Alex shivering with cold, soon followed, and the dog, making peace with the bear for the sake of warmth, sat down in front of the stove and regarded the preparations for supper with anxious eyes.
Then Gran made more hot coffee, and put on more cakes, and opened a can of baked beans, and boiled potatoes, and soon a wonderful supper was on the little table. The bear cub sniffed at the food, but curled up on his rug again. He had probably been lost from his mother a long time, and had been in the water before Alex came to him, and was worn out, still he kept a keen eye on the dog.
“How did you come to get him, Alex?” asked Clay. “Nice bear, eh?”
“He was on the ledge, soaking wet, when the boat struck it,” was the reply, “and the impact threw me plumb on top of him. Then Captain Joe took a hand, or paw, rather, in the mess and he became a prisoner of war. You just bet he’s a nice bear!”
“If you keep him, and we remain around here long, we’ll be apt to receive a call from his mother,” Clay predicted. “What are you thinking of doing with him? He’d make quite a nice meal! Bear meat’s fine!”
“Eat him!” cried Alex now clad in dry clothing, “I’d as soon eat Captain Joe! What am I going to do with him? I’m going to keep him, and train him up in the way good bears should go. He’s a pipin!”
“That’s pretty near slang,” Case remarked, “and the boy that uses slang washes dishes. That was the rule during the Amazon trip, and we have adopted it for this excursion,” he explained to Gran.
“Don’t talk to me about washing anything!” Alex cried, with a shiver. “I never want to see water again. My, but it was cold in there.”
He paused and looked at the bear reflectively a moment and then arose and felt him over, his advances being received with great discourtesy by the bear, who had received the impression, it appeared, that he was to be manhandled but not invited to supper.
“Let him alone, kid,” advised Clay. “You’ll get a bite that will make you sit up and take notice that he has something more than white milk teeth if you don’t. Where are you going to store this menagerie?”