let
him go, so that he could run away again and they should have the fun of
recapturing him.

At last the boy got so sick and tired of it all that he threw himself
down on the ground.

"Run away," growled the cubs, "or we'll eat you up!"

"You'll have to eat me then," said the boy, "for I can't run any more."

Immediately both cubs rushed over to the mother bear and complained:

"Mamma Bear, oh, Mamma Bear, he won't play any more."

"Then you must divide him evenly between you," said Mother Bear.

When the boy heard this he was so scared that he jumped up instantly and
began playing again.

As it was bedtime, Mother Bear called to the cubs that they must come
now and cuddle up to her and go to sleep. They had been having such a
good time that they wished to continue their play next day; so they took
the boy between them and laid their paws over him. They did not want him
to move without waking them. They went to sleep immediately. The boy
thought that after a while he would try to steal away. But never in all
his life had he been so tumbled and tossed and hunted and rolled! And he
was so tired out that he too fell asleep.

By and by Father Bear came clambering down the mountain wall. The boy
was wakened by his tearing away stone and gravel as he swung himself
into the old mine. The boy was afraid to move much; but he managed to
stretch himself and turn over, so that he could see the big bear. He was
a frightfully coarse, huge old beast, with great paws, large, glistening
tusks, and wicked little eyes! The boy could not help shuddering as he
looked at this old monarch of the forest.

"It smells like a human being around here," said Father Bear the instant
he came up to Mother Bear, and his growl was as the rolling of thunder.

"How can you imagine anything so absurd?" said Mother Bear without
disturbing herself. "It has been settled for good and all that we are
not to harm mankind any more; but if one of them were to put in an
appearance here, where the cubs and I have our quarters, there wouldn't
be enough left of him for you to catch even a scent of him!"

Father Bear lay down beside Mother Bear. "You ought to know me well
enough to understand that I don't allow anything dangerous to come near
the cubs. Talk, instead, of what you have been doing. I haven't seen you
for a whole week!"

"I've been looking about for a new residence," said Father Bear. "First
I went over to Vermland, to learn from our kinsme