The Bears of Blue River

"The Bears of Blue River," by Charles Major, is a perfect book for juvenile reader who has a penchant adventure, nature, and morality. *** The scene is in Indiana during the 1820s, when the conditions of life on the Big Blue River differed greatly from those which prevail at the present day. The hero is a young lad named Balser Brent, and not only did bears swarm in the neighbourhood of his father's cabin, but they also seem to have been more aggressive towards a mere boy than is usual with the ordinary black species. Some of them nearly killed Balser, who in his turn killed them with knife, hatchet, or gun. The story of the phosphorescent bear which had its dwelling over a "pocket" of natural gas and went away in a flame of fire is stunningly told, and, in fact, all the narrative is sufficiently good even for readers who have passed boyhood. The illustrations are quite numerous and many of excellently drawn by A. S. Frost and others.