The grizzlies gazed at each other, the newcomer crunching a fish as he looked.

Neither growled.

Muskwa perceived no signs of enmity, and then to his increased astonishment Thor began eating a fish within three feet of the interloper! Perhaps man is the finest of all God's creations, but when it comes to his respect for old age he is no better, and sometimes not as good, as a grizzly bear; for Thor would not rob an old bear, he would not fight an old bear, and he would not drive an old bear from his own meat--which is more than can be said of some humans.

And the visitor was an old bear, and a sick bear as well.

He stood almost as high as Thor, but he was so old that he was only half as broad across the chest, and his neck and head were grotesquely thin.