CHAPTER IV 

 THE BEAR MAKES A JOURNEY 



EARLY in June there came a letter from the 

 woods. Bruno was growing fast, and, though he was 

 not cross, he was big and strong, and in his play 

 had developed a roughness that threatened harm 

 to Ursula. A day or two before, while he was play- 

 ing with his foster-sister, he had jumped upon her 

 as she sat on the floor, and knocked her over and 

 bumped her head. They expected to leave camp 

 in a few days ; and when I came down again, Mrs. 

 Weldon would sell him to me, provided I would pay 

 her enough to buy a cow. 



If ever a person deserved a cow, Mrs. Weldon 

 did, and I wrote to tell her that she should have 

 one. 



A week later Mrs. Underwood and I arrived at 

 the village, and were much disappointed to learn 

 that the Weldons had not yet come out of the 

 woods. The townspeople expressed considerable 

 anxiety about them. Forest-fires were raging all 

 through New England, and for weeks the sun had 

 hung a red ball of fire in a smoky sky. No spring 

 rains had come to refresh the thirsty earth ; for fifty 

 days not a drop of water had fallen. Just before 

 our arrival, a little settlement twenty-five miles to 



