"Naughty bears, they kept me all the time picking berries for them."

The return to the camp on the banks at Sea River Falls, and then to Sagasta-weekee, was soon made.

Great were the rejoicings there as well as at the mission, and at the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, when the news of the finding of the lost ones reached them. A special thanksgiving service was held the next Sabbath at the mission church, at which whites and Indians from near and far gathered, and entered heartily into the spirit of the service.

Three Boys in the Wild North Land--by Egerton Ryerson Young

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

WENONAH'S STORY OF THEIR MARVELLOUS ADVENTURES WITH AND DELIVERANCE FROM THE BEARS--RODERICK'S COMMENTS.

It was wisely decided that, as the children were so exhausted, at least a couple of days should be allowed to pa.s.s before they were asked to give anything like a full account of their marvellous adventures.

Wenonah, of course, was the princ.i.p.al speaker, but Roderick often put in some quaint remark, which gave additional interest to the story. Seated in her father's arms, while Roderick monopolised those of his mother, while Minnehaha and the boys, with some friends from the Fort and mission, gathered round, Wenonah told in her own way the story of their strange adventures:

"Roderick and I were to try and gather as many berries as Minnehaha; so we took our rogans, and we went to where the berries were thickest, and once we came back and emptied our dishes, and then we hurried away where we had seen a good many. But we did not find as many there as we hoped, and so we went on and on, and it took us a long time to fill our rogans, and when we did we started to come back, but we did not find the way, and so we hurried on and on. Then after a while we called, and called, and n.o.body answered us. So Roddy and I said we would not cry. So we hurried on and on, to try and get back. Then we came to some high rocks, and we climbed up as high as we could, and when we called again we thought we heard voices answering us from some other rocks, and so we hurried over there, but there was n.o.body, and no voice. Then we pushed on, and on, and soon we heard the thunder, but we never stopped, but just tried to get back before the rain.

"Soon we left the rocky land, and went down a long hill where we saw a little stream. This we crossed where the water was not deep.

"We wanted to get home, so we tried not to feel tired or to cry; but, although we tried ever so hard, we could not find the way. We had held on to our dishes, but now they were not half full, and so we stopped and ate some of the berries. Soon after, it began to thunder very hard, and there was lightning, and so we hurried up to some big trees, and while we were standing under the branches, to be out of the rain, we saw one old tree that was all hollow on one side, and as the rain was coming down through the branches we went and got into this hollow tree. I had Roderick go in first so that I could keep him dry, and I stood at the outside."

Here Roderick spoke up and said:

"I wanted to stand on the outside because I was the boy, but Wenonah said she had better because she was the biggest."

"Then," continued Wenonah, "as it soon got very dark, and none of you came for us, we began to cry, and we could not help it, for there we were all alone in that hollow tree in the dark.

"After a while a big owl in one of the trees began to call. I knew what it was for Mustagan had taught me. At first Roddy said it was somebody calling him."

Again Roddy, who was now nestling in his mother's arms, spoke up and said:

"I thought it was somebody saying to me, 'Who, who, who!' and I said, 'We are Roddy and Wenonah Ross, and we are lost.'

"Then, when it called again, it only said:--

"'Oo! oo! oo!' So then we knew what it was, as we had often heard it at night here at home."

"We were glad to hear it," said Wenonah, "for all was now so dark and lonely. We could not lie down; we just had to stand up there all night.

I held Roddy up as well as I could. Once we heard the cry of the wild cat, and that made us keep very still. I must have nodded some, as I leaned against the inside of that old tree, but it was an awful long night, and we were glad when it was light enough to see. Then we left that old hollow tree, and took up our dishes, and as we were very hungry we went out among the berry-bushes and ate some of the berries. We were careful to leave no tracks, because of that wild cat. We ate a lot of berries, but we did miss our good breakfast at home. We filled our dishes, and then started for home; but we could not find it. While we were going on among the bushes we came out into a little opening, and there were the two little bears. We thought at first they were two little black dogs. They came right up to us, and when they sat up so funnily on their little hind legs we saw they were bears, and of course we were afraid.

"Then they came and smelled our baskets of berries, and as we held them out to them they seemed very hungry, and at once began eating."

"But they were so greedy; they were worse than little piggies," said little Roderick; "they made such funny little noises all the time they were eating."

"But," continued Wenonah, "that sound of theirs seemed to call the old bears, that we had not yet seen. They came rushing through the bushes, and we were so frightened we could not even cry out or let go of our baskets.

"When they rushed at us the little bears, that were between them and us, seemed to think that all the old bears wanted to do was to get at the berries too, and so they kept so funnily twisting their little bodies between the old bears and us, while all the time they were eating the berries. When the old bears saw this they stopped looking so fierce and savage, and just sat down on their hind legs and looked at us feeding their young ones.

"Then we began to wonder what would happen when the little bears had eaten all the berries that were in our baskets.

