THE BED BEAR 



letting Her tears fall upon it; and tHe warm 

 tears brought it to life and made it feel sorry 

 for her and the boy. She put it back into the 

 water. 



" Now, go and kill the bad people who beat my 

 boy," she said. 



At this the image floated across the creek and 

 crawled up on the other side, where it began to 

 grow, soon becoming a large red bear. It turned 

 and looked at the woman till she called out, " Go, 

 and spare no one." 



The bear went away and came to the village 

 on the big river, the one to which the boy had 

 gone. There the first one he met was a man go- 

 ing for water. This one was quickly torn in 

 pieces, and one after another of the villagers met 

 the same fate ; for the bear stayed near the village 

 until he had destroyed one-half of the people, and 

 the rest were so terrified that they began moving 

 away. 



Then he swam across the Yukon and went over 

 the tundra to the farther side of another river, 

 killing everyone he met. For he had become so 

 bloodthirsty that the least sign of life seemed to 

 fill him with fury until he had destroyed it. 



From there he turned back, and one day came 

 to the place on the river where he had first come 



97 



