14
LANDING THE GRIZLY BEARS.
"Well, to make short," said I, " here, take this sixpence for
your cart, and be off." I was thus brief, for I saw two or
three others edging and siding up in the passage towards
me, whom I recollected to have seen escorting my lug-
gage, and I retreated into the coffee-room as suddenly
as possible, and stated the case to one of the waiters, who
promised to manage the rest of the affair.
I was thus very comfortable for the night, having no
further annoyance or real excitement until the next morn-
ing after breakfast, when it became necessary to disembark
the grizly bears. My other heavy freight had gone to Her
Majesty's Custom-house, and all the passengers from the
cabin and steerage had gone to comfortable quarters, leav-
ing the two deck passengers, the grizlies, in great im-
patience, and as yet undisposed of. My man Daniel had
been on the move at an early hour, and had fortunately
made an arrangement with a simple and unsuspecting old lady
in the absence of her " good man," to allow the cage to be
placed in a small yard adjoining her house, and within the same
inclosure, which had a substantial pavement of round stones.
This arrangement for a few days promised to be an ad-
vantageous one for each party. Daniel was to have free
access and egress for the purpose of giving them their food,
and the price proposed to the good woman was met as a
liberal reward for the reception of any living beings that
she could imagine, however large, that could come within
her idea of the dimensions of a cage. Daniel had told her
that they were two huge bears ; and in his reply to in-
quiries, assured her that they were not harmless by any
means, but that the enormous strength of their cage pre-
vented them from doing any mischief.
The kind old lady agreed, for so much per day, to allow
the cage to stand in her yard, by the side of her house, at
least until her husband returned. With much excitement
and some growling about the docks and the wharf, they
were swung off from the vessel, and, being placed on a
" float," were conveyed to, and quietly lodged and fed in,