st with feelings of less
alarm. They looked at the large head, pig-like snout, round, dark eyes,
and could well understand the terror which an unarmed person feels on
meeting one of them in the woods.

But so long as bruin remained there, so long was he a threat; and Nick
was trying hard to think of some plan by which to get rid of him.

He had tested beating him, but with no success, while he ran the risk of
exciting him to a dangerous degree of savagery if he should persist in
it. The boy had no weapon about him, unless his jack-knife should be
counted as such, and nothing could be accomplished with that. He asked
himself whether it were possible to dive under the raft and give him two
or three vigorous thrusts with the implement; but, fortunately, the lad
had too much sense to undertake anything of that sort, which, more than
likely, would have resulted in the destruction of himself and sister.

There really seemed no way open for the young hero to do anything at
all, except to follow the advice of his father: "Do all you can for
yourself and then leave the rest to Providence."

"If I could think of anything," said he to Nellie, "I would do it, but
we shall have to wait."

"Maybe when he is rested he will swim off and go ashore."

"I wish he would; but it seems to me that he has got a look in his eye,
which says that pretty soon he will try to enjoy a little more of the
raft than he now does: and when he undertakes it, you can make up your
mind, Nellie, that there will be a row."

"Why not let the raft drift close to land, so as to give him a chance to
get off?" she asked.

"Suppose he doesn't take the chance, which he has now; no, we'll wait
awhile and see what he thinks about it."

So soon as they could feel anything like relief from watching the
passenger, the brother and sister looked at the scene around them, which
was enough to strike any one with awe.

The murky vapor was pouring across the water; burning leaves, sticks,
and large branches of wood seemed to be carried almost horizontally on
the wind, while the blazing forest roared like the ocean when swept by
the monsoon.

Whether the memorable dark day of 1881 still overspread the earth
beyond, the two had no means of knowing; but they did know and feel that
they were enveloped in an awful night, illumined only by the burning
forests about them.

Should the bear fail to harm them, they might well ask themselves the
question, when would they be