stand still, he calls out to him again, as if he had sup posed the bear could speak English, What, you come no further? pray you come further: so he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little further; then he fell ajumping again, and the bear stopped again.

We thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and called to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear: but he cried out earnestly, O pray! O pray! no shoot, me shoot by-and-then; he would have said by-and-by. However, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last.

But Friday puts us out of doubt quickly: for, seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not come any further, Well, well, says Friday, you no come further, me go; you no come to me, me come to you: and, upon this, he goes out to the smaller end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets himself down by it, till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, and stands still. Well, said I to him, Friday, what will you do now? Why don't you shoot him? -No shoot, says Friday, no yet; me no shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh; and, indeed, so he did for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it

mighty cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body of the tree; then, with the same hinder-end foremost, he came down. the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind-foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turned about, to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, by our looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. So we kill bear in my country, says Friday. So you kill them? says I: why, you have no guns. No, says he, no gun, but shoot great much long arrow.

CRUSOE'S FIGHT WITH WOLVES.

DANIEL DEFOE.

THE ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures were come down into the forest and plain country to seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they killed a great many sheep and horses, and some people too. We had one dangerous place to pass, of which our guide told us, if there were more wolves in the country we should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to lodge. It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain.

We met with nothing in the first wood, except that,

in a little plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed one after another, as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was but a faint-hearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a-coming. We

kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we

saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which was near half a league, and entered the plain.

As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us: the first object we met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say eating of him, but picking of his bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast; neither did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I found we were like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware of.

We were not gone half over the plain, when we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by an experienced officer. I scarce knew in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way: so we formed in a moment: but, that we might not have too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and that the others who had not fired should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they

continued to advance upon us; and then that those who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand ready every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man so we were, by this method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time.

However, at present we had no necessity: for, upon the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire; four of them, being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all the company to halloo as loud as we could; and, upon our shout, they began to retire, and turn about. I then ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the woods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and we had but little more than loaded our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood, on our left, only that it was further onward, the same way we were

to go.

The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made it worse on our side; but, the noise increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and on a sudden we perceived two or three troops of wolves, one on our left, one behind us, and one in our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them: however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was only a good hard trot. In this

manner we came in view of the entrance of the wood, through which we were to pass, at the further side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when, coming nearer the lane or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.

This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three hundred of them. It happened very much to our advantage, that at the entrance into the wood, there lay some large timber trees, which had been cut down the Summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among those trees, and, placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised them all to alight, and, keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle or three fronts enclosing our horses in the centre. We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place. They came on with a growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which was our breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behind us. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other man; and they took their aim so sure, that they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on those before.

When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would go off; but it was but a moment, for others came forward again: so we fired two volleys of our pistols; and I believe in these four firings we killed seventeen or