THEIR CAMP-FIRE HAD DIED DOWN.
"I tell you, Bo," he said excitedly, "we've made a fine start. By and by we will earn two or three times that much every day, and be able to start our bear colony before you know it."
The little boy fondled the coins over and over. They were the first he had ever earned.
"Ratio," he said at last, "don't you suppose when we get a lot of money—a big lot, I mean—we might give some to those people I used to live with?"
Horatio scowled.
"I thought you said they didn't treat you well and you had to run away."
"Yes, of course, Ratio; but then they were so poor and maybe they'd have been better to me if I had been able to earn money for them. They did take me out of the poor house, you know, and—"
"And you tried to get back again and got lost and fell in with me. Now you are sorry and want to go to them, do you?" and the Bear snorted so fiercely that the little boy trembled.
"Oh, no! Not for the world! I never was so happy in all my life, only I just thought—"