purely through ignorance this lad, who was usually so sensible and
level-headed, declared with one breath his belief in an impossibility,
and with the next his disbelief of a fact. All of which serves to
illustrate the folly of making assertions concerning subjects about
which we are ignorant. There is nothing so mysterious that it cannot be
explained, and nothing more foolish than to declare a thing impossible
simply because we are too ignorant to understand it.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

BOB, AND BIMBER, AND THE BEAR.

Bob Torrey was cantering slowly over the mesa, returning from an errand
to a neighboring cattle ranch, when he caught sight of a hawk's nest in
the top of a large cedar, and determined to learn whether it contained
any eggs. So he rode up to the tree and dismounted, the pony
understanding by the dropped bridle-rein that he was not to stray away.
His dog Bimber at once began a diligent investigation of the premises of
a badger, the front door of whose burrow opened between two large roots.

Bob had just reached the nest, after some hard scrambling, and was
intent upon its four brown-splotched eggs, when he heard Bimber begin
barking furiously.

"Guess he's found somebody at home. Teach him to keep out of other
people's houses," Bob said to himself, gleefully, but was too busy to
look down. The racket continued, and seemed to go away and come back.
Lowering his head below the nest to ascertain what was going on, the boy
forgot those eggs instantly, for he saw a grizzly bear loping over the
ground in close pursuit of that fool of a dog, who was _ki-yi-ing_ and
doing his best to reach the tree, while Bob's pony, head and tail up,
was making a record for speed in the opposite direction.

The bear seemed as big as an elephant, and was growling savagely. "Oh,"
he thought, "if I were only a hawk, like that one soaring overhead; or a
horse, like that one tearing across the prairie; or even a dog, like
Bimber, who--" But where _was_ Bimber? He had disappeared. Had the bear
eaten him up? No; the boy must have seen the capture if that had
happened.

Then a horrible thought came and nearly chilled his bones. Could a
grizzly bear climb a tree?

Suddenly the barking was heard once more, but in a queer, muffled tone,
as if the dog were far away, yet no glimpse of his white coat could be
caught anywhere, though Bob's eyes searched on all sides. Next the
barking would ring out sharp and clear close by, and th