NV.
IN SWIMMING WITH A BEAR.

What made these ugly rows of scars on
my left hand?

Well, it might have been buckshot; only
it wasn’t. Besides, buckshot would be scat-
tered about, “sort of promiscuous like,” as
backwoodsmen say. But these ugly little
holes are all in a row, or rather in two
rows. Now a wolf might have made these
holes with his fine white teeth, or a bear
might have done it with his dingy and
ugly teeth, long ago. I must here tell you
that the teeth of a bear are not nearly so
fine as the teeth of a wolf. And the teeth
of a lion are the ugliest of them all. They
are often broken and bent; and they are
always of a dim yellow color. It is from
this yellow hue of the lion’s teeth that we
have the name of one of the most famous

early flowers of May: dent de lion, tooth
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