The Basswood family, along with Shadow and Luke, had gone off to the second bungalow, leaving the others at the one over which Mrs. Wadsworth was to preside. The lady of the bungalow showed the girls and the boys the various rooms which they were to occupy. As all of the other baggage had arrived from the railroad station two days before, the tourists lost no time in getting rid of their damp garments and donning others more comfortable. After that all made an inspection of the bungalow, and then trooped over to the other building.
"Say, this suits me down to the ground!" said Luke. "It couldn't be better."
"I noticed a number of canoes and rowboats at the dock," said Shadow. "We are bound to have some fine times out on that lake."
"And did you notice the bath-houses?" added Ben. "That means good times swimming."
"Providing the water isn't too cold," said Phil. "In some of these lakes among the mountains it gets pretty cold, don't you know, especially if the lake happens to be fed by springs."
"Oh, pshaw! who's afraid of a little cold water?" cried his chum, disdainfully.
"Any danger of a bear coming to eat us up?" queried Luke.
"Oh, don't say bears again!" cried Jessie. "I don't want to hear of them, much less see them."
"Say, that puts me in mind of a story!" cried Shadow, eagerly. "Once a bear got away from his keeper and wandered around a little New England village until he came to a cottage where an old lady lived. All of the villagers were scared to death, and some of them started to get their shotguns and rifles with which to kill Mr. Bruin. But the old lady had her own idea of what to do. She grabbed up a broomstick and began to hammer that bear right on his nose, and would you believe me? Mr. Bruin got so scared that he ran away and then went straight back to his keeper and allowed himself to be chained up again!"
"Shadow, is that a true story or a made-up yarn?" asked Laura.