“A b’ar,” said Andy. “Trust a b’ar to sniff out prunes.”
“A bear wouldn’t take flour,” said Young Dan.
“Ye can’t never tell what a b’ar will do, for b’ars are natural born jokers,” replied Andy. “I’ve knowed the critters for nigh onto a hundred years, and that’s my opinion of them.”
“It wasn’t done yesterday, nor even the day before,” said the youth. “The prunes he’s left in the box are pretty dry. And he has had a go at the molasses, too. He’s left the stopper out, see; and look at the track of dried molasses down the front of the jug. It’s a wonder he didn’t upset it. And he’s ripped the bean-bag open, darn his hide! But how come it he didn’t upset the jug? Maybe it wasn’t a bear at all, Mr. Mace. A man could have done it, I guess.”
“It be a reg’lar b’ar trick,” replied Andy. “He didn’t upset the jug o’ molasses, that’s true—and I’m glad he didn’t—but all that shows is some b’ars is smarter or more careful nor others. He h’isted the jug in his two paws and took a swig, that’s what he done. Look at the beans he’s chawed and spit out on the floor. D’ye reckon a man would do that?”
“Some men are smarter and more careful than others,” replied Young Dan.
They closed the inner glazed sash of the window and nailed a strong bar of wood across it. Then they cooked and ate their supper and retired to their bunks, for they were bone-tired. The affair of the thieving bear would keep very well until morning.
They awoke bright and early. Young Dan hopped from his bunk in a lively and limber manner, feeling nothing of yesterday’s exertions; but Andy Mace grunted a few times as he sat up in his blankets and a few more times as he lowered his feet to the floor.
“I ain’t as soupel as I was eighty years ago,” he said.
When Young Dan opened the door the cold fairly caught him by the nose. He made a quick trip across the little clearing and down the steep path to the landing-place, with two pails in his hands. He found the shallow Right Prong shelled in black ice from shore to shore save for a few little air-holes. He had to break the ice with a stone before he could fill his pails. Then he took a quick and splashy bath right there. Wow! Wow! But after it he felt as if he could eat his weight in bacon and pancakes and fight his weight in wild-cats.