and strong, and
got down his snow-shoes. All this took some time, and he could not start
that day, but early next morning he called his little dog Redmouth, whom
he kept in a box, and set out.

After he had followed the trail for a great distance he grew very
tired, and sat upon the branch of a tree to rest. But Redmouth barked so
furiously that the boy thought that perhaps his parents might have been
killed under its branches, and stepping back, shot one of his arrows at
the root of the tree. Whereupon a noise like thunder shook it from top
to bottom, fire broke out, and in a few minutes a little heap of ashes
lay in the place where it had stood.

Not knowing quite what to make of it all, the boy continued on the
trail, and went down the right-hand fork till he came to the clump of
bushes where the bears used to hide.

Now, as was plain by his being able to change the shape of the two
brothers, the bear chief knew a good deal of magic, and he was quite
aware that the little boy was following the trail, and he sent a very
small but clever bear servant to wait for him in the bushes and to try
to tempt him into the mountain. But somehow his spells could not have
worked properly that day, as the bear chief did not know that Redmouth
had gone with his master, or he would have been more careful. For the
moment the dog ran round the bushes barking loudly, the little bear
servant rushed out in a fright, and set out for the mountains as fast as
he could.

The dog followed the bear, and the boy followed the dog, until the
mountain, the house of the great bear chief, came in sight. But along
the road the snow was so wet and heavy that the boy could hardly get
along, and then the thong of his snow-shoes broke, and he had to stop
and mend it, so that the bear and the dog got so far ahead that he could
scarcely hear the barking. When the strap was firm again the boy spoke
to his snow-shoes and said:

'Now you must go as fast as you can, or, if not, I shall lose the dog as
well as the bear.' And the snow-shoes sang in answer that they would run
like the wind.

As he came along, the bear chief's sister was looking out of the window,
and took pity on this little brother, as she had on the two elder ones,
and waited to see what the boy would do, when he found that the bear
servant and the dog had already entered the mountain.

The little brother was certainly very much puzzled at not seeing
anything of either of the animals, wh