place an arrow right in his head.

They both took up the bear, and carried it towards home, meeting the
third at the spot where they had parted from him. When they reached
home they threw the bear down on the floor of the hut saying,

'Father, here is a bear which we killed; now we can have some dinner.'

But the father, who was in a bad temper, only said:

'When I was a young man we used to get two bears in one day.'

[Illustration: EVERY TIME A BEAR WAS KILLED HIS SHADOW RETURNED TO
THE HOUSE OF THE GREAT BEAR CHIEF]

The sons were rather disappointed at hearing this, and though there
was plenty of meat to last for two or three days, they started off
early in the morning down the same trail that they had followed
before. As they drew near the fork a bear suddenly ran out from
behind a tree, and took the path on the right. The two elder boys and
their dogs pursued him, and soon the second son, who was also a good
shot, killed him instantly with an arrow. At the fork of the trail,
on their way home, they met the youngest, who had taken the left-hand
road, and had shot a bear for himself. But when they threw the two
bears triumphantly on the floor of the hut their father hardly looked
at them, and only said:

'When _I_ was a young man I used to get three bears in one day.'

The next day they were luckier than before, and brought back three
bears, on which their father told them that _he_ had always killed
four. However, that did not prevent him from skinning the bears and
cooking them in a way of his own, which he thought very good, and they
all ate an excellent supper.

Now these bears were the servants of the great bear chief who lived in
a high mountain a long way off. And every time a bear was killed his
shadow returned to the house of the bear chief, with the marks of his
wounds plainly to be seen by the rest.

The chief was furious at the number of bears the hunters had killed,
and determined that he would find some way of destroying them. So he
called another of his servants, and said to him:

'Go to the thicket near the fork, where the boys killed your brothers,
and directly they or the dogs see you return here as fast as ever you
can. The mountain will open to let you in, and the hunters will follow
you. Then I shall have them in my power, and be able to revenge
myself.'

The servant bowed low, and started at once for the fork, where he hid
himself in the bushes.

By-and-by the boys came