"The child? Oh, the child was scarcely hurt! It had got squeezed and scratched a little in the final tussle; that was all.
"As to the bear, he was next heard of in our settlement."
The hostler hesitated, winked his one eye with an odd expression, put a fresh quid into his cheek, and finally resumed,—
"A brother-in-law of my uncle, a man of the name of Rush, was one day chopping in the woods about half a mile from his house, when his wife went out to carry him his luncheon.
"She left two children at home, a boy about five years old, and a baby just big enough to toddle around.
"The boy had often been told that if he strayed into the woods with his brother a bear might carry them off, and she charged him again that forenoon not to go away from the house; but he was an enterprising little fellow, and when the sun shone so pleasant, and the woods looked so inviting, he wasn't one to be afraid of bears.
"The woman stopped to see her husband fall a big beech he was cutting, and then went back to the house; but just before she got there, she saw the oldest boy coming out of the woods on the other side. He was alone. He was white as a sheet, and so frightened at first that he couldn't speak.
"'Johnny,' says she, catching hold of him, 'what is the matter?'
"'A bear!' he gasped out at last.
"'Where is your little brother?' was her next question.