“It was only a dog, but I thought it was a bear.” By the disgust in his voice it was evident his mistake had chagrined the boy deeply.
“And you climbed a tree to get away from the bear?” suggested Nat. “Am I right?”
“It was as easy as pie getting up,” Roger agreed.
“But when you tried to get down you found you had bitten off more than you could chew, eh?” asked Tavia.
Roger was offended.
“Ah, you fellers won’t let a kid tell his own story!” he complained, and Tavia had all she could do to keep from going off into fresh spasms of laughter and thus offending the boy still more deeply.
Tavia could hear Nat chuckle in the darkness, though his voice was tremendously grave as he apologized.
“Awfully sorry, old chap,” he said. “We will try to do better from now on. What happened next?”
“Nothing—nothing much, anyway,” responded Roger, partially mollified. “When I saw it was only a dog and he just sniffed and went away I tried to get down again and I couldn’t. I had got away out near the end of the branch, because bears can climb trees, you know——”
“But this wasn’t a bear,” Tavia reminded him gravely.