ould make out the glimmering pathway, the
dim, black trunks shouldering up on either side of it, the clumps of
bushes obstructing it here and there. Trembling--clutching tightly at
the baby, the lantern, and the sap-bucket--she started back with
furtive but hurried footsteps, afraid to make any noise lest she
attract the notice of some mysterious powers of the wilderness.

As the woman went, her fears grew with her haste till only the
difficulties of the path, with the weight of her burdens, prevented
her from breaking into a run of panic. The baby, meanwhile, kept on
sucking his maple-sugar and staring into the novel darkness. The
woman's breath began to come too fast, her knees began to feel as if
they might turn to water at any moment. At last, when within perhaps
fifty paces of the shack, to her infinite relief she saw a dark, tall
figure take shape just over the top of a bush, at the turn of the
trail. She had room for but one thought. It was Dave, back earlier
than he had expected. She did not stop to wonder how or why. With a
little, breathless cry, she exclaimed: "Oh, Dave, I'm so glad! Take
the baby!" and reached forward to place the little one in his arms.

Even as she did so, however, something in the tall, dim shape rising
over the bush struck her as unfamiliar. And why didn't Dave speak? She
paused, she half drew back, while a chill fear made her cheeks
prickle; and as she slightly changed her position, the dark form grew
more definite. She saw the massive bulk of the shoulders. She caught a
glint of white teeth, of fierce, wild eyes.

With a screech of intolerable horror, she shrank back, clutching the
baby to her bosom, swung the brimming bucket of sap full into the
monster's face, and fled with the speed of a deer down another trail
toward the shack. She was at the door before her appalled brain
realized that the being to which she had tried to hand over the child
was a huge bear.

Bewildered and abashed for a few seconds by the deluge of liquid and
the clatter of the tin vessel in his face, the animal had not
instantly pursued. But he was just out of the den after his long
winter sleep and savage with hunger. Moreover, he had been allowed to
realize that the dreaded man-creature which he had met so unexpectedly
was afraid of him! He came crashing over the bushes, and was so close
at the woman's heels that she had barely time to slam the shack door
in his face.

As she dropped the rude wooden latch