igger than her own Teddy Bear at home, which she was wont to carry
around by one leg, or to spank without ceremony whenever she thought it
needed discipline. But the glossy black of the stranger was quite
unlike the wild and grubby whiteness of her Teddy, and his shrewd
little twinkling eyes were quite unlike the bland shoe buttons which
adorned the face of her uncomplaining pet. She wondered when her
mother would come and relieve the strain of the situation.

"All at once the raft, which had hitherto voyaged with a discreet
deliberation, seemed to become agitated. Boiling upthrusts of the
current, caused by some hidden unevenness on the bottom, shouldered it
horridly from beneath, threatening to tear it apart, and unbridled
eddies twisted it this way and that with sickening lurches. The tree
was torn from it and snatched off reluctant all by itself, rolling over
and over in a fashion that must have made the cub rejoice to think that
he had quitted a refuge so eccentric in its behavior. As a matter of
fact, the flood was now sweeping the raft over what was, at ordinary
times, a series of low falls, a succession of saw-toothed ledges which
would have ripped the raft to bits. Now the ledges were buried deep
under the immense volume of the freshet. But they were not to be
ignored, for all that. And they made their submerged presence felt in
a turmoil that became more and more terrifying to the two little
passengers on the raft.

"There was just one point in the raft, one only, that was farther away
than any other part from those dreadful, seething-crested black
surges--and that was the very center. The little bear backed toward
it, whimpering and shivering, from his corner.

"From her corner, directly opposite, the baby too backed toward it,
hitching herself along and eyeing the waves in the silence of the
terror. She arrived at the same instant. Each was conscious of
something alive, and warm, and soft, and comfortable--with motherly
suggestion in the contact. The baby turned with a sob and flung her
arms about the bear. The bear, snuggling his narrow black snout under
her arm as if to shut out the fearful sight of the waves, made futile
efforts to crawl into a lap that was many sizes too small to
accommodate him.

"In some ten minutes more the wild ledges were past. The surges sank
to foaming swirls, and the raft once more journeyed smoothly. The two
little voyagers, recovering from their ecstasy of fe