etimes testing the foundations and the
door with massive but stealthy paw, sometimes sniffing loudly at the
cracks; and the woman returned to the comforting of the baby.

In time the little one, fed full and cherished, went to sleep. Then,
with nothing left to occupy her mind but the terrors of her situation,
the woman found those stealthy scratchings and sniffings, and the
strain of the silences that fell between, were more than she could
endure. At first, she thought of getting a couple of blazing sticks,
throwing open the shack door, and deliberately attacking her besieger.
But this idea she dismissed as quite too desperate and futile. Then
she remembered that bears were fond of sweets. A table in the corner
was heaped with great, round cakes of fragrant sugar, the shape of the
pans in which they had been cooled. One of these she snatched up, and
threw it out of the window. The bear promptly came around to see what
had dropped, and fell upon the offering with such ardour that it
vanished between his great jaws in half a minute. Then he came
straight to the window for more, and the woman served it out to him
without delay.

[Illustration: "MADE A WILD THRUST AT THE DREADFUL FACE."]

The beast's appetite for maple-sugar was amazing, and as the woman saw
the sweet store swiftly disappearing, her fear began to be tempered
with indignation. But when her outraged frugality led her to delay the
dole, her tormentor came at the window so savagely that she made all
haste to supply him, and fell to wondering helplessly what she should
do when the sugar was all gone.

As she stood at the window, watching fearfully the vague, monstrous
shape of the animal as he pawed and gnawed at the last cake, suddenly,
far across the shadowy valley, a red light leaped into the sky. For a
moment the woman stared at it with an absent mind, absorbed in her
own trouble, yet noticing how black and sharp, like giant spears
upthrust in array, the tops of the firs stood out against the glow.
For a moment she stood so staring. Then she realized where that wild
light came from. With a cry she turned, rushed to the door, and tore
it open. But as the dark of the forest confronted her, she remembered!
Slamming and latching the door again, she rushed madly back to the
window, and stood there clutching the frame with both hands, praying,
and sobbing, and raving.

And the bear, having finished the sugar, sat up on his haunches to
gaze intently, ears coc