ls' dresses when, all of a
sudden, Mun Bun came running up from the lake, his eyes big with wonder,
and after him ran Margy.

"Oh, I saw it! I saw it!" cried Mun Bun. "It's a great big bear! He came
right up out of the lake! Oh, come and look, Rose!" and he ran to take his
sister's hand, while Margy hid behind Violet.

"What is it, Mun Bun?" asked Rose.

"Oh, I saw something big--an animal--I--I guess it's a bear--come up out
of the lake!" cried the little fellow. "Come and look!"

CHAPTER XVII

A RED COAT

When Mun Bun had said that a bear had come up out of the lake, at first
Rose felt she was going to be frightened, but when she saw that her
littlest brother and sister were also afraid, Rose made up her mind that
she must be brave.

She looked at Vi, and Vi was a little frightened, too, but not as much so
as Mun Bun and Margy.

"What was it you saw, Mun?" asked Vi, even now not able to stop asking
questions. "Where was it?"

"It was a big bear, I guess," answered the little fellow.

"Pooh!" cried Rose, in a voice she tried to make sound brave. "There
aren't any bears in these woods. Grandma Bell said so."

"Well, anyhow, it was a--a _something_!" said Mun Bun. "It came up out of
the water and it made a big splash."

"It splashed water on me," said Margy.

"What did you think it was?" asked Vi.

"Maybe--maybe a--a elephant," replied the little girl. "It had a big long
tail, anyhow."

"Then it couldn't be a elephant," declared Rose.

"Why not?" Vi wanted to know.

"Because elephants have little, short tails. I saw 'em in the circus."

"But they have _something_ long, don't they?" Vi went on.

"That's their _trunk_," explained Rose. "But it isn't like the trunk we
put our things in. Elephants only put _peanuts_ in their trunks."

"Then what makes 'em so big? Their trunks, I mean," asked Vi.

"I don't know," Rose confessed. "Only I know elephants have little tails."

"This animal had a big tail," declared Mun Bun.

"Maybe it was the elephant's trunk they saw," suggested Vi. "Do you think
it was?"

"Elephants don't live in the lake," decided Rose. Then she started down
toward the shore where Mun Bun and Margy had been paddling in their bare
feet.

In truth, she did not want to go very much. That was why she had done so
much talking before she started.

"Where are you goin'?" asked Violet.

"I'm going to see what it is!" declared Rose.

"Oh-o-o-o!" exclaimed Vi. "Maybe it'll bit