Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 08 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/71

Rh flesh under my eyes; he shut his teeth together and began to crush me. Like knives they cut into my head. I struggled, I pulled myself out of his clutches; but he made haste, and, snapping like a dog, hugged me closer and closer.

I got away from him, and again he clutched me.

"Well," said I to myself, "my end has come."

Suddenly I perceived that his pressure on me became less. I looked, and he had gone! he had bounded away from me, and was making off.

When my comrade and Demyan saw that the bear had knocked me down into the snow, and was gnawing me, they rushed toward me. My comrade, in his eagerness to get to me as speedily as possible, made a mistake; instead of running along the beaten path, he tried to cut across and fell. While he was struggling out of the deep snow, the bear was all the time biting me. But Demyan, though he was not armed with a musket, and had only a dry branch, ran along the path, and kept shouting:—

"He is killing the barin! he is eating up the barin!"

And then, as he approached the bear, he cried:—

"Oh, you beast! what are you doing? Let go! Let go!"

The bear heard, let go of me, and made off.

When I picked myself up, there was as much blood on the snow as if they had been killing a wild boar, and the flesh under my eyes hung in shreds; but I was so excited that I felt no pain.

My comrade came to me; the people gathered together; they examined my wounds; they wet them with snow. But as for me I forgot all about my wounds; I asked:—

"Where is the bear? Where has he gone?"

Suddenly we heard them shouting:—

"Here he is! here he is!"

And we saw the bear rushing back in our direction. We seized our muskets; but before any one had time to fire, he had already dashed by. The bear was