Ned Trimble enlivened the meal in his usual loquacious manner; and after a great many words and circumlocution, the fact was discovered that he and his friends had spent the last five years in California, not having visited a civilized post within two years.
Disgusted with their ill success in the Sacramento Valley, they had pulled up stakes and started off to hunt new fields for themselves. They were very cheerful and hopeful, and according to their accounts had encountered every imaginable danger of the California wilds.
Elwood inquired whether they had met any grizzly bears.
"Grizzly bears!" repeated Ned, stopping just as he was about to insert a huge piece of meat in his mouth. "Grizzly bears? Well, there! We've lived among 'em!"
"Is it possible?"
"Yes; I tracked a big grizzly in the Sierra Nevada for two days and then I stopped."
"What made you stop?"
"I concluded the bear tracks were getting a little too fresh!"