“What was it that happened?” the listeners asked eagerly.
“Well, if ye’re not tired of the story,” the old fisherman said, “I’ll tell ye the rest of it. The men had decided that since the mother-bear had been so good to their Kid, they’d be good to her little cub, so they adopted him, and the bear and the Kid grew up together like two brothers.
“Little Bear was soon as tame as a puppy, and though he grew some, he never became as big as his mother. Little Bear he was always called, and how he did love the Kid! When the boy was seven years old, the men put together and bought him a small horse and a rifle, but wherever he went, Little Bear ambled after him.
“The men had built a log raft, which they pushed about with poles, and, when the lake was calm, often the Kid and the bear would sit on the raft, and the boy would fish. Sometimes the Kid would catch a fish that wasn’t good to eat. However, Little Bear wasn’t as particular as folks, but he wouldn’t touch a fish until the Kid tossed it over to him and called, ‘Little Bear, here’s a fish for ye!’ Then he would snap it and gobble it up in a hurry.
“Kiddie never had any other playmate except just Little Bear, and he never seemed to want any. Nights after grub, when the men were all sitting around, swapping yarns and smoking, Little Bear would curl up on the ground and the Kid would lie there with his head on the bear’s back. How the Kid loved to hear their yarns, and the men made them pretty exciting, just to amuse him.
“That winter a man came to the camp with a fiddle. Then ’twas that the fun began. The bear took to music like a duck to water, and he just couldn’t lie still while that fiddle was being played. He up on his hind-legs and galloped about like he was trying to dance. That gave the Kid the idea of teaching Little Bear to do tricks, and he learned them easy. Sometimes the Kid would take hold of Little Bear’s paws while the fiddle was being played, and they would both dance about, and how the men would shout to see them! Those were happy evenings in the lumber-camp, happy for the men and for the Kid and the Little Bear. A fine lad the boy had grown to be,—tall and slim, with frank blue eyes looking straight at you out of that handsome, weather-tanned face of his,—and not a bad word did he know, and that was saying a good deal, bein’ as he was raised in a lumber-camp with rough men. True, Kid hadn’t any learnin’ ’cept what he’d picked up watchin’ and studyin’ nature’s ways, that is, he didn’t have any till Fiddler Fritz came; he taught him to read out of a book which he always lugged around in his pocket. Poems, he called it,—stories of knights and ladies. Soon the Kid could read them aloud, but Jock never saw no sense in the story, but he was powerful proud because his Kid could read.
“One evening Fiddler Fritz sat smoking, thoughtful-like, and all of a sudden he said: ‘Jock Henderson, unless I miss my guess, that Kid of yourn comes of a mighty good family. Maybe ye ought to be looking them up. Maybe ye’re keeping the Kid from getting a good education and a start in life.’
“Jock Henderson’s heart turned cold inside of him. He’d thought the same plenty of times, but he couldn’t bear to part with the Kid. Jock saw that Fiddler Fritz was expecting an answer, and so he said: ‘The Kid’s mother was a lady; anybody could see that. She only lived a week after her man died, but she wrote a letter to some brother she had who was rich, she said. He’d been angry with her for marrying, and so, maybe, that’s why he never answered her letter. Anyhow, he never did. I mailed it myself the day after the woman died, and I wrote on the envelope that we’d keep the child till called for, so I guess nobody’s a better right to keep the Kid than I have.’
“Now, just as Jock Henderson finished speaking, there came a rap on the door, and Jock said, the minute he heard it, he as good as knew that it was somebody come to take his Kid away. It had to be a stranger anyhow, for nobody living in those parts stopped to rap.
“Jock could hardly open the door, his hand shook so. There stood a tall, gray-haired man, and by his clothes Jock knew he was from the city. Near by another man held the bridles of two horses.