e wind blows fair,
For the boy and the cub and the Old--Black--Bear."

SO sang Bosephus and Horatio as they sat side by side in the doorway of
a deserted lumberman's cabin in the depths of an Arkansaw forest. The
cub rescued from the brutal Italian and brought with them on their hasty
journey out of Louisiana, stood a few feet away watching them intently.
Now and then he made an awkward attempt at dancing, which caused
Bosephus and Horatio to stop their music and laugh. He had grown fat and
saucy with good treatment, and seemed to enjoy the amusement he caused.
At a little distance behind him, some seated and some standing, and all
enjoying the entertainment, were seven other bears of various sizes. The
colony so long planned by Horatio and Bosephus was established.

The long journey out of Louisiana had been made rapidly and with no
delays. Though midwinter when begun, the weather had been beautiful at
the start, and there had been few storms and but little cold since. The
cub had gradually confided his story to Horatio, who loved him and
continued to call him affectionately "little brother." He had been
captured in a very deep woods, he said, by hunters, who sold him to the
Italian. He did not know where these woods were, but as the friends
crossed the Louisiana line and entered lower Arkansaw he grew more and
more excited every day, for he declared these were so like his native
woods that he could almost hear his mother's voice crooning the evening
lullaby. Soon after, they came one evening upon a deserted lumberman's
camp and took possession of the one cabin that still remained. It was a
good shelter and there was a stream with fine fish in it close at hand.
But when the friends awoke next morning the little bear was gone.

They were very sorry, for they had grown much attached to the little
chap and he had seemed to be fond of them also. It was very lonely in
the deep forest without him. Horatio sighed.

"He didn't appreciate us, Bo," he said, sadly. "He's gone back to be a
wild bear. He never got the taste of men--tastes, I mean, and I suppose
these woods made him homesick. They are like my old woods, too, and I
get homesick sometimes--even now." Then the boy and the Bear went to the
brook to fish and the day passed gloomily.

But that night, when Bo had built a fire in the big fireplace which
almost filled one end of the cabin, and was cooking the fish, there came
a muffled scratching sound at the door.