t his time had come. The Bear put him down
and held him off at arm's length, joyously.

"Say!" he shouted. "Why, I say that you are a boy after my own heart!
We'll start at once! I'll take you to a place to-night where there are
lots of blackberries and honey, and to-morrow we will set forth on our
travels. Here's my hand as a guarantee of safety as long as you keep
your agreement. You mean to do so, don't you?"

"Oh, yes," said Bo.

"And now for camp. We can play and sing as we go."

As the little boy took Horatio's big paw he ceased to be even the least
bit afraid. He had at last found a strong friend, and was going forth
into the big world. He had never been so happy in his life before.

"All right, Ratio!" he shouted. "One, two, three, play!"

And Ratio gave the bow a long, joyous scrape across the strings, and
thus they began their life together--Bosephus whistling and the Bear
playing and singing with all his might the fascinating strains of "The
Arkansaw Traveller":--

"Oh, there was a little boy and his name was Bo,
Went out into the woods when the moon was low,
And he hadn't had his supper and his way he didn't know,
So he didn't have a bite to eat nor any place to go.
Then he heard the ridy-diddle of Horatio and his fiddle,
And his knees began to tremble as he saw him standing there;
Now they'll never, never sever, and they'll travel on forever--
Bosephus, and the fiddle, and the Old--Black--Bear."

CHAPTER II

THE FIRST PERFORMANCE

[Illustration: Music]

"Oh, 'twas down in the woods of the Arkansaw
I met an Old Bear with a very nimble paw;

[Illustration: Music]

He could dance and he could fiddle at the only tune he knew,
And he fiddled and he fiddled, but he never played it through."

BO was awake first, and Horatio still lay sound asleep. As the boy
paused the Bear opened one eye sleepily and reached lazily toward his
fiddle, but dropped asleep again before his paw touched it. They had
found a very cosy place in a big heap of dry leaves under some spreading
branches, and Horatio, though fond of music, was still more fond of his
morning nap. Bosephus looked at him a moment and began singing again, in
the same strain:--

"Then there came a little boy who could whistle all the tune,
And he whistled and he sang it by the rising of the moon;
And he whistled and he whistled, and he sang it o'er and o'er,
Till Horatio le