Although Page mentioned two bears, he may have actually been referring to Aesop’s fable “The Travellers and the Bear,” in which there are two men and one bear. The fable reads: “Two men being to travel through a forest together, mutually promised to stand by each other in any danger they should meet upon the way. They had not gone far before a Bear came rushing towards them out of a thicket; upon which, one being a light nimble fellow, got up into a tree; the other falling flat upon his face, and holding his breath, lay still, while the Bear came up and smelled at him; but that creature, supposing him to be a dead carcase, went back again into the wood, without doing him the least harm. When all was over, the spark who had climbed the tree came down to his companion, and, with a pleasant smile, asked him what the Bear had said to him; ‘for,’ says he, ‘I took notice that he clapt his mouth very close to your ear.’ ‘Why,’ replies the other, ‘he charged me to take care for the future, not to put any confidence in such cowardly rascals as you are.’” In essence, Page was suggesting that Hyde did not act as a true friend and that Page no longer trusted Hyde because Hyde was not willing to remain with Page on their mission. (Croxall, Fables of Aesop, 83–84.)

Croxall, Samuel. Fables of Aesop and Others: Translated into English with Instructive Applications, and a Cut before Each Fable. New ed. London: A. Millar, W. Law, and R. Cater, 1792.

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