"I know there is! Why
don't you tell me what it is?"

Daddy Brown did not know just what to do. He sat up in bed, thinking and
looking first at the bear and then at Bunny. All Mr. Brown could see of
Bunny was a heap under the bedclothes. But the bear was in plain sight,
standing in the doorway of the tent, sniffing and snuffing near the
lighted lantern.

Mr. Brown did not want to speak about the bear. He thought the big,
shaggy creature looked quite gentle, and perhaps it would go away if no
one harmed it. Perhaps it was just looking for something to eat, and as
it couldn't find anything in the bedroom tent it might go to the one
where the cooking was done.

Bunker Blue was still sound asleep, and so was Uncle Tad. Nor had Sue,
sleeping next to her mother, in the other part of the tent, been
awakened. Just Bunny Brown, and his father and mother were wide awake.
Oh, yes, of course the bear was not asleep. I forgot about that. His
little black eyes blinked, and opened and shut, and he wrinkled up his
rubber-like nose as he sniffed the air.

"Well, aren't you going to tell me what it is? What's the matter in
there? What happened?" asked Mother Brown. "If you don't tell me----"

By this time Bunny Brown made up his mind that he would be brave. He
uncovered one eye and peered out from beneath the bed clothes. His first
sight was of the bear, who was still there.

"Oh! Oh!" cried Bunny. "It _is_ a bear! It's a big, black bear! I didn't
dream it! It's real! a real, big, black bear!"

Mrs. Brown heard what her little boy said.

"Oh, Walter!" she cried to her husband. "Throw something at it. Here's
my shoe--throw that. I've got two shoes, but I can only find one. Throw
that at the bear and make him go away!"

Mrs. Brown threw over the curtain, that divided the tent into two parts,
one of her shoes.

She really had two shoes, but when she felt under her cot in the dark,
she could only find one. You know how it is when you try to find
anything in the dark, even if it's a drink of water in the chair at the
head of our bed. You move your hand all over, and you think some one
must have come in and taken the water away. And when you get a light you
find that, all the while, your hand was about an inch away from the
glass. It was that way with Mrs. Brown's other shoe.

But she threw one over the curtain, calling out again:

"Hit him with that, Walter! Hit the bear with my shoe!"

But there was no need for Mr. Brown to d