in pursuit of them. They had been in
hopes that the pieces of meat might have attracted his attention, and
drawn him aside. This did not happen. The meat was not directly upon
his path; moreover, the animal appeared infuriated as he approached. He
had been stung by the shot, and was bent upon revenge.

It was a terrible moment. The angry monster was within three hundred
yards of them. In a few seconds he would be upon them, and one or the
other must become his victim.

In crises like these, bold minds are the most apt to conceive
expedients. So it was with that of Basil. On other occasions he was
rash and often imprudent, but in moments of extreme danger he became
cool and collected, even more so than his philosophic brother, Lucien.
A thought, which hitherto had strangely been overlooked both by himself
and his brothers, now in the hour of peril came into his mind. He
remembered that the grizzly bear is _not a tree-climber_! With the
thought he shouted out,--

"To the trees! to the trees!" at the same time embracing one of the
pines, and sprawling upwards as fast as he could climb.

Both Lucien and Francois imitated his example, each taking to the tree
that grew nearest him--for the bear was not twenty paces behind them,
and there was no time to pick and choose. Before the latter could come
up, however, all three were perched in the pines, as high among the
branches as they could safely get.

The bear galloped forward, and seeing where they had gone, ran from tree
to tree, growling with rage and disappointment. He rose upon his
hind-legs, and endeavoured to reach the lowermost branches with his
fore-paws--as if he intended to draw himself up, or drag the tree down.
One by one he assailed the pines, shaking them with violence, and with
his claws making the bark fly off in large pieces. One in particular--
that upon which Francois had taken refuge--being a small tree, vibrated
so rapidly under the powerful efforts of the brute, that its occupant
was in danger of being dashed to the ground. But the fear of such an
event caused Francois to put forth all his energies; and, encouraged by
the shouts of Basil and Lucien, he held on manfully. The bear, after a
while, seeing he could not shake him off, gave it up; and again tried
his strength upon the trees that had been climbed by the others. This
ended as before; except that the bear completely skinned off the bark as
high as he could reach, and made such