final flourish,

"with my money all the same."

The little boy laughed. The Bear seemed to have forgotten the cruel
Italian and was in his usual good humor.

"I think I can trust you, Horatio; I'm not a bit afraid of you."

"Bo," said Ratio, speaking suddenly, "speaking of Christmas trees, we
ought to have one. I saw a beautiful one up the stream yonder. I think
I'll go and get it, if you'll look after the supper while I'm gone."

"Why, yes, Horatio, only don't be long about it."

Horatio struck the violin with a long vigorous sweep.

[Illustration: Music]

"Oh, we'll have a tree for Christmas in this Louisiana isthmus,
Where the orange trees are waving and the jasmines are in bloom;

[Illustration: Music]

And I'll have a Christmas dinner, if I don't I am a sinner,
And I'll eat it if it sends me to my doom--doom--doom."

Bo laughed again. He had never seen Horatio in a better humor.

"If you eat too much pie it may send you to your doom--doom--doom," he
said. "Hurry back, now, with that tree. You can pull it up by the roots
and we'll plant it again here. Then it will keep right on growing."

The bear set out up the stream and the boy busied himself with building
a fire and taking out of a sack a lot of food that had been given them
by the planters during the afternoon. He spread this on the leaves and
moss and then sat down and gazed into the bright blaze. It was pleasant
and warm and he was quite tired. After a while he wondered sleepily why
the Bear didn't come back, and concluded he was having a hard time
pulling up the tree. Then he began thinking of all the adventures they
had had together and of the little cub bear and the cruel Italian.

"I was tempted to let Horatio at him," he thought. "A man like that
should be beaten until he couldn't stand. That poor little creature! How
wistfully he looked at us. He kept whining--perhaps he was telling Ratio
something."

The little boy's head nodded forward now and then and presently he
slept. He slept soundly and the moments flew by unheeded. He was having
a long dream about old man Todd and the girls and the two candy hearts,
when suddenly there arose close at hand such a commotion, such a
mingling of excited language, fierce snarls and crashing of brush that
the little boy leaped to his feet wildly.

"Ratio!" he shouted. "Ratio! where are you?"

The only answer was the redoubled fury of the furious uproar, which Bo
now located at