; but only the birds among the trees heard its
pitiful cries. At last it grew so weak for want of food that it could
only moan and move its head a little from side to side. It would have
died before another day if nobody had cared for it.

Just before dark on the second evening, a she-bear came strolling down
the mountain side from her den. She was out looking for her cubs, for
some hunters had stolen them that very day while she was away from home.
She heard the moans of the little babe, and wondered if it was not one
of her lost cubs; and when she saw it lying so helpless on the moss she
went to it and looked at it kindly. Was it possible that a little bear
could be changed into a pretty babe with fat white hands and with a
beautiful gold chain around its neck? The old bear did not know; and as
the child looked at her with its bright black eyes, she growled softly
and licked its face with her warm tongue and then lay down beside it,
just as she would have done with her own little cubs. The babe was too
young to feel afraid, and it cuddled close to the old bear and felt that
it had found a friend. After a while it fell asleep; but the bear
guarded it until morning and then went down the mountain side to look
for food.

In the evening, before dark, the bear came again and carried the child
to her own den under the shelter of a rock where vines and wild flowers
grew; and every day after that she came and gave the child food and
played with it. And all the bears on the mountain learned about the
wonderful cub that had been found, and came to see it; but not one of
them offered to harm it. And the little girl grew fast and became
strong, and after a while could walk and run among the trees and rocks
and brambles on the round top of the mountain; but her bear mother would
not allow her to wander far from the den beneath the rock where the
vines and the wild flowers grew.

One day some hunters came up the mountain to look for game, and one of
them pulled aside the vines which grew in front of the old bear's home.
He was surprised to see the beautiful child lying on the grass and
playing with the flowers which she had gathered. But at sight of him she
leaped to her feet and bounded away like a frightened deer. She led the
hunters a fine chase among the trees and rocks; but there were a dozen
of them, and it was not long till they caught her.

The hunters had never taken such game as that before, and they were so
well sati