MUSIC-LOVING BEARS. 31 



two days to reach the mill. Lyte got out 

 Ms fiddle, keeping his gun, of course, close 

 at hand. Pretty soon the oxen came down, 

 came very close, so close that they almost 

 put their cold, moist noses against the 

 backs of our necks as we sat there on the 

 ox-yokes or reclined in our blankets, 

 around the crackling pine-log fire and lis- 

 tened to the wild, sweet strains that swept 

 up and down and up till the very tree tops 

 neemed to dance and quiver with delight. 



Then suddenly father seemed to feel the 

 presence of something or somebody 

 strange, and I felt it, too. But the fiddler 

 felt, heard, saw nothing but the divine, 

 wild melody that made the very pine trees 

 dance and quiver to their tips. Oh, for the 

 pure, wild, sweet, plaintive music once 

 more! the music of "Money Musk," "Zip 

 Coon," "OP Dan Tucker" and all the other 

 dear old airs that once made a thousand 

 happy feet keep time on the puncheon 

 floors from Hudson's bank to the Oregon. 

 But they are no more, now. They have 



