* * * *

The next day, perfect as the one before, they went down, down, down the
trail, through the canyon, across the prairie, and home once more.

"Mr. Hunter named it just right," Priscilla said to Dick, who came to take
the horses. "I've never felt so well-acquainted in my life!"

CHAPTER IV

THE BEAR CANYON BEAR

"Gee!" cried Alden Winthrop. "I wish I was out there!"

"So do I!" echoed his brother John.

"I wish I _were_, dear," corrected his mother.

"Well, _were_, then, Mother. There isn't much difference in the way you
say it. I wish I was there anyway!"

His mother sighed, but Alden's thoughts were far from English grammar.
Instead, they were centering upon the contents of a fat letter from his
sister Priscilla, which his father had just read.

"I've got more respect for Priscilla than I ever had in all my life," he
continued. "I never supposed she'd have sand enough to go on a bear hunt.
Now, if she'd just shot the bear herself, it would be----"

"Why, Alden!" interrupted his mother. "Imagine Priscilla doing a thing
like that! You don't suppose, do you, dear," she continued, turning to
Mr. Winthrop, who was reading his daughter's letter for a second time
while he finished his breakfast, "you don't suppose Priscilla is really
handling a gun herself?"

"Sounds like it to me," said Priscilla's father as he turned the pages.
"She says, 'I can knock a bottle all to pieces at thirty yards. Don't you
call that pretty good?'"

"I'd like to know the size of the bottle before replying," commented
John.

"Dear me!" said Mrs. Winthrop anxiously. "I'm willing she should ride
horseback and climb mountains and camp in a perfect wilderness if that's
what Western people term pleasure, but I do wish she wouldn't shoot a gun!
I'm afraid I shan't have a minute's real peace till she gets home. Of
course I know she's in the best of hands, but accidents are so common.
Just yesterday I was reading where----"

"Now, Mother!" remonstrated the boys.

"Don't worry for a moment, Mother," reassured Mr. Winthrop. "She'll come
home safe and sound. I'll trust those good people out there to look after
her." He turned the pages again. "She's certainly having the time of her
life! Makes me wish I were young again myself!"

"That skin will look splendid in the library," said Alden. "Read again
what she says about sending it, Dad."

"Read it all, Dad!" suggested John. "There's plenty of time."