was racing beside her, just managed
to save her chum from a bad fall. All the girls were running--running
as though their lives depended on their speed. Luckily they wore
short, walking skirts, which did not hinder free movement, and they
really made good speed.

[Illustration: THE BEAR STOPPED SHORT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.]

They crossed the road and plunged into the underbrush, crashing through
it in very terror. They clung to their small suitcases instinctively.
Then suddenly, as they ran on, there came the clear notes of a bugle in
an army call. Betty recalled something.

"Stop, girls!" she cried.

"What, with that bear after us?" wailed Grace. "Never!"

"It's all right--I tell you it's all right!" went on Betty.

"Oh, she's lost her mind! She's so frightened she doesn't know what she
is saying!" exclaimed Mollie. "Oh, poor Betty!"

"Silly! Stop, I tell you. That bear--"

Again came the notes of the bugle, and then the girls, looking through
the fringe of trees at the road, saw a man with a red jacket, and wearing
a hat in which was a long feather, come along, and grasp a chain that
dangled from the leather muzzle which they had failed to notice on the
bear's nose.

"It's a tame bear!" cried Betty. "That's what I meant. He won't harm us.
Come on back to the road! Oh, I've torn my skirt!" and she gazed ruefully
at a rent in the garment.

The girls hesitated a moment, and then, understanding the situation, and
being encouraged by the fact that the man now had his bear in charge,
also seeing another man, evidently the mate of the first, approaching
with a second bear, they all went back to the highway. The bugle blew
again, and one of the bears, at a command from the man, turned a clumsy
somersault.

Grace burst into hysterical laughter, in which she was joined by
the others.

"Weren't we silly!" exclaimed Mollie.

"Oh, but it looked just like a real bear!" gasped Amy in self-defense.

"Listen to her," said Betty. "A real bear--why, of course it is. Did you
think it was the Teddy variety?"

"Oh, you know what I mean," spoke Amy, "I thought it was a wild bear."

"It probably was--once," remarked Grace.

They were all out in the road now, and the two men, with the bears, were
slowly approaching. Evidently the foremost man had seen the precipitate
flight of the girls, so, taking off his hat, and bowing with foreign
politeness, he said:

"Excuse--please. Juno him get away from me--I chase after--