin discovered a queer creature, three orfour times the size of a rabbit, walking leisurely along through thewoods, and went in hot pursuit.
By this time, the experience with the skunk had lost its old terror,and he was again the curious, keen hunter.
Whatever it was, the newcomer did not seem to be much afraid of him,and that was strange. Most of the wild creatures he knew fled at hisfirst approach, and it was with difficulty that he got near them; butthis queer animal ambled along as slowly as if he had not the slightestconcern.
He did not look or smell like anything that Black Bruin had everobserved before. The odd thing about him was that he was covered withsmall sharp points sticking out in every direction, which gave him avery bristling appearance.
As the bear came up, he merely squatted upon the ground and drewhimself into a rotund shape. What a strange creature! Black Bruinreached his nose closer to get a better whiff of the body scent, and ifpossible to discover what the animal was.
Quick as a flash the porcupine's tail struck upward and three of thelongest, sharpest quills in this queer body were firmly planted in thehunter's nose.
With a growl of pain and rage the bear dealt this strange enemy acrushing blow. The porcupine's back was broken, but the conquerorcarried off four more quills in his paw.
BLACK BRUIN DEALT THE PORCUPINE A CRUSHING BLOW]
It was not much like a conqueror that he went, for he limped off onthree legs, and sitting down in a thicket, pulled the quills from hispaw as well as he could; but two were broken off and finally workedthrough the foot, coming out a day or two later on the upper side.
The paw was so sore that he could not travel on it, and the afflictedbear either went upon three legs, or kept quiet.
Two of the quills in his lower jaw he got rid of, but one stayed withhim for several days, and finally made its appearance in his cheek,coming out near the ear.
The experience was a sorry one, and although several days afterwardBlack Bruin saw the dead body of the porcupine lying where he hadcrushed it, he would not go near it. This creature, like the skunk,had a peculiar way of fighting which the bear cou
ld not understand, sohe would give the next porcupine that he met the entire road if hewanted it.
Black Bruin's relations with man had been most peculiar up to the timeof his killing his cruel master and escape into the wild, and they didnot tend to make him wise in regard to this creature, which all normalwild animals shun as their greatest danger.
He had been brought up in close companionship with men; had slept andate with them for the first three or four years of his life. He hadwrestled with the men cubs and had found in it nothing but sheerdelight. Children and their caresses had been his one pleasure duringthe strenuous year with Pedro.
Now, suddenly all this relationship toward man was changed. BlackBruin had gone from the pale of civilization into that of savagery. Hewas now a wild beast, feared by men, although without much cause.
Little by little this new relationship between himself and the manbeast was borne in upon Black Bruin. At first, he shunned men andtheir way, fearing that some man might capture him and again claim himfor the road. The wild, free life made him glad. To be here to-dayand there to-morrow was to his liking, and he did not intend to liveagain upon a chain.
But that Black Bruin's long companionship with men was a disadvantageto him in his new life was only too apparent, for it led him intoindiscretions, which a normal bear would never have committed.
In his natural state the bear is a very wary animal, always upon thewatch, even when he is feeding; always and forever testing the windwith both ear and nostril. But with the half-domesticated dancing-bearit was different. In his own mind he had nothing to fear from men. Hehad walked through their villages and along their country roads andseen them by thousands and tens of thousands. They had never harmedhim, and he had no reason to think they ever would.
One September morning he was digging roots along the edge of the woods.He had found something quite to his liking and was much absorbed, whensuddenly a fresh puff of wind blew the strong body scent of a man fullinto his nostrils. He looked this way and that but could see no man.Then a twig snapped in the cover near at hand, and a squirrel hunterstepped into view, not fifty feet away. The hunter was probably muchmore astonished than was Black Bruin. The great shaggy brute was soclose to him that he looked like a veritable monster.
With the hunter's instinct, that acts almost before the mind has timeto think, the gun went to his shoulder and both barrels were dischargedin such quick succession as to call for merely one echo.
The hunter was of course not in search of bears, so the two charges ofnumber four shot did not have a mortal effect upon the quarry, but atsuch close range they penetrated quite deeply into his flesh and stunghim with an excruciating pain. With a loud "Hoof," and an agonizedgrunt of pain, the bear fled precipitately in one direction, and thehunter, thinking that he had jeopardized his life by his rashness inattacking a bear with squirrel shot, fled in another.
The man did not stop running until he reached the nearest farmhouse,where he excitedly gasped out his adventure to wide-eyed listeners,while Black Bruin fled as far as he could into the deep woods, to nursehis many wounds.
There was little, however, that he could do. The wounds were notdangerous, but they burned and smarted as though a whole swarm of beeshad penetrated his thick coat and found the skin beneath.
He spent the better part of the day lying in a cooling stream, waitingfor the burning and smarting to cease.
He had now added one more to the list of his sad experiences in thewild. The man-scent was dangerous and henceforth he must flee at theslightest suspicion of the proximity of man. The rank sulphurous smellof gunpowder, too, and the roar, like thunder, that echoed away throughthe cavernous woods, were things that he would remember.
Man, who he had thought was quite harmless, was a terrible enemy whocould sting him in a thousand places at once, and shake the forest withthunder and lightning.
Even while Black Bruin lay wallowing in the stream, trying to ease theburning shotgun wounds, there was being planned in the near-by villagea bear-hunt that should bring about his destruction, for the excitedhunter had described a monster as large as a cow.