Peering out in the direction of the voice, George finally saw his friend in the top of a tall tree. Ed saw him at the same instant, and gingerly waved an arm. The trees were near enough together to prevent either of the boys from sliding down and making off to the cabin without being seen and attacked by the angry bear on guard between them.
“Watch out, she’s going back to you!” warned Ed, after they had been treed for some time.
Back came the bear to the tree George was in, and, what was more, she started to climb it. Beads of cold sweat came out on his forehead, as the worried lad watched the great ungainly beast struggling upward along the slender trunk. The weight of her body and the force of her exertions swayed the tree so that George feared he would be shaken from his perch.
There seemed but one thing to do when the bear should finally reach him; and that was to hang suspended by his arms and work his way, hand over hand, to the end of the limb. It would be a risky undertaking, for the limb was none too strong. However, it was far less risky than a drop to the ground, some thirty-odd feet below.
But suddenly, when the bear was half-way up, she halted, and then began to descend to the ground, where her cubs were calling. Once down, she drove her babies gently before her and disappeared into the woods.
For some time the boys were afraid to slide down for fear the bear might be hiding and watching. At last they mustered up sufficient courage to descend, and, gathering up the spade and other implements which Ed had brought, they hurriedly left the spot.
“I didn’t care about digging out that den, anyway,” said Ed, when they were well on their way. “It seemed like a nasty trick, when I began to think it over.”
“That was exactly the way it struck me,” replied George, “and I intended to speak to you about it when you came back.”
Then he told Ed about his blunder, and they laughed heartily.
That evening Ed explained the tear in his trousers by saying he had been treed by a bear. When asked for particulars, he said George had attempted to capture one of her cubs. He generously refrained from stating that his friend had mistaken it for a young fox.