He could sleep in the hay, and we could give him a long chain so that he could have a nice range." The younger members of the family were delighted with this suggestion.

Nothing would please them better than to have a bear on the place.

Each one of them was ready to take entire charge of it, and Percy declared that he would go into the woods and hunt for wild-bee honey with which to feed it.

Even Mrs.Larramie assured me that if a bear were well chained, at a suitable distance, she would have no fears whatever of it.
I accepted the proposition, for I was glad to get rid of the animal in a way which would please so many people, and after dinner was over, and I had smoked a cigar with my host and his son Walter, I said that it was time for me to go and get the bear.
"But you won't go by the main road," said Mr.Larramie.

"That makes a great curve below here to avoid a hill.