tile,
In providing entertainment for our com--pa--nee."

New arrivals appeared constantly until the water and logs and stumps by
the water's edge were alive with listening creatures. Still remembering
the panther dance the boy called in a whisper to Horatio:--

"Softly now; sing it again."

They repeated the song, letting their voices and music gradually blend
into the whispering of the trees. Bo sang with closed eyes, but the
watching Bear saw the listening circle of heads sink lower and lower so
gently that he could not be sure when the water had closed over them.
From roots and logs and stumps dark forms slid noiselessly into the
stream and disappeared. The music died away and ceased. Horatio looked
at the little boy eagerly.

[Illustration: "HELP! HELP!"]

"Quick, the pole, Bo," he called softly. "They're all gone."

A moment later he was holding on to the cane pole with teeth and claws
and being towed to shore. As he marched up the bank he picked up the
large fish that was still flopping at the end of the line.

"Very fine, Bosephus," he said, holding it up. "You wouldn't have had
that fish for supper if it hadn't been for me, Bosephus."

CHAPTER XI

THE ROAD HOME

"Going back to Arkansaw as fast as we can go--
Never mind the winter time--never mind the snow,
For the weather's not so chilly as the Louisiana law,
And we'll feel a good deal safer in the Ar--kan--saw."

IT had happened in this way. The afternoon before Christmas had come and
the little boy and the Bear had been talking over a Christmas dinner for
the next day.

"Bosephus," Horatio had said, "we must have something extra. I should
like a real old-fashioned dinner. One such as I used to have; but, of
course, that is all over now." And there was an untamed, regretful look
in his eyes.

"Ratio," said Bo, "we have got a lot of money--nearly two hundred
dollars. We can afford to have something good. I will buy a duck and a
turkey and maybe some pies. We'll take a holiday and eat from morning
till night if we feel like it."

The Bear smiled at this thought and touched the strings of the violin.

"Oh, we'll buy a tender turkey, and we'll buy a youthful duck,
And some pies, perhaps, and cookies, and some doughnuts, just for luck,
And we'll take our Christmas dinner where the balmy breezes stray,
And we'll spread it in the sunshine and we'll eat--all--day."

Suddenly he paused in his singing and l