46 WILD BROTHER 
searched for his stick of candy. He did not in- 
tend to be left out of the family reckoning ! 
Bruno was allowed to go wherever he pleased, 
but he seldom went out of sight of his foster- 
mother or the children. Always he wanted to be 
near Mrs. Weldon. Like a dog, he would follow 
her about wherever she went; but he did not care 
for the big woods, and seemed nervous and timid 
when alone in the forest. One day Mrs. Weldon 
went out to gather some spring flowers. On tip- 
toe, silently she left the cabin, for the cub was 
sound asleep in his box by the stove; she was going 
quite a distance and she did not wish him to follow 
her. Taking her way along one of the logging 
roads that zigzagged back and forth up the slope 
of a hardwood ridge, she stopped now and then to 
gather a bunch of painted trillium, or to look under- 
neath the fallen leaves for the fragrant pink blos- 
soms of the trailing arbutus, which in deeply 
shaded spots was still in bloom. 
Near the top of the ridge she paused to rest and, 
sitting on a mossy log, she listened with great de- 
light to the chanting song of a hermit thrush that 
came up from the rill down below. On a treetop 
high above her head a white-throated sparrow now 
softly called in silvery tones for his lifelong friend, 
Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody. Silently she 
listened to the joyous music. 
