ain
that the stranger would get his hold.

Then it was that my mother interfered. Hurling herself at him, she
threw her whole weight into one swinging blow on the side of the big
bear's head, and in another second had plunged her teeth into the back
of his neck. My father's grip in the fleshy part of the shoulder,
however painful it might be, had little real effect; but where my mother
had attacked, behind the right ear, was a different matter. The stranger
was obliged to leave my father's leg alone and to turn and defend
himself against this new onslaught; but, big as he was, he now had more
on his hands than he could manage. As soon as he turned his attention to
my mother, my father let go of his shoulder, and in his turn tried to
grip the other's fore-leg. There was nothing for the stranger to do now
but to get out of it as fast as he could; and even I could not help
admiring his strength as he lifted himself up and shook mother off as
lightly as she would have shaken me. She escaped the wicked blow that he
aimed at her, and dodged out of his reach, and my father, letting go his
hold of the fore-leg, did the same. The stranger, with one on either
side of him, backed himself against one of the fallen logs and waited
for them to attack him. But that they had no wish to do. All that they
wanted was that he should go away, and they told him so. They moved
aside from the path on either hand to give him space to go, and slowly
and surlily he began to move.

I was still standing in the pathway. Suddenly he made a movement as if
to rush at me, but my father and mother jumped towards him
simultaneously, while I plunged into the bushes, and he was compelled to
turn and defend himself against my parents again. But they did not
attack him, though they followed him slowly along the path. Every step
or two he stopped to make an ugly start back at one or the other, but he
knew that he was overmatched, and yard by yard he made off, my father
and mother following him as far as the edge of the thicket, and standing
to watch him out of sight. And I was glad when he was safely gone and
they came back to me.

It was not a pleasant home-coming, and we were all restless and nervous
for days afterwards; and then it was that I vowed to myself that, if I
ever grew up and the opportunity came, I would wreak vengeance on that
bear.

If we were all nervous, I was the worst, and in my restlessness took to
going off by myself. Up to this time