4 WILD BROTHER 



the snow. Yes, they say the woman's going to 

 fetch him up with her baby. Don't know what the 

 idea is, but that's what she's doing, all right. I'll 

 find out more about it for yer when Jim gets back." 



Here was an astonishing incident, if it was true. 

 I had, however, no time to verify it. Gordon's 

 lumber-camp was twenty-three miles back from the 

 village, with only a rough logging road leading to 

 it, and I must be at home next day. 



Before I left, the storekeeper promised to get 

 the whole story for me, and to obtain permission 

 from his son for me to visit the camp if I could 

 manage to get away for another winter trip to the 

 woods. 



Not long after my return to the city, however, a 

 discouraging letter came from Maine. The bear had 

 been sold, the storekeeper said, though the person 

 who had bought it had not as yet come to take it 

 away. If there was time in the interval before the 

 cub left the lumber-camp for me to come down, he 

 would write again. 



I had given up all hope of being able to verify 

 my extraordinary bear story when, a week later, 

 there came another letter, saying that the adopted 

 cub was to stay on for the present at least, and that 

 I could come as soon as I wished. 



Immediately I wrote the proprietor of the village 

 hotel that I should arrive on the morning train on 



