rancingly lovely in memory that last night I
dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls!"

They were not to reach home without at least one adventure, however. A
day or so later, as they toiled up a painfully steep ascent, Lassie
sounded the note of alarm, and catching up the rifle, Adam ran ahead.
As he rounded a point in the rocks, he came upon a Rocky Mountain goat
engaged in combat with a cinnamon bear. The bear was hardly more than
a cub, and was carrying off one of the kids. The goat, horns down, was
fighting viciously, though weak from loss of blood.

It would be interesting to know what one wild animal thinks when
another wild animal, from its point of view, comes to the rescue. Adam
carried a lariat over one arm. In an instant it flew through the air,
dropping over Bruin's shoulders. He released the kid, and tumbled
backward over the cliff, as much with surprise as by the force of the
jerk on the rope, taking that treasured article with him.

It took some time to capture the wounded animals, bind up their hurts,
and get them down the pathway leading to the beach. For there was a
beach, the best one they had found on the Eastern coast, and as they
put the goat and her kids down in the grass, Adam said tentatively,
"If you are not afraid, I can go home and get the horses and the
sleds. It isn't a great way, and I believe I can be back in three
hours,--I'm sure I can if the beach goes as close to our park as I
think."

Robin acquiesced, and as soon as he was gone began gathering
driftwood. When she had quite a little heap she made a fire with the
coals they carried in the pot. It is doubtless more romantic to build
a fire by striking flint rocks together, but a pot of coals has its
uses in a matchless universe. Then she found a long, stout club, and
put one end in the fire, where it smouldered sullenly.

"There now," she said conclusively, "if my bear acquaintance calls, I
will present him with 'the red flower.' I didn't learn the 'Jungle
Books' by heart for nothing."

Meanwhile Adam was striding over the beach at a rate that brought him
to the little cove and the high wall of rocks that shut them in on the
south in a little over an hour. Two of the pups had gone with him, and
they raced on ahead, as he came in sight of the house. Everything
seemed to have an air of welcome, and the horses whinnied joyfully
when he called them from the gateway.

The pathetic placard was still there, and he crumpled it in his hand