is event was somehow to redound to the credit
of the family, agreed to make the necessary alterations at a trifling
cost, and when the night of the masquerade arrived, Paul was so startled
at his appearance that he would have run away from himself if such a
thing had been possible. He had never imagined that he would make such a
successful Beast.

By an ingenious contrivance with a string, which he pulled with his
hand, he was able to move his lower jaw, which, with its red tongue and
terrible teeth, presented an awful appearance. By patching the skin
a little behind, his head was made to fit comfortably into the bear's
head, and his mild blue eyes looked out of the holes from which the
bear's eyes had been removed. The skin was laced with thin leather
thongs from the neck down, but the long, shaggy fur made the lacing
invisible.

Paul Jespersen practiced ursine behavior before the looking-glass
for about half an hour. Then, being uncomfortably warm, he started
down-stairs, and determined to walk to the Association Hall. He chuckled
to himself at the thought of the sensation he would make, if he should
happen to meet anybody on the road.

Having never attended a masquerade before, he did not know that
dressing-rooms were provided for the maskers, and, being averse to
needless expenditure, he would as soon have thought of flying as of
taking a carriage. There was, in fact, but one carriage on runners in
the town, and that was already engaged by half a dozen parties.

The moon was shining faintly upon the snow, and there was a sharp frost
in the air when Paul Jespersen put his hairy head out of the street-door
and reconnoitred the territory.

There was not a soul to be seen, except an old beggar woman who was
hobbling along, supporting herself with two sticks. Paul darted, as
quickly as his unwieldly bulk would allow, into the middle of the
street. He enjoyed intensely the fun of walking abroad in such a
monstrous guise. He contemplated with boyish satisfaction his shadow
which stretched, long and black and horrible, across the snow.

It was a bit slippery, and he had to manoeuvre carefully in order to
keep right side up. Presently he caught up with the beggar woman.

"Good-evening!" he said.

The old woman turned about, stared at him horror-stricken; then, as soon
as she had collected her senses, took to her heels, yelling at the top
of her voice. A big mastiff, who had just been let loose for the night,
began