There was the sound of an angry “snuff!” a sudden, wild threshing in the snow, and the next instant a tremendous weight struck the roof of their house.  A rending of bark and thatch followed, and a massive black form shot down into the center of the room and lay there a moment, stunned.  Paul, too, was dizzy.  He had been struck a glancing blow on the shoulder by the big black body in its fall, and hurled into a heap of furs.  Shif’less Sol had been sent spinning in another direction.

When both rose to their feet the big black body also rose, growling savagely and extending long, powerful paws, armed with cruel claws.  A bear, prowling in the snow, had fallen through the roof of their house, and it was furiously angry.

“Jump back, Paul, jump back!” shouted Shif’less Sol, “an’ get to the door, ef you kin!”

Paul obeyed a part of his command instinctively and sprang away, just in time to escape the cruel claws.  But he was compelled to press against the wall.  The enraged animal was between him and the door.  Shif’less Sol himself was darting here and there in an effort to keep out of the way.  Both Paul’s rifle and Shif’less Sol’s stood in a corner far from reach.

The bear, blind with rage, fright, and astonishment, whirled around ripping into the air with his long claws.  The man and the boy not able to reach the door, hopped about like jumping jacks, and the cold air poured down upon them from the huge hole in their damaged roof.  The bear suddenly ran into Jim Hart’s furnace and uttered a roar of pain.  He stopped for a moment to lick his singed flank, and Shif’less Sol, seizing the opportunity, leaped for his rifle.  He grasped it, and the next instant the cabin roared with the rifle shot.  The great bear uttered a whining cry, plucked once or twice at his breast, and then stretched himself out in front of Jim Hart’s furnace, quite dead.  Paul stopped dancing to and fro, and uttered a gasp of relief.

“You got that rifle just in time, Sol,” he said.

“We shorely did need a gun,” Shif’less Sol said.  “I guess nobody ever had a more sudden or unwelcome visitor than you an’ me did, Paul.  But I believe that thar b’ar wuz ez bad skeered ez we wuz.”

“And just look at our house,” said Paul ruefully.  “Half the roof smashed in, our furs and our food supplies thrown in every direction, and a big bear stretched out in front of our fire.”

They heard the patter of swift footsteps outside, and the three fishing at the lake, who had heard the shot, came in, running.

“It’s nothin’, boys,” said Shif’less Sol carelessly.  “A gentleman livin’ in these parts, but a stranger to us, came into our house uninvited.  He wouldn’t go away when we axed him to, most earnest, so we’ve jest put him to sleep.”

Ross pushed the bear with his foot.

“He’s fat yet,” he said, “an’ he ought to be in winter quarters right now.  Somethin’ must have driv him out uv his hole an’ have sent him wanderin’ across the lake on the ice an’ snow.  That’s what anybody gits fur not stayin’ whar he belongs.”