“Give me that!” I exclaimed.  “It doesn’t matter about its being torn!” With the old overshoe in my hand I ran back into the room, where Mr. Larramie was still imploring the McKenna sister to get down from the bed.  I stooped and thrust the shoe under as far as I could reach.  Almost immediately I saw a movement in the shaggy mass in the corner.  I wriggled the shoe, and a paw was slightly extended.  Then I drew it away slowly from under the bed.

Now, Miss Susan McKenna rose in the air higher than she had yet gone.  A maddening wail went up, and for a moment she tottered on the apex of an elevation like a wooden idol upheaved by an earthquake.  Before she had time to tumble over she sank again with a thump.  The great hairy bear, looking twice as large in that room as he appeared in the open air, came out from under the foot of the bed, and as I dangled the old rubber shoe in front of his nose he would have seized upon it if his jaws had not been strapped together.  I got hold of the chain and conducted him quietly outside, amid the cheers and hand-clapping of Percy and Genevieve.

I chained Orso to a post of the fence, and, removing his muzzle, I gave him the old rubber shoe.

“Shall I bring him some more?” cried Genevieve, full of zeal in good works.  But I assured her that one would do for the present.

I now hurried into the house to find out what had happened to the persons and property of the McKenna sisters.

“Where are the other two?” cried Genevieve, who was darting from one room to another; “the bear can’t have swallowed them.”

It was not long before Percy discovered the two missing sisters in the cellar.  They were seated on the ground with their aprons over their heads.

It was some time before quiet was restored in that household.  To the paralyzing terror occasioned by the sudden advent of the bear succeeded wild lamentations over the loss of property.  I assured them that I was perfectly willing to make good the loss, but Mr. Larramie would not allow me to say anything on the subject.

“It is not your affair,” said he.  “The bear would have done no damage whatever had it not been for the folly of Percy in bringing his gun—­I suppose the animal has been shot at some time or other—­and my weakness in allowing him to keep it.  I will attend to these damages.  The amount is very little, I imagine, principally cheap crockery, and the best thing you can do is to start off slowly with your bear.  The women will not be able to talk reasonably until it is off the premises.  I will catch up with you presently.”

When the bear and I, with the rest of the party, were fairly out of sight of the house, we stopped and waited for Mr. Larramie, and it was not long before he joined us.

When we reached the hay-barn we were met by the rest of the Larramie family, all anxious to see the bear.  Even Miss Edith, who had had one glimpse of the beast, was very glad indeed to assure me that she did not wonder in the least that I had supposed there would be no harm in leaving such a mild creature for a little while by the side of the road, and I was sure from the exclamations of the rest of the family that Orso would not suffer for want of care and attention during his stay in the hay-barn.