who I must tell you are very grave, and even sad-looking people, and seldom seen to smile, for once laughed heartily too.  I took pity upon the frightened cub, at whom the gray cat was still growling and spitting, and took him up my arms; for which he seemed so thankful, that I continued to stroke his shaggy coat, until one of the Indians, with a grin, offered to give him to me.  I accepted him, making a present in return; and for some days I took delight in my bargain; for he was a most innocent little creature, and played merrily with a puppy dog:  but those who understood the nature of a bear better than I did, persuaded me to give him up; because they had known a young lady who was killed by a tame bear in a sudden passion.

But I want to convince you how wrong we are in treating any animal as if it could not feel attachment to us.  Some soldiers’ wives used to pet my little cub, even with tears in their eyes; and they told me the reason.  They said, that a short time before, the regiment to which they belonged was quartered in Canada, and the soldiers had a bear, which they brought up tame.  This creature had a strange office—­he was nurse to all the babies in the barrack.  So great was his love for them, that whenever the mothers wanted to have their infants well taken care of, they would place them under this animal’s charge, who was delighted to smooth for them the clean soft straw that they gave him; and whose tender care over the babes was, they told me, the most beautiful thing ever seen.  The poor bear was always trying to help and oblige his friends; and on washing days he had plenty of babies to mind, when the weather was mild enough to have them out of doors; but one cold day they were all left within, and the bear had nothing to do.  So, seeing a woman leave her washing-tub, which she had just filled with boiling water, he thought he would do some of her work, and put his paws into it:  the pain made him snatch them out, and in so doing he upset the tub—­all the scalding water fell over him—­and his agonies were such that, in mercy, some soldier shot him dead at once.  The women, when they told me this, sobbed with grief, saying, “He was so kind to our babies! he would have died in their defence, poor fellow!” I assure you, that when I see a poor bear led through the streets, chained, beaten, and made to dance, as they call it, which it is taught to do by cruel tortures, I always remember this story; and think, how much love and gratitude might that miserable sufferer feel, and how happy he might be made, if those who have taken him from his native woods, and made a slave of him, would only show mercy now instead of such barbarity!  We often hear the expression, “As savage as a bear;” but, I fear, in general, the man is the greater savage of the two.

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