It isn't any fun to sit in a tree on a mountain, with a real live bear sniffing around at the bottom and you both getting hungrier every minute. Skinny knew he was safe as long as he stayed in the tree, but he didn't dare get down while the bear was in sight, and the cub wouldn't go away more than a few rods. I guess Skinny looked good to him, he was so fat. Dinner time came and went. He was still in the tree and the bear was still fooling around below. Skinny called for help until he was hoarse, but there wasn't anybody passing at that time of day. Then he began to get mad, and when Skinny gets mad, look out! "You think you're smart," said he, "but old Long Knife will show you a thing or two." First he let down his rope and found that it would reach the ground. Then he fixed the noose up in good shape, tied the other end around a limb and waited. By and by the bear came smelling around that rope to see what it was, and that was exactly what Skinny had been waiting for. He leaned down and tried to swing the noose over the cub's head. The bear didn't know what to make of it and every time the rope would hit his nose he would growl and strike it away with his paw. Skinny saw that he would have to get closer. He climbed down to a lower limb; then held on with one hand, swung out over the bear, and tried to lasso him with the other. He almost did it, too, but just as he leaned still farther down, all of a sudden there was a cracking noise and the limb broke. With an awful scream of despair, Skinny fell. CHAPTER XII WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BEAR THE Band, I mean the Ravens, don't know so very much about bears. That was the only bear we ever had come across and we had been berrying all over those mountains, although mostly on the Greylock side. Pa says that they usually keep away from the road, the few that are left, because they are afraid of folks. Anyhow, it isn't any picnic to fall out of a tree at any time, especially when there is a bear at the bottom. When the limb began to crack, Skinny knew that he was a goner. He yelled so loud that it surprised the bear and it looked up into the tree to see what was going on. Just at that second the leader of Raven Patrol landed on the cub's nose, like a thousand of brick. Boy and bear both went sprawling, one in one direction and the other in another. Skinny was the first to get on his feet and the way he shinned up the tree again was a caution. He didn't stop to look until he had reached the limb where the rope was tied. Then he felt safe. The bear had picked himself up and was standing close to the foot of the tree, looking up and whining, as if he didn't like being hit in the head by a boy very well.