CHAPTER IV 
THE BEAR MAKES A JOURNEY 
Earzy 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 
