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66_140 cont. [continued] from p. 9 at _ This book was about real bears, live bears _ bears that stood on their hind feet and growled so, oh, just terrible, and then put their feet down and came running after you; and it was no use for you to run because a bear could run faster than most any horse. Why, the book just took your breath away. And it was true _ all true, because there were the Sierra Nevadas that had the bears in them, one could see them far distant on the world_s edge of the great plain, but still lying there, mysterious and snow-covered, so remote and far-away, but still all-powerful in their cloud-capped majesty. The book appealed to us in every way. The Grizzly was the most important wild animal in the state. His courage was of the most stupendous |
66_141 kind, and yet he was a dignified beast. He was commonly indifferent to man unless interfered with _ but then look out! Nothing might save you. This sort of behavior appealed strongly to our small boy sense of conduct and fair play. The story of the Grizzly Bear was the greatest prize most of us had ever known in the way of a book. Most of us were starved for books _ at least this sort of books. For utter lack of anything else I turned over the pages of the great dry books at home but little did they feed me at that time. My father at Christmas had bought a present for my elder sister Frances, a copy of Milton_s Paradise Lost. Well I remember her, a young girl of thirteen, sitting in an arm chair by the fire, reading the pages of the great epic. I was expected |
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