up to full
blaze with the most resinous wood they could find, the distant shout
of the coming travellers gladdened their ears. The servant flung his
whole stock of balsam on the beacon at once, causing a most portentous
flame-burst, and sprang up with a wild 'hurroo!' wielding one half-burnt
fagot _a la_ shillelah about his head.

'Oh, then, Mister Robert, achora, it's yerself is the janius; an' to
think of mekin' a lighthouse to guide 'em wid, an' here they are safe
home by the manes of it. But now, sir, if ye'll take my advice, as we're
always lost when we goes anywhere by ourselves, we ought niver part for
the futhur, an' thin we'll all go asthray together safe an' sound.'

'Let's warm ourselves at this glorious fire before we go up to the
shanty,' said Arthur, stretching out his feet to the fire. 'Pity to let
it waste its sweetness on the desert air.'

So they stood explaining matters by the fire for a few minutes, till
Andy, who was never tired of heaping on fresh fuel, came forward with an
armful and a puzzled face.

'Mr. Holt, there's somethin' quare in that three, sir, which has a big
hole in it full of dhry sticks an' brush, and there's something woolly
inside, sir, that I felt wid me two hands; an' more be token it's a big
baste, whatever it is.'

'A bear, probably,' said Mr. Holt, as he warmed the sole of one foot.
'Better let him alone till morning, and tuck in his bedclothes again for
to-night, poor fellow.' But Arthur had started up to investigate, and
must pull the black fleece for his personal satisfaction.

'Oh, throth he's stirrin' now!' exclaimed Andy, who had begun to cram
the orifice with the former stuffing of dried bough and brush. 'We've
woke him up, Masther Arthur, if it's asleep he was at all, the rogue;
an' now he's sthrugglin' out of the hole wid all his might. Keep in
there, you big villyan, you don't dare to offer to come out;' for Andy
set his shoulder against the great carcase, which nevertheless sheered
round till muzzle and paws could be brought into action, and their use
illustrated on Andy's person.

'Och, murther!' roared the sufferer; 'he has his arms round me, the
baste; he's squeezing me into m--m--mash!'

A blazing stick, drawn from the fire by Mr. Holt's hand, here struck
the bear's nose and eyes; which, conjoined with Andy's own powerful
wrenching, caused him to loosen his hold, and a ball from the rifle
which Robert had fortunately brought down as the companion of the