“I must have been trembling, for in my reply I shook in my voice, and the bears were angry and growled at me. How ever, I knew I could correctly give the owl call which Mustagan knew was our signal of danger. So when I passed behind a tree I gave it as loud as I could, as though from an owl in the tree above me. When all was right again I gave the robin song, and you all know the rest.”
Chapter Twenty Four.
Congratulations—Other Incidents of Lost Children—Long Excursion by the Boys—Indian Legend—“Why is the Bear Tailless?”—Oxford Lake—Black Bears as Fishermen—The Lookout from the Trees—Fish-Stealing Bears—The Conflict—Bears versus Boys and Indians—Sam’s Successful Thrust—Plenty of Bear Meat.
The thrilling adventures and escape of Wenonah and Roderick were, of course, the great sensations that were most talked about for many a day. Children have wonderful recuperative powers, and so the two little ones recovered from the effects of their strange mishaps long before Mr and Mrs Ross or even Minnehaha did. But time is a great healer, and soon all were well and in good spirits again.
The event produced a deep impression upon Frank, Sam, and Alec, and drew out from the older servants at the home and some of the Indians some very interesting stories. It is simply amazing what a difference there is in people in respect to their ability to find their way out of a forest when once the trail is lost. Some people invariably get lost in as small an area as a hundred-acre forest, and are almost sure to come out on the opposite side to the one desired. Indians, perhaps on account of their living so much in the woods, are not so liable to get bewildered and lost as white people. Still some of them are as easily perplexed as other people.
One of this class went out hunting and lost himself so completely that his friends became alarmed and went searching for him. When they fortunately found him, one, chaffing him, said:
“Hello, are you lost?”
To this he indignantly replied: