e bear; if he was there he would find him
out. Off he ran with his spear. He had not been absent half a minute
when he came running back, crying out, "Here he is, sure enough, in
among the roots of an old tree under the bank. Come, Phil; come, Harry,
come; we shall have him, sure enough, for he does not seem inclined to
move. I suspect the tap you gave him, Phil, with your axe, hurt him
more than we fancied."

The latter remarks were uttered as the three brothers, with their spears
ready for action, hurried towards the spot Charley had indicated.
There, indeed, was a brown heap, from out of which a set of sharp teeth
and a pair of twinkling eyes appeared. "There, what do you think of
that?" asked Charley. The bear lay in a sort of root-formed cavern,
under the bank. Some snow had drifted into it, which had been protected
from the rain; on the snow were wide stains of blood. His wound would
certainly make the bear more savage, and might not have much weakened
him. Still, forgetting the risk they were running, they all three made
a rush at him with their spears. He attempted to get up, seizing
Charley's spear from his grasp, and biting furiously at it, but Philip's
and Harry's pinned him to the bank. Still his strength was great, and
it was not till Philip was able to get a blow at his head with his axe
that his struggles ceased.

"Hurrah, hurrah! now we may live here for a week, like Robinson Crusoe,"
shouted Charley, highly delighted with their success.

"And leave those at home to believe that we are lost," said Philip.

"No, no, I don't mean that; only if we were obliged to stop we might
contrive to be very jolly," said Charley.

They had no little trouble in dragging the bear up the bank, and it then
became a question what they should do with him. They could not carry
him away, that was very certain. Cutting him up was not a pleasant
operation, yet they could not hang him up whole.

"We will secure his tongue, and we must come back for him as soon as we
can," said Phil.

They had been so busy that they had not observed that the rain had
ceased, and that instead of it a thick fog had sprung up again,
completely obscuring the shores. It was so warm that there could be no
doubt that the ice must be rapidly melting. Had this happened at the
end of winter it would not have signified, as it would have required
many days then to weaken the ice materially. Still, if it had not been
for the fog they co