de for the open shore, along
which for some distance he ran with the agility of a monstrous wild-cat,
and finally leaped out of sight into his forest home!

The brothers looked at each other with sparkling eyes, and next moment
the woods resounded with their merriment, as they held their sides and
leaned for support against a neighbouring cliff.

Heika was first to recover himself.

"Hold, brother," he exclaimed, "we laugh loud enough to let Bruin know
who it was that injured him, or to bring all the savages in these woods
down upon us. Peace, man, peace, and let us return to our friends."

"As soon as ye please, brother," said Hake, still laughing as he
tightened his belt, "but was it not rare fun to see Bruin stand that
stony rain so manfully until his tender point was touched? And then how
he ran! 'Twas worth coming here to see a bear leave off his rolling
gait so and run like a very wild-cat.--Now I'm ready."

Without staying to make further examination of Leif's old huts--for from
the place where they stood all the six of them could be clearly seen--
the young pioneers started on their return to the coast. They ran back
with much greater speed than they had pushed forward--fearing that their
companions might be getting impatient or alarmed about them. They did
not even converse, but with heads up, chests forward, and elbows bent,
addressed themselves to a quick steady run, which soon brought them to
the branch of the river previously mentioned. Here they stopped for a
moment before plunging in.

"Suppose that we run down its bank," suggested Hake, "and see whether
there be not a shallow crossing."

"Surely ye have not grown afraid of water, Hake?"

"No, not I, but I should like to see whither this branch trends, and
what it is like; besides, the divergence will not cost us much time, as
we can cross at any point we have a mind to, and come at the main river
again through the woods."

"Well, I will not balk you--come on."

They accordingly descended the smaller streams and found it to be broken
by various little cascades and rapids, with here and there a longish
reach of pebbly ground where the stream widened into a shallow rippling
river with one or two small islands in it. At one of these places they
crossed where it was only knee-deep in the centre, and finally stopped
at the end of a reach, where a sudden narrowing of the banks produced a
brawling rapid. Below this there was a deep pool caused