their breakfasts Joe led over
June and July, and waited observantly while Tom and Hippy rolled their
belongings into packs which Mrs. Shafto lashed to the mules with her own
hands.

"Ye see the twins don't like to have strangers monkeyin' around 'em,"
she explained. "I'll git goin' now and ye kin foller along. I've got to
git Henry first."

"Eh? What's that?" demanded Hippy.

"I don't go nowheres without my Henry."

"You--you aren't going to take that beast with you, are you, Mrs.
Shafto?" cried Emma.

"I sure be, and I reckon ye'll be mighty glad to have him along before
we git through with this here hop into the Big Woods."

Emma groaned dismally.

"Never mind," soothed Hippy. "You can practice your nature reading stunt
on him. Who knows but that you may learn the bear language, so that by
the time we finish our work up here you will be able to go out in the
forest and tell the bears your life history, and listen to them telling
you theirs. Of course they might eat you, but that would not matter."

"Huh!" grunted Miss Dean, elevating her nose and turning her back on
him.

"Mount!" ordered Hippy, after each girl had saddled her pony and stood
waiting for the start. They swung into their saddles with agility, and
jogged out into the road with Hindenburg racing ahead and darting back,
barking joyously. He was already feeling the call of the wild.

"There's Joe," called Emma, as they rounded a bend in the road.

"I do not see the bear," wondered Tom.

"Perhaps she decided to leave him at home to shift for himself. I hope
so."

Grace said she hoped _not_, for the bear would make life interesting for
them.

Joe was sitting on the back of one of her pack mules jogging along,
leading the second mule behind, but, though she must have heard the
Overlanders shout to her, she neither replied nor looked back.
Hindenburg, however, darted ahead and began barking at the mules,
dodging their heels successfully for several minutes, much to the
amusement of the party following. At last, however, he caught a glancing
blow from a mule foot that sent him rolling into the bushes. In a few
moments he was out again, circling mules and rider, barking his angry
protests, then dodging off the trail into the bushes where they heard
him barking with a different note in his voice.

"There comes the bear!" cried Nora. "Look at him!"

"Yes, and there comes Hindenburg bucking the line," added Hippy.

The bear, followed by the do