“Thank you—that is worth thinking of,” said Miss Brown.
Now the smoke began to pour out of the chimney, and one of the tired men who had been wandering the woods all night saw it.
He uttered a shout, “They’re in the schoolhouse!”
Soon fifty men, on their way home in despair at finding no trace, were about him.
“But the door is locked,” said one man. “I tried that the first thing.”
“Well, somebody is there!” said one; “and we better break the door in, and see who it is.”
They went to the door and knocked, and then pounded, while those inside shouted and cried. At last they were heard, and, coming as near the back windows as they could get, they asked the reason of this strange performance.
“I say!” began the man standing on the edge of the bluff, “who’s in there?”
“We’re all in here,” was the answer; “and we can’t get out because a big bear is in the passageway.”
“Why did you lock the door?” was the next question.