hey
bounded away with that exuberance of feeling which is frequently the
result of sunshine after rain.

"It is like heaven upon earth," cried Victor, pulling up after a long
run.

"I wonder what heaven is like," returned Ian musingly. "It sometimes
occurs to me that we think and speak far too little of heaven, which is
a strange thing, considering that we all hope to go there in the
long-run, and expect to live there for ever."

"Oh! come now, Mr Wiseman," said Victor, "I didn't mean to call forth a
sermon."

"Your remark, Vic, only brings out one of the curious features of the
case. If I had spoken of buffalo-hunting, or riding, or boating, or
even of the redskin's happy hunting-grounds--anything under the sun or
above it--all would have been well and in order, but directly I refer to
_our own_ heaven I am sermonising!"

"Well, because it's so like the parsons," pleaded Victor.

"What then? Were not the parsons, as you style them, sent to raise our
thoughts to God and heaven by preaching Christ? I admit that _some_ of
them don't raise our thoughts high, and a few of them help rather to
drag our thoughts downward. Still, as a class, they are God's servants;
and for myself I feel that I don't consider sufficiently what they have
to tell us. I don't wish to sermonise; I merely wish to ventilate my
own thoughts and get light if I can. You are willing to chat with me,
Vic, on all other subjects; why not on this?"

"Oh! I've no objection, Ian; none whatever, only it's--it's--I say,
there seems to me to be some sort of brute moving down in the woods
there. Hist! let's keep round by that rocky knoll, and I'll run up to
see what it is."

Victor did not mean this as a violent change of subject, although he was
not sorry to make the change. His attention had really been attracted
by some animal which he said and hoped was a bear. They soon galloped
to the foot of the knoll, which was very rugged--covered with rocks and
bushes. Victor ascended on foot, while his comrades remained at the
bottom holding his horse.

The sight that met his eyes thrilled him. In the distance, on a wooded
eminence, sat a huge grizzly bear. The size of Victor's eyes when he
looked back at his comrades was eloquently suggestive, even if he had
not drawn back and descended the slope toward them on tiptoe and with
preternatural caution.

"A monstrous grizzly!" he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper--though the bear
was at beast half a