TO THE RESCUE! 165 
bushes. Then, perhaps for the first time, Nat realized 
what he had done. The she-bear, having entered her den 
and discovered the absence of one of her twins, was 
returning and charging fiercely up the hill on their trail. 
In another moment her head and shoulders appeared, 
and then her whole huge form, as she scrambled up the 
rough hillside with marvellous rapidity. 
On reaching her cub, she paused and licked it ; then 
lifted her head and looked up irresolutely after the 
retreating forms of her unwelcome visitors. 
Robert, by this time, had gained a good position, rifle 
in hand ; but Joe told him not to fire unless the life of 
his father or brother should actually be in peril. It often 
takes a dozen well placed balls to kill a full-grown 
grizzly, and the risk of merely enraging her was too 
great. 
The shaggy mother, relieved at finding her offspring 
safe, now renewed her maternal attentions to it ; and 
soon, her natural affections mastering her anger, she pro- 
ceeded to trundle it along home, partly lifting it by the 
back of the neck, like a gigantic kitten, partly pushing it 
with her huge paws, of which an ox might well have 
stood in terror. As Mr. Button reached the summit of 
the knoll, the grizzly disappeared among the willow scrub 
at its base. 
The Indians earnestly counselled that the bears should 
not be approached. They believed that, if they were not 
disturbed, the she-bear would not leave her young to 
