The Uninvited Guest 



" Whoo, whoo ! . . . Whoo ! . . . Whoo, whoo . . . 



0000 !" 



Williams jumped. " My Gawd ! what's that ?" 



" Them's wild-cats "from Old Joe. 



" Wild-cats !" repeated Tug. " Do you have wild- 

 cats 'round here ?" 



" Sure," said Joe. " The woods is full of 'em." 



" How big are they ?" from Tug, apprehensively. 



" Oh, not very big," drawled Joe. " About the size 

 of a two-year-old steer." 



There was a brief silence, during which Emery and 



1 were stuffing our mittens in our mouths to keep from 

 laughing. 



" This is sure a h 11 of a place to invite a man," rasped 

 Tug " way out in these woods, and no place to sleep 

 but under an old sheet, strung up on a pole, and no 

 windows nor doors to shut !" This plaint seemed to 

 delight Jim and Joe, and stirred the latter to further 

 devilry. 



I was wearing an old leather coat with the sleeve 

 badly torn and worn. 



" It's a good thing that bear got hold of your coat- 

 sleeve instead of tearin' the arm off yer that night he 

 reached under the tent," said Joe, in a sepulchral tone, 

 barely loud enough for Tug to overhear. 



"What's that? what's that ?" snapped Tug, taking 

 the bait and sitting bolt upright on his blankets. 



Joe explained at length how a bear had reached in 

 under the tent one night during our last camping trip, 

 and had made a grab at me with his paw, but had only 

 succeeded in tearing my coat-sleeve, as I had awakened 

 just in the nick of time. Whether this was pragmatism 

 or a rank lie, depends entirely upon your point of view. 



Tug kept rumbling and grumbling and complaining 

 about the hard ground, and about our lack of considera- 



113 H 



