stump and
sat down to eat some cookies their mother had given them. The Curlytops
nearly always became hungry when they were out on their little trips.

"Wouldn't it be funny," remarked Ted, after a bit, "if we should see a
bear?"

"The-o-dore Martin!" gasped Janet. "I wish you'd keep quiet! It makes me
scared to hear you say that."

"Well, I was only foolin'," and Teddy dropped a "g," a habit of which
his mother was trying to break him. And he did not often forget.

"If I saw a bear," began Janet, "I'd just scream and----"

Suddenly she stopped because of a queer look she saw on her brother's
face. Teddy dropped the cookie he had been about to bite, and, pointing
toward a hollow log that lay not far off, said, in a hoarse whisper:

"Look, Jan! It _is_ a bear!"

CHAPTER VII

JAN SEES SOMETHING

For a moment after her brother had said this Janet did not speak. She,
too, dropped the cookie she had just taken from the bag, and turned
slowly around to see at what Teddy was pointing.

She was just in time to see something furry and reddish-brown in color
dart into the hollow log, which was open at both ends. Then Jan gave a
scream.

"Oh!" exclaimed Ted, who was as much frightened by Janet's shrill voice
as he was at what he had seen. "Oh, Jan! Don't!"

"I--I couldn't help it," she answered. "I told you I'd scream if I saw a
bear, and I _did_ see one. It is a bear, isn't it, Teddy?"

"It is," he answered. "I saw it first. It's my bear!"

"You can have it--every bit of it," said Jan, quickly getting up from
the mossy rock on which she had been sitting. "I don't want any of it,
not even the stubby tail. I like to own half of Nicknack with you, but I
don't want half a bear."

"Then I'll take all of it--it's my bear," went on Ted. "Where're you
going, Jan?" he asked, as he saw his sister hurrying away.

"I'm going home. I don't like it here. I'm going to make Nicknack run
home with me."

Teddy got up, too. He did not stop to pick up the cookie he had dropped.

"I--I guess I'll go with you, Jan," he said. "I guess my bear will stay
in the log until I come back."

"Are you coming back?" asked Janet, as with trembling fingers she
unfastened Nicknack's strap from around the stump to which he had been
tied.

"I'm going to get grandpa to come back with me and shoot the bear,"
replied Ted. "I want his skin to make a rug. You know--like grandpa did
with the bear his father shot."

Jan did not say anyth