uproar. Grace, the dilatory, was picking berries
before breakfast along the edge of the clearing, and popping them into
her mouth as fast as she could find ripe ones.

"Come here and help, Grace!" called Percy from the tent where she was
shaking out the heavy blankets. "I'm not going to do all my work and
yours, too."

"You come and help _me_. It's more fun," returned Grace, laughing
at her.

Then the lazy girl turned and reached for a particularly juicy
blackberry, in the clump ahead of her. Percy saw her struck motionless
for a second, or two; then the big girl fairly fell backward, rolled
over, picked herself up, and raced back to the tents, her mouth wide
open and her hair streaming in the wind.

"What _is_ the matter?" gasped Percy.

"Oh, Grace! you look dreadful! Tell us, what has happened!" begged
Bessie, as the big girl sank down by the entrance to the tent, her limbs
too weak to bear her farther.

"What has scared you so, Grace?" demanded Wyn, running up.

Grace's eyes rolled, she shut and opened her mouth again several times.
Then she was only able to gasp out the one word:

"Bear!"

The other girls came crowding around. "What do you mean, Grace?" "Stop
trying to scare us, Grace!" "She's fooling," were some of the cries they
uttered.

But Wyn saw that her friend was really frightened; she was not "putting
it on."

"You don't mean that it was a _real_ bear?" cried Frank Cameron.

"A bear, I tell you!" moaned Grace, rocking herself to and fro. "I told
you they were here in the woods."

"Oh, dear me!" screamed Mina. "What shall we do?"

"You didn't _see_ it, Grace?" demanded Wyn, sternly. "You only
heard it."

"I saw it, I tell you!"

"Not really?"

"Do--do you think I don't know a bear when I see one?" demanded Grace.
"He--he'll be right after us----"

"No. If it was a real, wild bear he would be just as scared at seeing
you as you would be at seeing him," remarked the decidedly sensible
captain.

"He--he _couldn't_ be as scared as I am," moaned Grace, with
considerable emphasis.

"I don't believe there's a bear within miles and miles of here!"
declared Frank.

"Well! I declare I hope there isn't," cried Bess.

"I'll look," offered Wyn. "Grace just thought she saw something."

"A great, black and brown hairy beast!" moaned Grace. "He stood right up
on his hind legs and stretched out his arms to me----"

"Enamored of all your young charms," giggled Frank.

"It's no joke!" gasp