ew was heard calling from the top landing:

"Ellen, for gracious sake get out of the house as quick as you can,
and shut all the doors and window-shutters."

[Illustration: THE LITTLE BABY-BEAR]

Then Mrs. Bartholomew sent the boys into Partridge's, next door, and
she closed the shutters, locked all the doors and went into the
yard to await further developments. When she got outside, she saw
Bartholomew on the roof kneeling on the trap-door, which he kept down
only by the most tremendous exertions. Then he screamed for somebody
to come up and help him, and Mr. Partridge got a ladder and a hatchet
and some nails, and ascended. Then they nailed down the trap-door, and
Bartholomew and Partridge came down the ladder together. After he had
greeted his family, Mrs. Bartholomew asked him what was the matter,
and he said,

"Why, you know that little baby-bear I said I'd bring Charley? Well, I
had him in a box until I got off the train up here at the depot, and
then I thought I'd take him out and lead him around home by the chain.
But the first thing he did was to fly at my leg; and when I jumped
back, I ran, and he after me. He would've eaten me up in about a
minute. That infernal Indian must have fooled me. He said it was a cub
only two months old and it had no teeth. I believe it's a full-grown
bear."

It then became a very interesting question how they should get the
bear out of the house. Bartholomew thought they had better try to
shoot him, and he asked a lot of the neighbors to come around to help
with their shot-guns. When they would hear the bear scratching at one
of the windows, they would pour in a volley at him, but after riddling
every shutter on the first floor they could still hear the bear
tearing around in there and growling. So Bartholomew and the others
got into the cellar, and as the bear crossed the floor they would fire
up through it at about the spot where they thought he was. But the
bombardment only seemed to exasperate the animal, and after each shot
they could hear him smashing something.

Then Partridge said maybe a couple of good dogs might whip him; and he
borrowed a bulldog and a setter from Scott and pushed them through the
front door. They listened, and for half an hour they could hear a most
terrific contest raging; and Scott said he'd bet a million dollars
that bull-dog would eat up any two bears in the Rocky Mountains. Then
everything became still, and a few moments later they could hea