e mountains this morning."

"Did ye ketch 'em this mornin'?" queried Fisheye as he followed the
two salesmen to the truck.

"Naw, he's had 'em in training for two months. Best of all, he knows
how to take care of their hair, how to feed 'em. Look, there they are,
alike as two peas and ready to climb a pole or turn a somersault."

Fisheye was peering through the slats. "I wish we had 'em out whar I
could see 'em better. Now what's yer deal, Prince? Ye said somethin'
about a deal?"

"Well, it's like this, Fisheye. Mr. Welborn could go right on training
these bruins and peddle them through an ad in _Billboard_ for a sure
two hundred smackers, surely by Thanksgiving--"

"Two hundred nothin's," retorted the wary Fisheye, who was not to let
a fancy price go by without protest. "Thar's no bar in the world wuth
a hundred dollars. Why up in the Yallerstone, they offer to give 'em
away!"

"Sure they do, or did last year. They are the old mangy bears that
bother tourists, Jesse James bears, that they want to get rid of. But
they wouldn't sell you a cub for love or money. Bears are scarce this
year. They hint of a bear famine up there.

"And anyhow, you didn't let me finish. Why if you owned these bears
and had 'em climbing an injun ladder right up to their perch in the
animal act, had 'em dancing, turning somersaults, you would ask a half
grand for them and never bat an eye. They would be worth it, and you
know it. But rather than go through the work of getting them ready,
Mr. Welborn is willing to take an even hundred for the two. Better
still, he'll let you make a note for the hundred due in ninety
days--or say Christmas. By that time you've got the bears sold and
your note paid, and jingling the difference."

Fisheye was squinting through the slats. "I wish we had 'em out whar a
man could see what he's buying."

"Haven't you got an empty cage where we could turn them out in the
daylight?" asked the sales manager.

"Shore I have. I jist got pie Rip's cage all cleaned out an ready fer
what come."

"Well, get it open. Cut loose the trailer, Mr. Welborn, and we will
back it in by hand. Here, Happy, you and Joe help push this trailer in
to where Fisheye shows you. These cubs need initiating anyhow."

The trailer was unhooked and carefully backed in through a passage
laid out by the versatile Fisheye. A door was opened in one of the
unplaced cages and the little bears pushed out into a new world. They
scrambled to a f