"Glacier? Nothing but a chunk of ice."
"And a bear right in the woods. Your friends will be glad to hear about——"
"Now grin, Mr. Richardson! Sit there and hold your sides to keep from bursting with laughter. I swear if I did not know anymore than you do I would never compose a book. I did think a brief account of this trip might be interesting, but no one would care for the minute details as you would give them. At least, I hope they will not get into print until after I am dead."
"Why, Archibald, when you get home you will enjoy telling your friends all about your adventures and hair-breath escapes, how bravely you faced——"
"Oh, you get out! Let us go to the landing and get some more dodgers fried in bear's tallow, that you enjoy so much."
We stood in silence a moment, when he put his hand kindly on my shoulder as he said: "Mr. Richardson, you must not think I mean everything I say, but I'm so terribly wrought up. The glacier was so much different from what I expected, and I was afraid you might get hurt up there alone. Then the landslide startled me awfully, for I thought the whole mountain was coming down, and that the world might be coming to an end, and, oh, how this bear did frighten me. I presume I shall laugh about it when I get home, but I cannot get up a smile now."
"Certainly you will laugh about this trip, Mr. Archibald, in years to come, especially when you come to consider that bears are not like wolves, panthers and those kind of fierce beasts, which kill to eat. Besides, you should not spleen at eating bear meat, for they live mostly on nuts and berries and sleep all winter. Experience is a great teacher, this day will never be forgotten. It adds to our lives and we shall look back to it with pleasure. Now, you're not mad?"
"Mad? No, Mr. Richardson, I half way love you, and when I think of this fright I shall think about you as both the best and meanest man on my list. I am going to eat hearty on the bear steak for supper; you see if I do not. Now you can consider yourself forgiven for all except one act."
"What is that, Archibald?"
"When you kept calling 'Run! Run! He is after you!' He was not after me, he was before me, and you knew that you were lying all the time."