ve known how frightened I was, and
yet you stood still and never made any answer, except a minute ago, when
I just managed to hear you. If you think it is right, I don't--that's
all."

He turned away offended, when she said:

"Forgive me, Nick; but I was afraid to answer you."

"Afraid of _what_?"

"Of that _bear_--you must have seen him," was the astonishing answer of
the girl.

Nellie then told her story: she was standing on the shore awaiting the
return of her brother, when she was terrified almost out of senses by
the appearance of a large black bear, which was evidently driven out of
the burning forest by the flames.

He did not seem to notice the girl, but when he began lumbering toward
her, as if seeking a good spot where he might enter the pond, Nellie did
not stay on the order of her going, but fled from the new peril, hardly
conscious of what direction she took. She knew better than to venture
among the blazing trees from which she and her brother had had such a
narrow escape, and she sped forward around the lake until she reached a
point nearly opposite. On the way she never looked behind her once,
certain as she was that the creature was ready to seize and devour her.

She was sure she heard him crashing almost upon her heels; but when she
paused, and finally turned her frightened looks backward, nothing of the
brute was to be seen, and she did not know what had become of him.

"That's the other bear which Mrs. Fowler saw, and which she told Sam
Harper, Herbert Watrous, and me, we would see some time or other."

"But that was almost two years ago."

"I know that; don't you suppose a bear will keep that long? This one has
known enough to stay out of sight until the fire has forced him from
his hiding-place."

After Nellie had heard her brother call to her, she was fearful that if
she answered she would betray herself to the brute, who would instantly
make for her; so she held her peace, even though she saw nothing of the
bear, and venturing on a rather feeble answer when the tones of Nick
told how much apprehension he was suffering over his failure to find
her.

Now that the two were on the raft, which was shoved out in the deep
water, something like confidence came back to her, and she was willing
to talk about the beast.

"I can't imagine what has become of him," said the brother, after her
story was told; "from what I have heard and read, the bear is not afraid
of water, and they often go