bear! It's a bear! It's a
bear!"

Almost at the same instant old dog Spot ran out of his kennel, barking
furiously. And like magic the prowler--whoever he was--vanished into the
night.

"Keep still!" Grunty's mother called to him; for the noise had half
roused her. "Don't you mention the word _bear_ again, or I'll attend to
you in the morning."

Drowsy as she was, Mrs. Pig actually thought Grunty was right there in
the pen with the rest of her children. And in no time at all she was
snoring again.

Grunty Pig didn't dare open his mouth nor close his eyes the rest of the
night. And when morning came, Farmer Green found him huddled against the
door of the piggery.

It was a joyful meeting--for Grunty Pig.

XIII

HOME AT LAST

"What's this?" Farmer Green exclaimed, when he went to unlock the
piggery in the morning and found Grunty Pig lying up against the door.
"Did you get locked out last night? Was it you that old Spot was barking
at?"

Grunty Pig didn't dare answer. When Farmer Green dropped him into the
pen he said nothing to anybody--not even "Good morning!"

A little later Farmer Green found something more outside the piggery. In
the loose dirt he discovered--bear tracks!

"Aha!" he cried to his son Johnnie. "Look here! We had a visitor last
night. It was no wonder old Spot woke us all up. A bear called on us!
And he'd certainly have had that pig if Spot hadn't scared him off."

Naturally the news soon spread all over the farmyard. And when Mrs. Pig
heard it she began to tremble.

"To think," she quavered, "that my littlest child spent the night out of
doors, with a bear prowling about the neighborhood! And I slept through
it all!

"Tell me all about it, Grunty!" she commanded that young gentleman.

It is not surprising that Grunty Pig was puzzled. Hadn't his mother told
him, during the night, not to mention the word _bear_ again? And now she
was urging him to talk about that very animal.

"Squeak up!" said his mother sharply--which was the same as saying,
"Speak up!"

So he told his story. And when he had finished Mrs. Pig fairly covered
him with caresses.

"It seems to me--" she sniffed--for she was quite upset--"it seems to me
that I remember your saying something about a bear last night. But I
wasn't wide awake at the time. And I thought you were fibbing again.

"Perhaps," she added, "this will teach you a few things that you needed
to learn.... _Always mind your mother!_" said