Anyhow, it isn't any picnic to fall out of a tree at any time, especially when there is a bear at the bottom.
When the limb began to crack, Skinny knew that he was a goner. He yelled so loud that it surprised the bear and it looked up into the tree to see what was going on. Just at that second the leader of Raven Patrol landed on the cub's nose, like a thousand of brick. Boy and bear both went sprawling, one in one direction and the other in another.
Skinny was the first to get on his feet and the way he shinned up the tree again was a caution. He didn't stop to look until he had reached the limb where the rope was tied. Then he felt safe.
The bear had picked himself up and was standing close to the foot of the tree, looking up and whining, as if he didn't like being hit in the head by a boy very well.
It was the chance which Skinny had been waiting for. He gathered the rope up in his hands and opened the noose wide. Then, leaning down as far as he dared, until he was right over the bear, he dropped it. The noose fell as straight as a die and, spreading out around the cub's head, lay across his shoulders with the side nearest the tree almost touching the ground.
Just as the bear stepped one foot over the loop, Skinny grabbed the rope with both hands and gave a quick jerk. The noose tightened; and there was the most surprised bear you ever saw, tied fast to the tree! Skinny stood on the limb above like a big crow, cawing to beat the band and so excited that he came near falling again.
"Gee, but that bear was mad," said Skinny, when he was telling us about it. "He growled and he snapped and he rolled on the ground; then he ran around and around the tree, until he had wound himself up short, but he couldn't get away. It was great, only I didn't dare jump on him again. He was too crazy."
"Great snakes, Skinny!" exclaimed Bill. "You always have all the fun."
"I guess you wouldn't have thought it so much fun if you had been up in the tree and couldn't get down. I'd 'a' choked him with the rope, if he hadn't got his feet tangled up in it so that I couldn't."
"How did you get down, Skinny?" asked Benny, because Skinny had a way of stopping at the most interesting places and pretending that he was through telling about it.