ouchskin!"

This suggestion came from the impatient Ivan.

Encouraged by the words of his young master, Pouchskin approached,
nearer to the aperture, and buried half of the pole inside. He then
turned the stick and poked it all about, but could touch nothing that
felt like a bear. Growing more confident, he crept yet nearer, and
pushed the pole up till he could touch the bottom of the cave--once more
feeling with its point in all directions, against the further end, along
the sides, upwards and downwards, and everywhere. Still he touched
nothing soft--nothing that felt as the shaggy hide of a bear should do--
nothing, in fact, but hard rocks, against which the stick could be heard
rattling wherever he pushed it!

This was very mysterious. Pouchskin was an old bear-hunter. He had
poked his pole into many a burrow of Bruin, and he knew well enough when
he had touched bottom. He could tell moreover that the cave he was now
exploring was all in one piece--a single-roomed house. Had there been
any second or inner chamber he would have found the aperture that led to
it; but there appeared to be none.

To make sure of this, he now approached quite near to the entrance, and
continued to guage the cavity with his stick. Alexis and Ivan also drew
near--one on each side of him--and the exploration continued.

In a short while, however, Pouchskin became nearly satisfied that _there
was no bear in the den_! He had groped with his stick all round and
round it, and had come in contact with nothing softer than a rock or a
root of the tree. As a last _resource_ he lay down on the ground to
listen--placing his ear close to the mouth of the cave; and, cautioning
his young masters to keep silent, in this position he remained for some
seconds of time.

Perhaps it was fortunate for them, if not for him, that they attended to
his caution. Their silence enabled them to hear what Pouchskin could
not--placed as he now was--and that was a sound that caused the young
bear-hunters to start back and look upwards, instead of into the cave.

As they did so, a sight met their eyes that drew from both a
simultaneous cry, while both at the same instant retreated several paces
from the spot, elevating their guns as they went backward.

Slowly moving down the trunk of the great pine-tree appeared an animal
of enormous size. Had they not been expecting something of the kind
neither could have told that this moving object was an animal: s