The bear, however, caressed his new friend, and tried to prevail upon
him to eat a part of the supper which had been brought the previous
evening, and which seemed untouched.
Bruin is famous for hugging his enemies so desperately, that they are
glad to get clear of him. But in these hugging fights, he sometimes gets
the worst of it, as in the following instance. Some years since, when
the western part of the State of New York was but slightly settled, some
enterprising emigrant from New England had built a saw-mill on the banks
of the Genesee river. One day, as he was eating his luncheon, sitting on
the log which was going through the sawing operation at the time, a huge
black bear came from the woods, toward the mill. The man, leaving his
bread and cold bacon on the log, made a spring, and climbed up to a beam
above, to get out of the way of the bear, when the latter, mounting the
log which the sawyer had left, sat down, with his back toward the saw,
and commenced eating the man's dinner. After awhile, the log on which he
sat approached so near the saw, that he got scratched a little, and he
hitched away a few feet from the saw, and resumed his dinner. But the
saw scratched him again soon, of course, and this time rather more
seriously. Bruin got angry, and his anger cost him dearly. He wheeled
about, and throwing his paws around the saw, he gave it a most desperate
hug.
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