It was not easy to go to sleep with the prospect of catching a bear any minute, but they finally made it and dreamed of whole droves of bears eating at the breakfast table with them. The hard day’s work, the sighing of the breeze in the jack pines and the great stillness of the woods made them sleep soundly. No unusual noises disturbed them; the hours slipped by uncounted. It was half past four when an excited shout from Dan aroused the whole camp.
“By George, fellows, we’ve got him. He’s in there.”
He did not have to call twice. Greenleaf almost tore a hole in the side of the tent getting out and the others were close behind him. Sure enough there in the bottom of the pit was a yearling black bear, bouncing wildly around and digging furiously at the walls. He made frequent springs at the edge of the pit and several times succeeded in clawing the top. He had evidently been very little concerned by his fall until disturbed by the awakening of the camp—for he had eaten the bacon and picked the garbage over very thoroughly.
“Ha, ha, my boy,” Greenleaf called to him, “you will steal our eggs, will you? You’ll make exhibit ‘A’ in our menagerie now for a little while till we finish with this camp.”
The bear resented the taunts with renewed efforts to escape and he was clawing down so much dirt from the sides that it was evident he would soon have enough pulled into the bottom to enable him to jump out. Every jump he made brought him a little nearer to the surface.
“You fellows put some poles across the top of this pit,” Greenleaf directed, “good heavy logs, to keep him from getting out and I’ll go down to camp to get Sturgis to build a cage for him. Don’t let him get away, whatever you do. Knock him in the head first if you have to.”
With that he was gone. It was only half past five when Sturgis went out to milk, and saw Greenleaf puffing up the road. He thought the mosquitoes had probably chased him out as they had several former fishermen, and he rather wondered at it—for he thought him a better sticker than that.
“Where are the fish?” he called as soon as Greenleaf was within hailing distance.
“The mischief with the fish,” Greenleaf panted. “We’ve caught a bear.”
“Caught him,” Sturgis laughed. “Where is he, following you home?”