You may be sure there were no more games, riddles, or nut-cracking that evening in the Brent cabin. The children stood for a few moments in a frightened group, and then took their old places on the logs inside the fireplace. Polly, who was stupid with fright, stood for a short time silently facing the fire, and then said mournfully: “Balser, you and me had better jine the church. We’re goners inside the next three months,—goners, just as sure as my name’s Polly.” Then meditatively, “A durned sight surer than that; for my name ain’t Polly at all; but Samuel, or Thomas, or Bill, or something like that, I furgit which; but we’re goners, Balser, and we might as well git ready. No livin’ bein’ ever seed that bear and was alive three months afterwards.” Then Liney, who was sitting next to Balser, touched his arm gently, and said:— “I saw him too. I followed you a short way when you went out, and I saw something bright crossing the river on the ice just below the barn. Was that the bear?” “Yes, yes,” cried Balser. “For goodness’ sake, Liney, why didn’t you stay in the house?” “You bet I stayed in,” said Jim. “And so did I,” said Tom. No one paid any attention to what Jim and Limpy said, and in a moment Liney was weeping gently with her face in her hands. Jim and Limpy then began to cry, and soon Polly was boohooing as if he were already at the point of death. It required all of Balser’s courage and strength to keep back the tears, but in a moment he rose to his feet and said: “Stop your crying, everybody. I’ll kill that bear before the three months is half gone; yes, before a month has passed. If Liney saw him, the bear dies; that settles it.” Liney looked up to Balser gratefully, and then, turning to Polly, said:— “He’ll save us, Polly; he killed the one-eared bear, and it was enough sight worse to fight than the Fire Bear. The one-eared bear was a—was a devil.” Polly did not share Liney’s confidence; so he sat down upon the hearth, and gazed sadly at the fire awhile. Then, taking his elbow for his pillow, he lay upon the floor and moaned himself to sleep. The children sat in silence for a short time; and Jim lay down beside Polly, and closed his eyes in slumber. Then Limpy’s head began to nod, and soon Limpy was in the land of dreams. Balser and Liney sat upon the spare backlog for perhaps half an hour, without speaking. The deep bed of live coals cast a rosy glow upon their faces, and the shadows back in the room grew darker, as the flame of the neglected fire died out. Now and then a fitful blaze would start from a broken ember, and the shadows danced for a moment over the floor and ceiling like sombre spectres, but Balser and Liney saw them not.