20 WILD BROTHER 



The voice was soon quieted, and the men told me 

 that Mrs. Weldon was feeding the cub. Weldon, I 

 may say now, is not the real name of this kind- 

 hearted woman, but it will serve to identify her 

 throughout this narrative and will make it unneces- 

 sary for me to reveal her own equally good Ameri- 

 can name, which, because she shuns publicity, she 

 prefers to have remain unknown. 



Now I learned for the first time the truth about 

 the bear how it happened that Mrs. Weldon 

 took him in. It is unusual for a woman to have 

 anything to do with a logging-camp; few of the 

 wives whose husbands work in the woods ever see 

 the winter quarters of their men. All winter long 

 the lumberjacks are away, often not returning until 

 the snow has gone, in the spring. It so chanced, 

 however, that Mrs. Weldon's husband was a good 

 cook, and backwoods cooks are in great demand. 

 In the fall of the year, when the lumber boss of- 

 fered him a job at good pay, he at first refused it, 

 saying that he didn't care to leave his wife and 

 the five children back at home. But Gordon, who 

 wanted a cook badly, suggested that he bring the 

 wife and children with him, and occupy a cabin 

 adjoining the camp. The bargain was made, and 

 Mrs. Weldon with the five little ones two of 

 them adopted and all under five years of age 

 moved back into the forest twenty-three miles from 

 her home village, where through the winter snows, 



