Rushing into the wood-shed, he caught sight of the well-beloved shaggy figure, just raising the axe to deliver a fearful blow at an unoffending log of wood. Flinging his arms round it (the figure, not the axe nor the log), he gave it such a violent hug that bear and boy sat down suddenly on the ground, while the axe flew to the other end of the shed.
"Oh, Bruin, Bruin!" cried Toto, "we thought you were gone, without saying a word to us. How could you frighten us so?"
The bear rubbed his nose confusedly, and muttered something about "a few more sticks in case of cold weather."
But here Toto burst out laughing in spite of himself, for the shed was piled so high with kindling-wood that the bear sat as it were at the bottom of a pit whose sides of neatly split sticks rose high above his head.
"You old goose!" cried the boy. "There's kindling-wood enough here to last us ten years, at the very least. Come away! Granny wants you. She thought—"
"There will be more butter to make, now, Toto, since that new calf has come," said the bear, breaking in with apparent irrelevance.
"I suppose there will!" said the boy, staring. "What of it?"
"And that pig is getting too big for you to manage," continued Bruin, in a serious tone. "He was impudent to me the other day, and I had to take him up by the tail and swing him, before he would apologize. Now, you couldn't take him up by the tail, Toto, much less swing him, and there is no use in your deceiving yourself about it."
"Of course I couldn't!" cried Toto. "No one could, except you, old monster. But what are you thinking about that for, now? Come along, I tell you! Granny will think you are gone, after all." And catching the bear by the ear, he led him back in triumph to the cottage-door, crying, "Granny, Granny! here he is! Now give him a good scolding, please, for frightening us so."