CHAPTER II 

 AT GORDON'S CAMP 



WHILE the men were unhitching our horses, I 

 knocked on the door of a log-cabin that adjoined 

 the main camp. It was opened by a kindly faced 

 woman about forty years of age, bearing a little 

 child in her arms. She smilingly bade me enter, 

 and motioned me to a seat on a bench beside the 

 stove. 



Four children, two boys and two girls, all seem- 

 ingly about the same age, stood silently by while 

 we talked. My first inquiry, after I had told who 

 I was and explained why I had come, was to ask 

 how the little bear was getting on. At my question 

 one of the boys reached behind the stove and drew 

 out a small shallow box, lined with deerskin. I 

 now saw, curled up in its centre, almost hidden 

 from sight in a nest of clean rags and bits of cloth, 

 a tiny black animal. It could not be a bear ! I 

 looked again in great astonishment, for it seemed 

 not much larger than a big gray squirrel ! Now it 

 moved, and began to whine and wag its head. 

 Thrusting its little nose up and down, it made an 

 appealing, plaintive, almost human call. 



"Bruno is hungry, mother," said one of the 

 children. 



