The bear again lowered himself on all fours, retreated some twenty yards further, and again turned, reared, showed his teeth, and growled.

This third menace was too much for the game spirit of John Day.
"By Jove!" exclaimed he, "I can stand this no longer," and in an instant a ball from his rifle whizzed into his foe.

The wound was not mortal; but, luckily, it dismayed instead of enraged the animal, and he retreated into the thicket.
Day's companion reproached him for not practicing the caution which he enjoined upon others.

"Why, boy," replied the veteran, "caution is caution, but one must not put up with too much, even from a bear.

Would you have me suffer myself to be bullied all day by a varmint ?".