t was useless to think of moving the prize without a team, so the
exultant farmer went home for a horse and a sled, and in half an hour's
time the huge bear was lying upon the porch of the farmhouse.

News of the startling event spread rapidly and half a dozen neighbors
gathered to see the bear weighed. To the astonishment of all, she
tipped the beam at three hundred pounds, which is a few pounds short of
the record for the largest she-bear ever weighed.

Two of the neighbors helped remove the fine skin and received some
bear-steak in return for their labor.

Late in the afternoon, the now famous hunter again shouldered his gun
and set off for the woods, followed by old Hecla. He was not satisfied
in his own mind, that they had found out all there was to know about
the strange appearance of the bear at the farmhouse. If there should
be more "goods in the case," as he expressed it, so much the better;
but if not, he would keep his own counsel and no one would suspect that
he had been upon a second bear-hunt.

He went directly to the tree where the dead bear had lain, and examined
the snow carefully. He soon found a well-defined trail that led
farther back into the woods. This he followed easily, and it brought
him to an old fallen hemlock, which was partly covered with snow. The
tracks led into the deepest, thickest portion of the top and there
ended at the mouth of a burrow that had been tunneled down underneath.

The hunter got a long pole and prodded about in the tree-top until he
satisfied himself that there was nothing formidable inside. Then
setting his gun against a tree trunk, he crawled into the burrow.

He had entered only three or four feet, when a weak, pitiful whine
greeted his ears. "Just as I thought," he muttered. "There are cubs
here."

A few feet farther down he found them,--two astonishingly small
bear-cubs. One whined pitifully and struggled to his feet as though in
anticipation of supper, but the other was cold and stiff. It had
evidently been dead for some time.

The excited bear-hunter took them both in his arms and clambered out of
the den, feeling well repaid for his search.

Holding the cub that was still alive under his coat for warmth and
protection from the wind, he hurried home, while the hound leaped about
him and sniffed suspiciously at his coat.

His wife was sitting in the cozy kitchen sewing, and occasionally
jogging the cradle, when he entered and, without a word