did. The advance was brisk, yet the boys did not gallop, and went as

carefully as possible. Pretty soon, Jack could see that they must be getting near the place, for the boys used still greater caution, and at length, Joe stopped, slipped off his horse and went ahead on foot, while Handsome Face and Jack remained behind. When Joe looked over the ridge, he saw nothing, and remounting, they passed on to the next one, where he took another look. Coming back very cautiously, he whispered: "They are just over the ridge; we can rush on them from there." From the top of the ridge they could see the three bears, unsuspicious as yet, and no more than fifty yards away, and as soon as they saw them, the three dashed forward at top speed.

Jack expected that Pawnee would be able to run away from the other horses, and he made up his mind that he would try for the old bear; but he found that the horse that Handsome Face was riding, was as swift as Pawnee, and the two kept along about even, both trying to overtake the mother. It was a race as well as a chase. At first the way was down hill and there, they did not in the least gain on the bear, but in a moment she began to climb the hill, and then they closed up on her rapidly. Handsome Face had his bow strung and a sheaf of arrows in his hand, and was making ready to let fly. It was impossible for Jack to shoot, as Handsome Face was directly between him and the bear, the boys riding nearly side by side, and only a few feet apart. All the while they were drawing up close to the bear; rather closer, as Jack thought, than was safe; but he had no time to think about this. Suddenly, Handsome Face drew an arrow to the head and shot, and almost as he did so, the bear whirled and charged directly toward the two boys. Handsome Face's horse turned at right angles, to rush away, and striking Pawnee with his chest just behind the shoulders, knocked him off his feet, so that he fell flat on his side. As the horse went down, Jack jumped, alighting on his feet, but staggering three or four steps before he recovered his balance. He had not let go his gun. He turned to look to see where the bear was, and as he did so, he saw, almost upon him, a huge mass of hair and gleaming white teeth, flying toward him. He had no time to think, hardly to move. He threw up his gun, fired, tried to jump back out of the way, but his heel caught; something struck him a violent blow, and he knew nothing more.

All this time, Joe, whose horse was slower, had fallen behind the others, whipping and kicking with his heels, trying to keep up. The charge of the bear at right angles to her course, had enabled him to gain quite a little bit, so that when the beast threw itself on Jack, he was but a few yards off. He flung himself to the ground, and rushing up close to the side of the bear, shot arrow after arrow into its heart, until all his shafts were gone. It did not leave its prey, and throwing away his bow, he drew his knife, sprang upon the bear and thrust the blade again and again into its body behind the shoulder. Still it did not move; there was no response, not even a quiver of the muscle, and suddenly Joe realised that the bear was dead. He sprang to its head and catching the beast by its great ears, dragged its head off Jack's face and breast and called aloud to Handsome Face, who by this time had returned, "Hurry, hurry, let us help him if we can." The boys managed to drag the bear off Jack, who presented a shocking spectacle. His head, breast and shoulders were covered with blood, but he was not quite dead, for they could see the breath from his nostrils bubbling through the blood. Pulling him up a little way from the bear, they began to feel of him to see whether he was hurt, but in a minute they both broke down. Joe cried bitterly, saying, "Oh! My friend, my friend. I have lost my friend," while Handsome Face began to sing a very melancholy song. It was a sad time for both boys.

Suddenly, as they were crying, Jack sat up and said, "What's the matter? Oh! I know." Both Indian boys sprang to their feet and stared at him, for a moment, and then Joe, throwing himself on his knees behind him, put his arms around Jack, gave him a great hug. "Oh!" he said, "you're not dead, I thought you were dead. Are you hurt? Did the bear strike you?"

"No," said Jack, "I guess there's nothing the matter with me, except that I feel stupid and my head aches."

