en?"

"Make him back down till he reaches these first branches. When he gets
so far I'll tell you what to do." I put my arm through the coil of rope,
and, slinging it snugly over my shoulder, began to climb the pine. It
was the work of only a moment to reach the first branch.

"Wal, I reckon you're some relation to a squirrel at thet," said Hiram
Bent. "Jest as I thought the little cuss is climbin' higher. Thet's
goin' to worry us."

It was like stepping up a ladder from the first branch to the fork.
The cub had gone up the right-hand trunk some fifteen feet, and was now
hugging it. At that short distance he looked alarmingly big. But I saw
he would have all he could do to hold on, and if I could climb the left
trunk and get above him there would be little to fear. How I did it
so quickly was a mystery, but amid the cracking of dead branches
and pattering of falling bark and swaying of the tree-top I gained a
position above him.

He was so close that I could smell him. His quick little eyes snapped
fire and fear at once; he uttered a sound that was between a whine and a
growl.

"Hey, youngster!" yelled Hiram, "thet's high enough--'tain't safe--be
careful now."

With the words I looked out below me, to see the old hunter standing in
the glade waving his arms.

"I'm all right!" I yelled down. "Now, how'll I drive him?"

"Break off a branch an' switch him."

There was not a branch above me that I could break, but a few feet below
was a slender, dead limb. I slid down and got it, and, holding on with
my left arm and legs, I began to thrash the cub. He growled fiercely.
snapped at the stick, and began to back down.

"He's started!" I cried, in glee. "Go on, Cubby--down with you!"

Clumsy as he was, he made swift time. I was hard put to keep close to
him. I slipped down the trunk--holding on one instant and sliding down
the next. But below the fork it was harder for Cubby and easier for
me. The branches rather hindered his backward progress while they aided
mine. Growling and whining, with long claws ripping the bark, he went
down. All of a sudden I became aware of the old hunter threshing about
under the tree.

"Hold on--not so fast!" he yelled.

Still the cub kept going, and stopped with his haunches on the first
branch. There, looking down, he saw an enemy below him, and hesitated.
But he looked up, and, seeing me, began to back down again. Hiram
pounded the tree with a dead branch. Cubby evidently intende