bear was out of sight, and then you didn't
know where it would jump out from; but sometimes we saw it, and just
followed.

'When we catch it there'll be a great fight,' said Oswald; 'and I shall
be Count Folko of Mont Faucon.'

'I'll be Gabrielle,' said Dora. She is the only one of us who likes
doing girl's parts.

'I'll be Sintram,' said Alice; 'and H. O. can be the Little Master.'

'What about Dicky?'

'Oh, I can be the Pilgrim with the bones.'

'Hist!' whispered Alice. 'See his white fairy fur gleaming amid yonder
covert!'

And I saw a bit of white too. It was Noel's collar, and it had come
undone at the back.

We hunted the bear in and out of the trees, and then we lost him
altogether; and suddenly we found the wall of the Park--in a place where
I'm sure there wasn't a wall before. Noel wasn't anywhere about, and
there was a door in the wall. And it was open; so we went through.

'The bear has hidden himself in these mountain fastnesses,' Oswald said.
'I will draw my good sword and after him.'

So I drew the umbrella, which Dora always will bring in case it rains,
because Noel gets a cold on the chest at the least thing--and we went
on.

The other side of the wall it was a stable yard, all cobble-stones.

There was nobody about--but we could hear a man rubbing down a horse
and hissing in the stable; so we crept very quietly past, and Alice
whispered--

''Tis the lair of the Monster Serpent; I hear his deadly hiss! Beware!
Courage and despatch!'

We went over the stones on tiptoe, and we found another wall with
another door in it on the other side. We went through that too, on
tiptoe. It really was an adventure. And there we were in a shrubbery,
and we saw something white through the trees. Dora said it was the white
bear. That is so like Dora. She always begins to take part in a play
just when the rest of us are getting tired of it. I don't mean this
unkindly, because I am very fond of Dora. I cannot forget how kind she
was when I had bronchitis; and ingratitude is a dreadful vice. But it is
quite true.

'It is not a bear,' said Oswald; and we all went on, still on tiptoe,
round a twisty path and on to a lawn, and there was Noel. His collar had
come undone, as I said, and he had an inky mark on his face that he made
just before we left the house, and he wouldn't let Dora wash it off,
and one of his bootlaces was coming down. He was standing looking at a
little girl; she was the funniest little g