"Sprigg!" said the bear, and rose from his tail.
"Sir!" said the boy, as he rose from his seat.
"Can you ride a bear?"
"I don"t know, sir; I never tried it," said the boy, dubiously.
"Come, and try it now," said the bear encouragingly. But being by no means perfectly sure, even yet, of the burly monster, our hero was in no hurry to accept the invitation.
"Come and try it, I tell you!" repeated the bear in his old, gruff voice.
"You won"t bite me with your long, sharp teeth, will you?" whined the boy.
"No," growled the bear.
"And you won"t scratch me with your long, sharp claws?" again whined the boy.
"Scratch you with my long, sharp claws! No!" again growled the bear.
"And you won"t, like the bull and the cat and the wolf, go a-jumping over there, at that steep place in the hill?" still urged the boy, though a little less whiningly.
"Do like the bull and the cat and the wolf? No!" rejoined the bear, a little less growlingly.
"And you won"t kick up, and rear up and cut capers, like a horse?" The boy, by this time, not whining at all.
"Kick up, and rear up and cut capers, like a horse? No! Spur me, if I do!" And this time, so far from growling, the monster actually chuckled--so funny could he be when he tried.
"And now, having felt around on every side, you have, I hope, succeeded at last in finding out on which side of your mug your nose is, and are ready to come up and take me at my offer. And Sprigg, my boy, for once and for all--of this be a.s.sured--that so far as you trust me, so far are you safe. Perfect your trust--perfect your safety."
Sprigg was by no means of a confiding nature; people p.r.o.ne to lose sight of the truth never are. But on receiving this rea.s.surance of good faith, he walked up boldly enough to the bear, who, as his young rider drew near, swayed his back to enable him, with the greatest ease, to mount.
"But I have nothing to hold myself on by," said our hero, now fairly astraddle of his strange steed, though pressing as lightly upon it as possible.
"Take a lock of my hair! If a lock of hair is good for keeping one"s mind on a friend, why not as good for keeping his body there, too?" Here he chuckled a little again, then added:
"But the young human thing, brave as he is, may not have as much faith in a lock of hair as some people have, or pretend to have. So, up with you, Manitou-Echo, and give him a lock of your arms."
Whereat, fetching first a nimble flounce, the red moccasins, as if their wearer made a pivot of his head in the air, described a circular flourish aloft, and in a twinkle, there they were at the bear"s flanks, each with a toe at one of our hero"s naked heels. In another twinkle Sprigg felt himself clasped tightly around the waist, by what seemed to be a pair of small arms; small, but, bless me! how strong, as the boy was but too glad to discover the moment after.
"All right?" To which, receiving an affirmative kick from the moccasins, the bear, to Sprigg"s dismay, made directly for the brink of that horrible steep, where the bull, the cat and the wolf had vanished. Here, on the dizzy verge, bear-like, he wheeled about, that his tail might take the lead in the descent, which he evidently meditated. The boy glanced fearfully over his shoulder. The top of the tallest trees which grew at the foot of the hill were hundreds of feet beneath him, and so directly beneath him, it seemed to him that were he to fall from the bear"s back he would drop like a stone into their branches.
In one long, smooth, unbroken slide, down they swept, from summit to base of that tremendous steep. Well it was for Sprigg that the little arms which held him on were so firm and strong, else must he inevitably have slipped from the bear"s back and found his way to the world below by his own natural gravity, instead of by somebody else"s super-natural power.
The descent accomplished, the bear changed ends, that his nose might take the lead. With a slightly waving motion, as were he swimming in the air, now was he gliding swiftly onward at a speed which soon brought him and his riders to the edge of a wide swamp, where the forest foliage became so thick as wholly to exclude the moonlight. Here he paused, and in a loud voice called out:
"Will-o"-the-Wisp! Will-o"-the-Wisp!" A voice so tremendously loud that it must have been heard through all the wilds around; yet never an echo it left to tell it had sounded.
Had an echo awakened, it could hardly have fallen asleep again before the boy espied approaching them swiftly through the gloom a large ball of light, which shown with a phosph.o.r.escent gleam, so dead and dim, that the luminous circle it made in the pitch-black darkness of the swamp seemed scarcely to exceed its own circ.u.mference. Without any preliminary abatement of motion, the glimmering ball, as were it a lantern borne by an unseen hand, came suddenly to a pause in the air directly before them. Then followed an odd sort of a dialogue, made up of questions on one side, with motions for answers on the other, the wisp-light moving up and down for "yes," from side to side for "no," and for "I don"t know," "round and "round.
Bear. "Will-o"-the-Wisp, have you lighted the robber"s feet to the pit-fall?"
Wisp. Up and down.
B. "Did he swear?"
W. From side to side.
B. "Did he pray?"
W. Up and down.
B. "Will he be less of a thief for the pit-fall?"
W. "Round and "round.
B. "Has Friar"s lantern lighted the hypocrite"s feet to the quicksands?"
W. Up and down.
B. "Did he swear?"
W. Up and down.
B. "Did he pray?"
W. From side to side.
B. "Will he be the less of a scamp for the quicksands?"
W. "Round and "round.
B. "Has Jack-o"-Lantern lighted the bad boy"s feet to the frog-pond?"
W. Up and down.
B. "Did he swear?"
W. From side to side.
B. "Did he pray?"
W. From side to side.
B. "Then he must have swum?"
W. Up and down.