“I—I don’t know,” Freddie answered, trying to think of something to make him brave. “Maybe it’s a bear!”
“A bear?” questioned his sister.
“Yep!” Freddie went on, his eyes never moving from the bush that seemed to hide some animal. “Maybe it’s a bear like the one we found the skin of in the attic.”
“It—it can’t be the same one coming back for his skin, can it?” asked Flossie.
“Course not!” declared Freddie. “How could a bear go ’round without his skin on?”
“Well, a bear’s skin is just the same to him as our clothes are to us,” Flossie went on. “An’ sometimes, when we go swimming, we don’t have very many clothes on.”
“Well, a bear is different,” said Freddie.
“Oh, look!” suddenly cried the little girl, and, pointing to the bush with one hand, she clung to Freddie’s arm with the other. “He’s coming out! He’s coming out!” she exclaimed.
A shaggy head could be seen thrusting itself from the bushes, and the children were wondering what sort of animal it could be, for it did not look like a bear, when, with a joyful bark, there burst out in front of them—the shaggy dog belonging to Tom Case!
Rover—Rover was the name of the dog—rushed toward Flossie and Freddie, leaping joyfully and wagging his tail. He had made friends with the children as soon as they came to Cedar Camp, and they loved Rover.