id Bo, hastily.

"See that you don't forget it!" grunted the Bear. "I don't like
familiarity in my guests. But I am clear away from the song I was
singing when you came tearing out of that thicket. Seems like I never
saw anybody in such a hurry to see me as you were.

"Now the old man sat a-fiddling by the little cabin door,
And the tune was pretty lively, and he played it o'er and o'er;
And the stranger sat a-list'ning and a-wond'ring what to do,
As he fiddled and he fiddled, but he never played it through."

Bo was very fond of music, and as Horatio drew from the strings the
mellow strains of "The Arkansaw Traveller" he forgot that both he and
the Bear were hungry. He could dance very well, and was just about to do
so as the Bear paused.

"Why don't you play the rest of that tune, Horatio?" he asked,
anxiously.

"Same reason the old man didn't!" growled the Bear, still humming the
air,

"Oh, raddy daddy dum--daddy dum--dum--dum--

"Why!" continued Bo, "that's funny!"

"Is it?" snorted Horatio; "I never thought so!

"Then the stranger asked the fiddler 'Won't you play the rest for me?'
'Don't know it,' says the fiddler, 'Play it for yourself!' says he----"

"Maybe you can do what the stranger did, Bosephus--maybe you can play it
yourself, eh?" grunted the huge animal, pausing and glowering at the
little boy.

"Oh, no, sir--I--I--that is, sir, I can only wh-whistle or s-sing it!"
trembled Bo.

"What!"

"Y-yes, sir. I----"

"You can sing it?" shouted the Bear, joyfully, and for once forgetting
to fiddle. "You don't say so!"

"Why, of course!" laughed Bo; "everybody in Arkansaw can do that. It
goes this way:--

[Illustration: Music]

"Then the stranger took the fiddle, with a ridy-diddle-diddle,
And the strings began to jingle at the tingle of the bow,

[Illustration: Music]

While the old man sat and listened, and his eyes with pleasure
glistened,
As he shouted 'Hallelujah! And hurray--for--Joe!'"

When Bo had finished, Horatio stood perfectly still for some moments in
astonishment and admiration. Then he came up close to the little boy.

"Look here, Bo," he said, "if you'll teach me to play and sing that
tune, we'll forget all about that sort o' personal supper I was planning
on, and I'll take you home all in one piece. And anything you want to
know I'll tell you, and anything I've got, except the fiddle, is yours.
Furthermore, you can cal