little bear could not be sure at first that he was a human being.
A minute passed, and the red eye of the bear rested upon the boy. Henry
felt pleasant and sociable, but he knew that he could retain friendly
relations only by remaining quiet.

"If I have eaten your comrade, my friend," he said to himself, "it is
only because of hard necessity." The bear, little, comic, and yet with
that touch of pathos about him, cocked his head a little further over on
one side, and as a silver shaft of moonlight fell upon him Henry could
see one red eye gleaming. It was a singular fact, but the boy, alone
in the wilderness, and the loser of his comrades, felt for the moment a
sense of comradeship with the bear, which was also alone, and doubtless
the loser of a comrade, also. He uttered a soft growling sound like the
satisfied purr of a bear eating its food.

The comical bear rose a little higher on his hind paws, and looked in
astonishment at the motionless figure that uttered sounds so familiar.
Yet the figure was not familiar. He had never seen a human being before,
and the shape and outline were very strange to him. It might be some new
kind of animal, and he was disposed to be inquiring, because there was
nothing in these forests which the black bear was afraid of until man
came.

He advanced a step or two and growled gently. Then he reared up again
on his hind paws, and cocked his held to one side in his amusing manner.
Henry, still motionless, smiled at him. Here, for an instant at least,
was a cheery visitor and companionship. He at least would not break the
spell.

"You look almost as if you could talk, old fellow," he said to himself,
"and if I knew your language I'd ask you a lot of questions."

The bear, too, was motionless now, torn by doubt and curiosity. It
certainly was a singular figure that sat there, fifteen or twenty yards
before him, and he had the most intense curiosity to solve the mystery
of this creature. But caution held him back.

There was a sudden flaw in the light breeze. It shifted about and
brought the dreadful man odor to the nostrils of the honest black bear.
It was something entirely new to him, but it contained the quality of
fear. That still strange figure was his deadliest foe. Dropping down
upon his four paws, he fled among the trees, and then scrambled somehow
through the swamp to the mainland.

Henry sighed. Despite his own friendly feeling, the bear, warned by
instinct, was afraid of h