ough half a dozen of them.

"Bob," exclaimed Dot, "is that you? Did you tumble down?"

There was no answer, and she asked again, "Bob, did you 'pill your
berries?"

Then she thought she heard something like a grunt, such as the pigs made
when they were rooting in the garden, and she and Bob went to drive them
out, and she said, "Oh, the pids are come! they'll pick all our
berries."

Then there came more rustling and crashing among the bushes, and then
Dot jumped up and got behind the three big pails, for it was not
anything like a pig that came out and began to walk toward the
chestnut-tree.

"Oh dear me!" whispered the frightened Dot. "I daren't 'peak to him."

Neither did he say a word to her. He did not even tell her his name was
Bruin, and that he was fond of blackberries, but he walked straight
forward, and his little black eyes were twinkling more brightly than
ever.

As fast as he came forward Dot stepped back, till she stood right
against the tree, and then she slipped around behind it, and began to
feel that she was perfectly safe.

Bruin looked into one pail after another, as if he saw at once that all
the bushes were beaten, and was trying to decide to which of the pails
the prize belonged.

"Bob! Bob!" screamed Dot, at the top of her little voice, "there's a
bear come, and he's 'tealing our berries."

He was eating them up very fast, that was a fact--for all the world as
if they had been picked for his benefit.

Perhaps he would have liked them better with plenty of milk and sugar,
but he did not ask Dot for anything of the kind. He just sat down on the
grass, and took a big pail up in his lap with his clumsy fore-paws, and
then lifted it high enough to bury half his head in it.

Dot saw that he knew exactly how to eat blackberries out of a milk-pail,
and she felt sure they would not last him long.

"Molly! Jessie! Betsy! Johnny Coyne! Pen Burke! the bear's 'tealing the
berries!"

The other children heard her, and they all began to scream together:
"Bear! bear! He's eating up Dot and the berries."

Bruin had not so much as said a cross word to Dot, although it was true
that he had not thanked her for the berries; but he was just lifting the
second pail to his mouth, when Dot's big brother Bob heard the
screaming, and came hurrying down the hill toward the chestnut-tree.

"Der's one pail left, but he's eat up the odders," said Dot, excitedly,
as Bob sprang out of the nearest bushes; but t