ig spruce
log, escaped from the boom on some river emptying into the bay. It
came softly wallowing in, lipped by the little waves, and passed close
by the nose of the old bear, where she struggled with the water up to
her shoulders.

[Illustration: "PULLED THE BUTT UNDER HER CHEST."]

Quick as thought she flashed up a heavy paw, caught the log by one
end, and pulled the butt under her chest. The purchase thus gained
enabled her to free the other paw--and in a few seconds more the
weight of the fore part of her body was on the end of the log, forcing
it down to the mud. Greedy as that mud was, it was yet incapable of
engulfing a full-grown spruce timber quickly enough to defeat the
bear's purpose. Stretching far forward on the submerged log, she
strained her muscles to their utmost, and slowly drew her hind
quarters free from the deadly grip that held them. Then, seizing in
her jaws the cub, which was swimming and whimpering beside her, she
carefully felt her way farther along the log, and sat down upon it to
rest, clutching the youngster closely in one great fore arm.

Not till the tide had risen nearly to her neck did the mother move
again. She was recovering her strength. Utterly daunted by the peril
of the "honey-pots," she chose rather to trust the tide itself. At
last, catching the cub again by the back of the neck, she swam for the
shore. The tide was now within a couple of hundred yards from the
bases of the cliffs, and lapping upon solid, sun-baked clay. The
strong flood helping her, she swam fast, though laboriously by reason
of the burden in her teeth. Soon her hinder feet struck ground--but
she was afraid to trust it, and nervously drew them up beneath her. A
few moments more and she felt undeniably firm footing; whereupon she
plunged forward with a rush, and never paused, even to drop the
squirming cub, till she was above high-water mark.

When, at last, she set the little beast down, she was in such a hurry
to get away from the shore and back into the secure green woods that
she would not trust him to follow her, as usual, but drove him on
ahead, as fast as he could move, toward the cleft in the cliffs. As
they turned up the rugged trail her haste relaxed, and she went more
slowly, but still driving the cub ahead of her, that she might be
quite sure that the "honey-pots" would not reach up and clutch at him
again.

As the muddy, weary, bedraggled, pathetic-looking pair passed within
tempting range of