The Boys of Crawford's Basin

As it was obvious that the bear could advance no farther, for he was standing on the very edge of the ledge and there was a bulge in the rock before him which would inevitably have pushed him off into the chasm had he attempted to pass it, Joe and I returned to the spring, where we had room to stand or to sit down as we wished.

The enemy watched our approach, with a glint of malice in his little piggy eyes, but when he saw that we intended to come no nearer, he lay down where he was and began unconcernedly licking his paws.

"He thinks he can starve us out," said Joe; "but if I'm not mistaken we can stand it longer than he can, even if he did eat half a pig last night. And there's one thing certain, Phil: if we don't get home to-night, somebody will come to look for us in the morning."

"Yes," I assented. "But they'll get a pretty bad scare