Joe and Handsome Face now felt Jack all over and he seemed to be unhurt anywhere except that on the back of his head, there was a great bruise which was bleeding a little. The blood, on his head and breast, was that of the bear, and when they went to the body and looked at it, they found that by the merest accident in his shooting, Jack's life had been saved. The ball had struck the bear in the end of the nose and had passed up through the air passages into the brain, causing instant death. The animal had been so close to Jack when he shot, that death did not stop her advance, and the whole weight of her body thrown against Jack had knocked him violently to the ground; his head had struck a small stone and the blow had cut and stunned him. Except for a headache, he was as well as he had ever been.

Jack, for a little while, sat on the ground and nursed his aching head, while Handsome Face and Joe worked at the bear, taking off the skin. The two were very merry, and chattered and sang. Joe, in the exuberance of his spirits, made fun of Jack for having been thrown off his horse and knocked down by the bear, and altogether, was a very different Joe from the one who had been sobbing on the hillside only a few minutes before.

Before long the two boys had the bear skinned, and loaded on one of the horses. Then Handsome Face and Joe went back to the ridge where they had left the deer, put them on the horses and returning to Jack, the party started for the village. No one seemed to know what had become of the two bear cubs. During the excitement that attended the chase of the mother, the little fellows had disappeared. Handsome Face said that Pawnee had no sooner struck the ground than he had bounded to his feet again and had done this so quickly that he had got out of the bear's way.

Just as they reached the prairie, they heard shouts behind them, and looking back, saw Bull Calf and The Mink galloping toward them, each with a load behind him on his horse. When they came up, it was seen that Bull Calf had a young bear and The Mink a deer and when their stories had been told by both parties, it was learned that this little bear had run over the ridge and down toward the Indian boys who were coming down the mountain, and they had chased it and killed it with their arrows. Certainly, this had been a lucky hunt; four deer and two bears for five boys!

At a little brook, they crossed on their homeward way, Jack dismounted and washed from himself as much blood of the bear as he could, and after that felt much more comfortable, so that before camp was reached, though his head still ached badly, he felt quite like himself again.

That night, in the lodge, when he told Hugh the story of the day, the old man found fault with him for carelessness and bad judgment.

"You hadn't never ought to ride close beside any man that's trying to kill on horse-back. If it's buffalo or bear, it's all the same. If he has to turn off quick, he'll either ride into you or right ahead of you and get in your way. Besides that, you can't shoot at anything if a man is between you and the game, and yet you're riding along side of him with a loaded gun, likely as not pointing right at him, and if you're anyway careless, you're likely to pull it off and maybe kill him. There ain't no game that it's worth taking them risks for. Just as soon as you found that your horse was not good enough to pass the boy's, you ought to have fell behind and waited; you might know that that bear wouldn't be killed by an arrow, and that your chance would come. Of course, there have been times when bears have been killed by arrows, old Pis'kun, here, killed a big grizzly once that way, but a thing like that don't happen once in a dog's age; that's one reason why Indians are so afraid of bears.

"In the old times, when they had nothing but arrows, they couldn't kill bears at all, and lots of men that tried it got killed off. It's only since the Indians got some good guns, that they have killed any bears to amount to anything."

"Well, Hugh, I see now, since you explained it to me, that I was pretty stupid, but I didn't think about any of these things," said Jack.

"No, I don't reckon you did. You are a boy of course, and boys have a kind of habit of not thinking, but just running in and doing things, and not figuring on what may happen afterward. I'm mighty glad I wasn't with you, for I reckon if I had been, I'd a been scared a plenty."

"Well, but then, if you had been with us I guess it wouldn't have happened. You'd probably have called out to me and I'd have likely done what you said."

"Well, yes, maybe so. I'll say this for you," he went on, "that you've got a lot more sense than most boys I've seen."

"I ought to be learning something with all the things you tell me, and all the different kinds of trouble I keep getting into all the time."

"Well, you won't have much chance to get into any more troubles, because, now we are going to move back to the Marias, and then you and me, and maybe Joe will go into Benton and tend to our little business there, and then go down the river."

"Well," said Jack, "I'm mighty sorry to have the summer ended; I never had such a good time in my life. I thought last year, when I went back, that I never could have as good a time again, but this is better."