“Oh, Walter!” she cried to her husband.  “Throw something at it.  Here’s my shoe—­throw that.  I’ve got two shoes, but I can only find one.  Throw that at the bear and make him go away!”

Mrs. Brown threw over the curtain, that divided the tent into two parts, one of her shoes.

She really had two shoes, but when she felt under her cot in the dark, she could only find one.  You know how it is when you try to find anything in the dark, even if it’s a drink of water in the chair at the head of our bed.  You move your hand all over, and you think some one must have come in and taken the water away.  And when you get a light you find that, all the while, your hand was about an inch away from the glass.  It was that way with Mrs. Brown’s other shoe.

But she threw one over the curtain, calling out again: 

“Hit him with that, Walter!  Hit the bear with my shoe!”

But there was no need for Mr. Brown to do anything.  The shoe thrown by Bunny’s mother sailed through the tent.  Straight at the bear it went, and before the shaggy creature could get out of the way, the shoe hit him on the end of the nose.

“Bunk!” went the shoe.

“Wuff!” grunted the bear.

Now you know a bear’s nose is his most tender part.  You could hit him on his head, or on his back, or on his paw—­that is if you were brave enough to hit a bear at all—­but you would not hurt him, hardly any, unless you hit him right on the end of his soft and tender nose.  That’s the best place to hit a bear if you want to drive him away, out of your tent, or anything like that.  Hit him on the nose.

“Whack!” went Mrs. Brown’s shoe on the end of the bear’s nose.

“Wuff!” grunted the bear, and down he dropped on all four paws.

Now Mrs. Brown really did not mean to hit the bear.  She was just tossing her shoe over the curtain so her husband might have something to throw at the bear, and, as it happened, she hit the bear by accident.

Of course it might have been better if one of Mr. Brown’s shoes had hit the bear.  I mean it would have been better for the Brown family, but worse for the bear.  Because Mr. Brown’s shoes were larger and heavier than his wife’s.  But then, it turned out all right anyhow.

For, no sooner did the bear feel Mrs. Brown’s shoe hit him on the nose, than he cried out: 

“Wuff!”

Then he turned quickly around, and ran out of the tent.

“Did you throw my shoe at him?  Did you make him go away?” asked Mrs. Brown.  “Because if you didn’t, Walter, I’ve found my other shoe now, and I’ll throw that to you.”

“You won’t need to, my dear,” said Mr. Brown with a laugh.  “One shoe was enough.  You hit the bear yourself!”

“I did?”

“Yes, and he’s gone.  It’s all right, Bunny.  You can put your head out now.  The bear is gone.”

Bunny peeped with one eye, and when he saw that the big, shaggy creature was no longer there, he put his whole head out.  Then, with a bound he jumped out of bed, and ran toward the back part of the tent, where his mother and sister were sleeping.