ueer rattle in her
throat made every one look up in alarm. At first they thought that she
must be having some kind of a fit. Her hands were thrown up, her mouth
dropped open, there was a look of wild terror in her staring eyes, and
her face was deathly pale. It was terrifying to see a grown woman seem
so frightened. She was pointing to the door, and, as their eyes
followed her shaking finger, they forgot her fear in their own fright.

There, standing on its hind legs in the door, was an enormous bear,
taller than any man they had ever seen. Its mouth was open, and a long
red tongue hung out between its gleaming teeth. Trailing behind him was
a heavy rope, that showed that he had broken away from some place of
confinement.

[Illustration: "THERE WAS ONE WILD SCREAM AFTER ANOTHER."]

There was one wild scream after another, as the girls sprang up,
spilling the four Bobs out of their laps to the floor. Eugenia rolled
under the bed in such mad haste that she bumped her head against the
footboard, crying in an imploring tone as she disappeared, "Oh, don't
eat me! Don't eat me!" Joyce scrambled up on a high chest of drawers,
and from there to the top of the wardrobe, where she sat panting and
looking down at the bear, who seemed surprised at his reception. After
one frightened scream, Betty buried her head in a sofa pillow like a
little ostrich, and made no attempt to escape. She seemed glued to her
chair.

The Little Colonel, who had stumbled over all of the four Bobbies in her
confusion, and fallen on top of them as she tried to scramble up from
her knees, gave one more startled look at the intruder, and then sprang
up with an angry cry. "It's that old tramp beah that belongs to Malcolm
and Keith," she exclaimed, in a great passion. The girls had never seen
her in such a fury.

"Get out of heah, mistah!" she shrieked, stamping her foot and scowling
darkly. "This is the second time you have neahly frightened me to death!
Get out of heah, I say, or I'll break every bone in yo' body!" She had
been so startled by Eliot's appearance and then the general outcry, that
her nervousness passed into a rage. Picking up the book that Betty had
been reading, she hurled it at the astonished bear with all her force.
Eliot's work-basket followed next, and the pillows from the bed and
sofa. Next she tore off her slippers, and sent them flying against the
brown furry back now turned toward her. Not knowing what to make of such
a shower