Evidently they were young bears that had never been separated, and that accounted for their denning up together; old bears rarely do this.
We put them on the wood-sled and hauled them home.

They lay in a pile of hay on the stable floor all night, without a sign of waking up; and the next morning we hauled them to the cellar of the west barn.

Under this barn, which was used mainly for sheep and young cattle, there were several pigsties, now empty.

The dormant young bears were rolled into one of these sties and the sty filled with dry leaves, such as we used for bedding in the barns.
About a fortnight afterward a young doctor named Truman, from the village, desired very much to see the bears in their winter sleep.

He got into the sty, uncovered them, and repeatedly pricked one of them with a needle, or penknife, without fairly waking it.