ing me almost, till I came right on the top of the bear,
who lay at the bottom; and I fell with such force, that I doubled his
head down, so that he could not lay hold of me with his teeth, which
would not have been pleasant; indeed, the bear was quite as much, if not
more, astonished than myself, and there he lay beneath me, very quiet,
till I could recover a little. Then I thought of getting out, as you
may suppose, fast enough, and the hollow of the tree, providentially,
was not so wide but that I could work up again with my back to one side
and my knees to the other. By this means I gradually got up again to
the hole that I fell in at, and perched myself across the timber to
fetch my breath. I had not been there more than a quarter of a minute,
and I intended to have remained much longer, when I perceived, all of a
sudden, the bear's head within a foot of me; he had climbed up after me,
and I saw that he was very angry, so in a moment I threw myself off my
perch, and down I went to the ground at the foot of the tree, a matter
of nearly twenty feet, even faster than I went down inside of it. I was
severely shaken with the fall, but no bones were broken; in fact, I was
more frightened than hurt; I lay quite still for a little while, when
the growl of the bear put me in mind of him; I jumped on my legs, and
found that he was coming down the tree after me, and was within six feet
of the ground. There was no time to lose; I caught up my rifle, and had
just time to put it to his ear and settle him, as he was placing his
fore foot on the ground."

"What a narrow escape!"

"Well, perhaps it was; but there's no saying, miss, which beats till the
fight is over."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

CAPTAIN SINCLAIR LEAVES CANADA.

A notice arrived that the departure of the boat to Montreal would take
place on the next morning. When the boat came up, it brought Captain
Sinclair, to the great delight of the whole party, who had felt very
anxious about one with whom they had so long been intimate and who had
shewn them so much kindness. His knee was almost well, and, as soon as
the first interrogations were over, he made known to them that he had
obtained six weeks' leave of absence, and was about to proceed to
Quebec.

"To Quebec!" cried Emma, "and why are you going to Quebec?"

"To confess the truth, Emma," said Captain Sinclair, "my journey to
Quebec is but the preparatory step to my return to England, for perhaps
two o