I know is what the old men in the village
have told me. It was many years ago."

"And did you ever see the blue light?" asked Ted, thinking of what he
and his sister had seen the night they were coming home from the little
visit to Hal Chester.

"No, I never did; though I'd like to, so I might know what it was."

"Children, how is grandpa ever going to tell you a story if you keep
asking him so many questions?" laughed Mrs. Martin.

"All right--now we'll listen," promised Teddy, and Grandpa Martin told a
tale of when he was a little boy, and lived further to the north and on
the edge of a big wood where there were bears and other wild animals.
His father was a good hunter, Grandpa Martin said, and often used to
kill bears and wolves, for the country was wild, with never so much as
one automobile in it.

Grandpa finished his story of the olden days by telling of once when he
was a small boy, coming home through the woods toward dark one evening
and being chased by a bear. But he crawled into a hollow log where the
bear could not get him, and later his father and some other hunters
came, shot the bear and got the little boy safely out.

"Whew!" whistled Teddy, when this was finished. "I'd like to have been
there!"

"In the log, hiding away from the bear?" asked his mother.

"No, I--I guess not that," Ted answered. "I'd just like to have seen it
up in a tree, where the bear couldn't get me."

"Bears can climb trees," remarked Janet.

"Well, I'd go up in a little tree too small for a bear," her brother
answered.

"I guess you'd all better go to your little beds!" laughed Mother
Martin. "It's long past your sleepy time."

And the Curlytops and Trouble were soon sound asleep.

It must have been about the middle of the night--anyhow it was quite
late--when Teddy, who was sleeping in his cot next to one of the side
walls of the tent, was suddenly awakened by a noise outside, and
something seemed to be trying to get through.

"Oh! Oh!" cried Teddy, quickly sitting up in bed, and wide awake all at
once. "Oh, Mother! Something's after me! It's a bear! It's a bear!"

"Hush!" quickly exclaimed Mrs. Martin. "You'll waken William, and
frighten him!"

"But Mother! I'm sure it's a bear! He growled!"

"What is it?" asked Jan, from her cot on the other side of the tent.

"It's a bear!" cried Ted again.

There did seem to be something going on outside the tent near Ted's
side. There was a crackling in the bushes, an