ingled the coins in his hands, and sang reflectively to
the Bear's soft music. Their camp fire had died down to a few red
embers, and the big moon hanging in the tree-tops made all the world
white and black, with one bright splash in the brook below. They had
finished their supper, and Bosephus, with the needle and thread given to
him by old Mis' Todd, had patiently mended by the firelight a small rent
in his trouser leg. Horatio, watching him with a grin, had finally
remarked:--

"You see, Bo, if you wore clothes like mine you wouldn't have to do
that."

"And if the dog that did that had got his teeth into your clothes, you'd
have wished they were like mine. Maybe that's why you didn't give him a
chance."

"Let's count the money, Bo."

So then they counted up their day's receipts. There was something more
than a dollar in all, and Horatio was much pleased.

[Illustration: THEIR CAMP-FIRE HAD DIED DOWN.]

"I tell you, Bo," he said excitedly, "we've made a fine start. By and by
we will earn two or three times that much every day, and be able to
start our bear colony before you know it."

The little boy fondled the coins over and over. They were the first he
had ever earned.

"Ratio," he said at last, "don't you suppose when we get a lot of
money--a big lot, I mean--we might give some to those people I used to
live with?"

Horatio scowled.

"I thought you said they didn't treat you well and you had to run away."

"Yes, of course, Ratio; but then they were so poor and maybe they'd have
been better to me if I had been able to earn money for them. They did
take me out of the poor house, you know, and--"

"And you tried to get back again and got lost and fell in with me. Now
you are sorry and want to go to them, do you?" and the Bear snorted so
fiercely that the little boy trembled.

"Oh, no! Not for the world! I never was so happy in all my life, only I
just thought--"

"Then don't think, Bo," interrupted Horatio, gently. "You are only a
little boy. I will do the thinking for this firm. Now for a song, Bo, to
soothe us."

So then they played and sang softly together while the moon rose and the
fire died out, and the boy poured the money from hand to hand, lovingly.

"Bosephus," said his companion, as they paused, "were those people you
lived with nice people? Nice fat people, I mean?"

"Not very. Old Mr. Sugget might have been pretty fat if he'd had more to
eat, but Mis' Sugget wasn't made to get fat,