collecting rent, would he?"

"Well, I don't know. You see, some folks are peculiar that way. Zack
might forget it was rent day, and a man with a bad memory and a good gun
can't be trusted. Especially when he's a dead shot. There, that one will
do. Never mind about his receipt--we'll mail it to him."

Bo scrambled back over the fence with the melon and hastened as fast as
he could after Horatio, who was already moving across the clearing with
his violin under one arm and the green ears under the other.

"Wait, Ratio," called the little boy. "This melon is heavy."

"Is that a long range gun, Bo?" called back the Bear.

"Carries a mile and a half."

"Can't you move up a little faster, Bo? I'm afraid, after all, that
melon is bigger than we needed."

The boy was fat and he panted after his huge companion.

Suddenly there was a sharp report, and Bosephus saw a little tuft of fur
fly from one of his companion's ears. Horatio dodged frantically and
dropped part of his corn.

[Illustration: CONQUERING THE WORLD.]

"Run zigzag, Bo!" he called, "and don't drop the melon. Run zigzag. He
can't hit you so well then," and Horatio himself began such a
performance of running first one way and then the other that Bo was
almost obliged to laugh in spite of their peril.

"Is this what you call conquering the world, Ratio?" Then, as he
followed the Bear's example, he caught a backward glimpse out of the
corner of his eye.

"Oh, Ratio," he called, "the whole family is after us. Zack Todd, and
old Mis' Todd, and Jim, and the girls."

"How many times does that gun shoot?"

"Only once without loading."

"Muzzle loader?"

"Yep," panted Bo. "Old style."

"Good! Hold on to that melon. We'll get to the woods yet."

But Horatio was mistaken, for just as they dashed into the edge of the
timber, with the pursuers getting closer every moment, right in front of
them was a high barbed-wire fence which the Todd family had built around
the clearing but a few days before. The Bear dropped his corn, and the
boy carefully, but with some haste, put down the melon. Then they
turned. The Todd family was just entering the woods--old Zack and the
gun in front. He had loaded it and was putting on the cap as he ran.

"What shall we do, Bo, what shall we do now?" groaned Horatio.

The situation was indeed desperate. Their pursuers were upon them, and
in a moment more the deadly gun would be levelled. Suddenly a bright
thought occurred to Bo.