Father Bear snorted when he smelled the sulphur, and with that the flame went out.  The boy was ready with another match, but, curiously enough, Father Bear did not repeat his attack.

“Can you light many of those little blue roses?” asked Father Bear.

“I can light enough to put an end to the whole forest,” replied the boy, for he thought that in this way he might be able to scare Father Bear.

“Oh, that would be no trick for me!” boasted the boy, hoping that this would make the bear respect him.

“Good!” exclaimed the bear.  “You shall render me a service.  Now I’m very glad that I did not eat you!”

Father Bear carefully took the boy between his tusks and climbed up from the pit.  He did this with remarkable ease and agility, considering that he was so big and heavy.  As soon as he was up, he speedily made for the woods.  It was evident that Father Bear was created to squeeze through dense forests.  The heavy body pushed through the brushwood as a boat does through the water.

Father Bear ran along till he came to a hill at the skirt of the forest, where he could see the big noise-shop.  Here he lay down and placed the boy in front of him, holding him securely between his forepaws.

“Now look down at that big noise-shop!” he commanded.  The great ironworks, with many tall buildings, stood at the edge of a waterfall.  High chimneys sent forth dark clouds of smoke, blasting furnaces were in full blaze, and light shone from all the windows and apertures.  Within hammers and rolling mills were going with such force that the air rang with their clatter and boom.  All around the workshops proper were immense coal sheds, great slag heaps, warehouses, wood piles, and tool sheds.  Just beyond were long rows of workingmen’s homes, pretty villas, schoolhouses, assembly halls, and shops.  But there all was quiet and apparently everybody was asleep.  The boy did not glance in that direction, but gazed intently at the ironworks.  The earth around them was black; the sky above them was like a great fiery dome; the rapids, white with foam, rushed by; while the buildings themselves were sending out light and smoke, fire and sparks.  It was the grandest sight the boy had ever seen!

“Surely you don’t mean to say you can set fire to a place like that?” remarked the bear doubtingly.

The boy stood wedged between the beast’s paws thinking the only thing that might save him would be that the bear should have a high opinion of his capability and power.

“It’s all the same to me,” he answered with a superior air.  “Big or little, I can burn it down.”