"No, my lady; great changes have taken place since that time. As the country becomes more thickly settled, the woods disappear. The axe and the fire destroy the haunts that sheltered these wild beasts, and they retreat further back, where the deer and other creatures on which they principally feed abound."
"Do the hunters follow them?"
"There is no place, however difficult or perilous, where the hunter will not venture in search of game."
"And do they pursue the graceful deer? They are so pretty, with their branching antlers and slender limbs, that I should have thought no man could be so cruel as to slay them."
"But their flesh is very savoury, and the Indian, when tired of bear's meat, is glad of a dish of fresh venison. So with his gun—if he has one—or with his bow and arrow, he lies in wait among the foliage and brushwood of the forest, or behind the rocks on the bank of some swift torrent, and when the unsuspecting stag makes his appearance on the opposite crag, he takes a careful aim, lets fly his rapid arrow, and seldom fails to kill his victim; which, dropping into the stream below, is borne by the current within his reach."
"They are brave men, those hunters," said Lady Mary; "but I fear they are very cruel. I wish they would only kill the furious bears. That was a sad story you told me just now, nurse, about the poor little boy. Have you heard of any other sufferers; or do people sometimes escape from these monsters?"
"I also heard of a little child," continued nurse, "not more than two years old, who was with her mother in the harvest-field, who had spread a shawl on the ground near a tall tree, and laid the child upon it to sleep or play, when a bear came out of the wood and carried her off, leaping the fence with her in his arms. But the mother ran screaming after the beast, and the reapers pursued so closely with their pitch-forks and reaping-hooks, that Bruin, who was only a half-grown bear, being hard pressed, made for a tree; and as it was not easy to climb with a babe in his arms, he quietly laid the little one down at the foot of the tree, and soon was among the thick branches out of the reach of the enemy. I daresay baby must have wondered what rough nurse had taken her up; but she was unhurt, and is alive now."
"I am so glad, nurse, the dear baby was not hugged to death by that horrid black bear; and I hope he was killed."
"I daresay, my lady, he was shot by some of the men; for they seldom worked near the forest without having a gun with them, in case of seeing deer, or pigeons, or partridges."
"I should not like to live in that country, Mrs. Frazer; for a bear, a wolf, or a catamount might eat me."