Flossie got ready to run farther back in the barn, and Freddie was tugging at the door, which had swung shut rather tightly, when he was spared the trouble of opening it. The door opened itself! Or perhaps something on the other side pushed it open, and the two children saw a strange beast staring at them. It was a creature with a black, bushy head, and at the sight of it Flossie cried:
“There! It is the bear! It is the bear! Now you’d better run, Freddie Bobbsey!”
“Yes, it’s a bear all right!” gasped the boy. “And it’s a big one, too! I’ll go get Mr. Watson and his gun!”
The two children ran out of a side door of the barn. Some distance away from that part of the building where the peaches were being sorted they saw Zeek, the hired man, walking toward them.
“Oh, there’s a bear in here!” screamed Flossie.
“A big bear!” added Freddie, as if that explained why he was also running. For he didn’t want it known that he would retreat from a small bear.
“What’s that you say?” asked the hired man. “A bear?”
“In the barn,” added Flossie.
“He came out of the little door,” went on Freddie.
“Oh, you mean in the fodder tunnel,” said the hired man. “Well, there can’t be a bear there.”