The Uninvited Guest 



" Whoo, whoo ! . . . Whoo ! . . . Whoo, whoo . . . 



0000 !" 



Williams jumped. " My Gawd ! what's that ?" 



" Them's wild-cats " — from Old Joe. 



" Wild-cats !" repeated Tug. " Do you have wild- 

 cats 'round here ?" 



" Sure," said Joe. " The woods is full of 'em." 



" How big are they ?" — from Tug, apprehensively. 



" Oh, not very big," drawled Joe. " About the size 

 of a two-year-old steer." 



There was a brief silence, during which Emery and 



1 were stuffing our mittens in our mouths to keep from 

 laughing. 



" This is sure a h — 11 of a place to invite a man," rasped 

 Tug — " way out in these woods, and no place to sleep 

 but under an old sheet, strung up on a pole, and no 

 windows nor doors to shut !" This plaint seemed to 

 delight Jim and Joe, and stirred the latter to further 

 devilry. 



I was wearing an old leather coat with the sleeve 

 badly torn and worn. 



" It's a good thing that bear got hold of your coat- 

 sleeve instead of tearin' the arm off yer that night he 

 reached under the tent," said Joe, in a sepulchral tone, 

 barely loud enough for Tug to overhear. 



" What's that ? what's that ?" snapped Tug, taking 

 the bait and sitting bolt upright on his blankets. 



Joe explained at length how a bear had reached in 

 under the tent one night during our last camping trip, 

 and had made a grab at me with his paw, but had only 

 succeeded in tearing my coat-sleeve, as I had awakened 

 just in the nick of time. Whether this was pragmatism 

 or a rank lie, depends entirely upon your point of view. 



Tug kept rumbling and grumbling and complaining 

 about the hard ground, and about our lack of considera- 



113 H 



