“A very good imitation of a squirrel, fellows! The only fault with it is that it is too good, too awfully good! Come down out of that, and give an account of yourselves.”
At this there was a great commotion overhead, and with, “Ain’t he smart?” “Too smart!” “Altogether too smart for us,” a little group of noisy Scouts slid recklessly down the scraggy trunk of the old oak, and Dick was surrounded.
“We were some tired,” a Scout said to him, “so we thought we would wait for you in the tree. Just as you came in sight Bob was finishing a most exciting bear story.”
“It’s fine and dandy up in that tree,” said Tom. “Let’s go up again for a while.”
Dick looked doubtful, for their time was not their own, and they must give an account of it to the Scout-Master; but Jack told him that they had really been working very hard for two hours, and he thought a twenty minutes’ rest was what the fellows needed. So as Dick gave the word, five boys scrambled and climbed back like monkeys into that tree before you could have said “Jack Robinson!”
Comfortably settled, the talk went back to the all-absorbing topic they were discussing when Dick arrived, and one of the fellows asked Jack what he would do if he should stumble upon a bear.
“If I were well armed,” said Jack, “and knowing, as I do, how to shoot, I would face him and defend myself. If I should meet him to-day, I should race for the nearest hut or cave or anything I could get behind or into, and thank fortune that I was lucky enough to find such a place.”
Some of the Scouts were inclined to think that would be rather cowardly and were for taking their chance of fighting with a club or anything they could lay their hands upon. Jack gave them a gentle reminder of Bruin’s by no means gentle claws and his ferocious nature by running his finger nails energetically down a Scout’s leggings and uttering a most savage growl. At the same moment Dick threw his arms around the nearest fellow and gave him a genuine bear’s hug till he begged for mercy.
After this demonstration, there was a general coming round to Jack’s view. Some of the Scouts hoped they would see a bear, and some hoped they would not; but even those who hoped they would felt way down in the bottom of their hearts that they could manage to live without it. After all, they hadn’t “lost any bear.”
Time was up now, so the Scouts slid nimbly back to solid ground, and they were off to locate and make a list of the different trees. Already that list was a creditable one, but they had an hour yet to work before starting back to camp, and they were anxious to make it long enough to show to the Scout-Master with pride.