k to camp."

Under the experienced hands of Leo and Uncle Dick the great robe was
rapidly removed. Leo rolled it into a pack, and Uncle Dick showed him
how to make it firm by using two square-pointed sticks to hold it in
shape after it was folded--a trick Moise had taught them long before.
Leo, though not a large man, proved powerful, for he scorned all
assistance after the heavy pack was once on his shoulders, and so
staggered down the mountainside. So pleased were the boys over the
success of their hunt that they hardly noticed the icy ford when again
they plunged through the creek on their way to camp.

XXII

THE YOUNG GRIZZLY-HUNTERS

So excited were our young hunters over their first bear-hunt that they
scarcely slept at all that night. It was a very merry party which sat
late about the little camp-fire high up in the mountains. Their camp
was rather a bivouac than a regular encampment, but they now scorned
any discomfort, and, indeed, exulted in their primitive condition.

"Now, Leo," said Uncle Dick, "what do you think about these boys as
hunters?"

"One boy heap shoot," grunted Leo. "Kill 'um one bear when mans along.
Don't know about other boys."

"But let me tell you they have killed bear before now, and big ones,
too. Why, two years ago, up in Alaska, all by themselves, they killed
a Kadiak bear a good deal bigger than this one whose hide we have here
for our mattress to-night."

"Yes, and last year up on the Peace River we helped kill a big
grizzly," added Jesse, "only Alex MacKenzie was along, and he shot,
too."

"But this time, Leo," continued Uncle Dick, "you must admit that only
one shot was fired, even if we were in the woods near by."

"That's all right," admitted Leo, who still felt aggrieved at the
humiliation of not being allowed to use his own rifle in the
bear-hunt. "S'pose only one bear, and only one boy, what then?"

"Well, in that case the best thing the bear could do would be to run
away. As I told you, a rifle will shoot just as hard for a boy as for
a man if the boy knows how to hold it."

"Did you ever have a bear come at you, Leo?" inquired Rob.

"Sometam bear come, not many," said he, indifferently. "Sometam bear
get scared, not know which way he's ron--then people say he's got
mad."

"And didn't you ever get scared yourself, Leo?" inquired Jesse.

"Too much kill 'um bear long time for me to get scare'," said Leo,
proudly. "Kill 'um more bear pretty soon," adde