One of the lumbermen came along then to say that Mr. Martin and his family could occupy one of the cabins in the woods while they were in the camp.
“It’s only a rough shack,” he said; “but it’s the best we have.”
“This will do very nicely,” said Mrs. Martin, when they had driven over to it. “Cows can’t poke their horns in, at any rate.”
“No, ma’am, we haven’t any cows here,” said the lumberman, with such a puzzled look on his face that Mrs. Martin laughed and explained about the cow that tried to enter the tent while Ted was asleep.
The movie folk were distributed around the camp in the different cabins, and soon the place quieted down. This, as I have said, was not the busy season at the lumber camp in the woods, and only a few of the men were there. Because of this, many of the cabins were vacant, which gave the movie people and the Curlytops plenty of room.
The remainder of the day Ted and his sister, taking Trouble with them, watched the movie actors at work. Many short scenes were filmed, but the children were more interested in watching Mr. Weldon practice, or go through, his part with the tame bears.
At first the actor was a bit timid when with the shaggy creatures. But after he had seen Ted and Janet feed them lumps of sugar, Mr. Weldon got courage enough to let them eat from his hand. After that it was easy, and he and the two cubs were soon on friendly terms.
“Now we’ll try how it goes when they chase you out of the cabin,” suggested the director.
“But they’re so friendly they won’t chase me,” said Mr. Weldon.
“If you have some bread and molasses with you they will,” said Mr. Teeter. “They’ll go anywhere to get bread and molasses. Just have some of that with you when you play your part. Hold it out to the bears and then pull it away. They’ll chase you from here to the end of Crystal Lake to get the sweet stuff.”