him much that he had to learn by bitter experience, and would have saved
him from most of the ills that befell him in his cubhood--ills so many
and so dire that but for his native sturdiness he never could have
passed through alive.

The pinons bore plentifully that year, and the winds began to shower
down the ripe, rich nuts. Life was becoming a little easier for Wahb. He
was gaining in health and strength, and the creatures he daily met now
let him alone. But as he feasted on the pinons one morning after a gale,
a great Black-bear came marching down the hill. 'No one meets a friend
in the woods,' was a byword that Wahb had learned already. He swung up
the nearest tree. At first the Black-bear was scared, for he smelled the
smell of Grizzly; but when he saw it was only a cub, he took courage and
came growling at Wahb. He could climb as well as the little Grizzly, or
better, and high as Wahb went, the Blackbear followed, and when
Wahb got out on the smallest and highest twig that would carry him, the
Blackbear cruelly shook him off, so that he was thrown to the ground,
bruised and shaken and half-stunned. He limped away moaning, and the
only thing that kept the Blackbear from following him up and perhaps
killing him was the fear that the old Grizzly might be about. So Wahb
was driven away down the creek from all the good pinon woods.

There was not much food on the Graybull now. The berries were nearly all
gone; there were no fish or ants to get, and Wahb, hurt, lonely,
and miserable, wandered on and on, till he was away down toward the
Meteetsee. A Coyote came bounding and barking through the sage-brush
after him. Wahb tried to run, but it was no use; the Coyote was soon up
with him. Then with a sudden rush of desperate courage Wahb turned and
charged his foe. The astonished Coyote gave a scared yowl or two, and
fled with his tail between his legs. Thus Wahb learned that war is the