"Little Roddy seemed to know just what to do; for as there were some berries growing close to him, while he held his basket in one hand he picked some more berries and fed them to the little bear. Then I did the same to the one that had been eating out of my dish. Soon we began moving slowly among the bushes for more berries, to find plenty for the greedy little fellows, but we kept them as well as we could between the old bears and us.

"As the old bears kept moving around we could not keep their little ones between them and us very long, and so by and by they came close up to us, but they did not now seem to be very angry. One of them got close up to Roddy, and there he stood up and looked so big beside my little brother that I almost screamed out, I was so frightened. But I did not do it for fear he might hurt him. He only moved a little, and then he came down again on all his four legs, and as he put his big mouth close to him Roddy just put in it a handful of berries. After that there was no more trouble with him except to get berries enough."

"Yes," said Roderick, "I just thought that if big bears like berries as well as little bears perhaps they would rather have them than eat us little children; so I just chucked that handful in his mouth, and he just did like them."

"I was slower in making such good friends with the other bear,"

continued Wenonah, "because the little one I was feeding was such a greedy little pig. He would not, for a long time, let me gather a handful and give to the big bear that, once or twice, got so close to me as to put its cold nose against my face. My! it made me shiver. But I said in my heart, 'I will be brave, for I want to save Roddy,'" and the child's voice broke. "I did want to see my father, and my mother, and Minnehaha again."

"But we did not cry here, did we?" said Roderick.

But the memory of that event was too great for them now, and throwing themselves in each other's arms they burst out in a pa.s.sionate fit of weeping, that was so contagious no eyes remained dry in that group of loved ones there gathered to hear their pathetic story.

When calm again Wenonah went on with the story:

"After a while the little ones had enough, and then they began wrestling and playing with each other. They acted as if they wanted Roddy to play with them, and I told him to do so, but not to hurt them, and perhaps the old father and mother bears would not hurt us before we could run away."

"Yes," said Roddy, "I had great times with them, but they always wanted to wrestle with me more than any other kind of sport."

"I kept gathering berries," said Wenonah, "while Roddy played with the young bears. The old ones kept me busy now and were just about as greedy as the young ones had been.

"After a while I said to Roddy, 'We must try and get away from here,'

for we did want to come home and see you all.

"We did not talk very much to each other, for our voices seemed to make the bears angry. But we found that when we tried to get away they got right in front of us and stopped us with their big bodies. This made me feel very bad, but I did not tell Roddy. Some time early in the day I heard some one calling, and I tried to answer, but one of the bears struck me such a blow with one of his paws, and showed his dreadful teeth in such a way, that I was so frightened that I dare not call again."

Said little Roddy, once again: "When I saw that naughty bear hit my sister with his paw I wanted to hit him with a stick."

"This voice of whatever it was seemed to frighten the bears, and so off they started," said Wenonah, "and they made us go along with them. We had to go; for if we stopped, or tried to go some other way, they growled at us, and pushed us with their noses, and so we had to go with them. Soon they came out of the bushes and crossed over the sand, and went up on the other side into the dark woods. We were very much afraid, but we whispered that we would not cry, but just be brave, for we knew you would soon come and fight those great big bears.

"The way the bears made us go was this. One big bear went on before, then the little ones followed next, then they made Roddy and me follow next. We had to do it, for just behind us was the other big bear, and he would growl at us if we did not just walk right along.

"Then, after we had travelled some time, we came out of the dark forest among some, O, such big rocks, bigger than houses. Among them we had to go, until we came to a dark opening like a big door, and into this we had to go. It must have been the home of the bears.

"Roddy cried out, with fear, but the bears growled again and showed their great teeth, and so we had to go in."

"I didn't want to go in," said the poor boy, as he put his arms around the neck of his mother; "it was worse than a cellar, it looked so dark.

But the old bear behind just kept pushing me along with his nose, so I had to go."

"It was not such a bad place after all," said Wenonah, "when we once got into it. It seemed dark at first as we went in out of the sunshine; but when we were in it, and looked back, there was a good deal of light. In it were big piles of leaves and dry gra.s.s, and on them the bears soon lay down. One of the big bears lay down between us and the door, so we could not get out. We sat down by the little bears, and I whispered to Roddy to be brave, for G.o.d would take care of us and our friends would surely find us. Then we lay down on the dry gra.s.s and, being very weary, soon went to sleep, with our arms around each other.

"How long we slept we knew not, but were suddenly roused up by the little bears playing and tumbling over and around us. So we got up, and the bears made us go back again across the sands into the berry-bushes, and there we all ate berries, as there was nothing else to eat. The little ones kept poking their noses into our hands, and thus begged us to pick berries for them."

"The lazy little fellows," said Roderick, now smiling as he thought of them; "little greedy piggies that never had enough."

"There we stayed in the bushes," said Wenonah, "until nearly night, and then they made us go back again with them in the same way to the same place. It seemed so dreadful to have to spend the night in that place with those wild bears; but we whispered, 'We will be brave,' and so we lay down between the little bears, for in some way or other we felt the little ones were our best friends, and it was because of them the old ones did not kill us.