“We wanted to get home, so we tried not to feel tired or to cry; but, although we tried ever so hard, we could not find the way. We had held on to our dishes, but now they were not half full, and so we stopped and ate some of the berries. Soon after it began to thunder very hard, and there was lightning, and so we hurried up to some big trees, and while we were standing under the branches to be out of the rain we saw one old tree that was all hollow on one side, and as the rain was coming down through the branches we went and got into this hollow tree. I had Roderick go in first so that I could keep him dry, and I stood at the outside.”
Here Roderick spoke up and said:
“I wanted to stand on the outside because I was the boy, but Wenonah said she had better because she was the biggest.”
“Then,” continued Wenonah, “as it soon got very dark, and none of you came for us, we began to cry, and we could not help it, for there we were all alone in that hollow tree in the dark.
“After a while a big owl in one of the trees began to call. I knew what it was for Mustagan had taught me. At first Roddy said it was somebody calling him.”
Again Roddy, who was now nestling in his mother’s arms, spoke up and said:
“I thought it was somebody saying to me, ‘Who, who, who!’ and I said, ‘We are Roddy and Wenonah Ross, and we are lost.’
“Then, when it called again, it only said:—
“‘Oo! oo! oo!’ So then we knew what it was, as we had often heard it at night here at home.”
“We were glad to hear it,” said Wenonah, “for all was now so dark and lonely. We could not lie down; we just had to stand up there all night. I held Roddy up as well as I could. Once we heard the cry of the wild cat, and that made us keep very still. I must have nodded some, as I leaned against the inside of that old tree, but it was an awful long night, and we were glad when it was light enough to see. Then we left that old hollow tree, and took up our dishes, and as we were very hungry we went out among the berry-bushes and ate some of the berries. We were careful to leave no tracks, because of that wild cat. We ate a lot of berries, but we did miss our good breakfast at home. We filled our dishes, and then started for home; but we could not find it. While we were going on among the bushes we came out into a little opening, and there were the two little bears. We thought at first they were two little black dogs. They came right up to us, and when they sat up so funnily on their little hind legs we saw they were bears, and of course we were afraid.