JULIUS HAS AN ADVENTURE.
About midway in the principal street of Brookville is the town hall. It
is a neat building, of considerable size, and two stories in height.
Here the procession halted, and after a pause filed in.
The boys found themselves in a large hall, with a platform and desk at
one end, the body of the hall being filled with settees.
“Looks like a schoolroom,” said Teddy.
“Only there ain’t no desks,” said Julius.
“We’re to stay here all night, boys,” said Tim Shanter.
“It’s only three o’clock. What will we do till then?” said Tom Burke.
“Boys,” said Mr. O’Connor, “would you like to see something of the
village?”
“Yes!” “Yes!” was heard from all quarters.
“Then for the next two hours you may go where you please, but you must
be back before six.”
“All right, sir!” shouted half a dozen, and there was a rush for the
door.
“Come back,” shouted the superintendent. “You haven’t heard all I have
to say.”
The boys turned back reluctantly.
“You must be careful to do no mischief, and commit no trespass upon any
person’s property. I want you to show our friends here that, if you have
been brought up in the streets of New York, you know how to behave
yourselves.”
“We will!” “We will!” shouted the boys, and in less than a minute the
hall was emptied.
They separated into groups, and walked off in different directions.
Julius, Teddy and Tom formed one of the parties.
“Where will we go?” said Tom.
“Come down here,” said Julius, pointing down a side street. “There’s
some nice fields off there.”
“Ain’t it jolly?” said Teddy. “It’s a big sight better than New York.”
“Ain’t that a nice field for baseball?” said Julius, pointing to a large
pasture some distance ahead.
“There’s lots of fields, but no ball.”
“Look there, fellers! Do you see that little pond down there?”
“Let us go there.”
“All right.”
The boys jumped over the fence, and walked in the direction of the pond.
It was a small circular sheet of water, covering about two acres. On it
was a small, unpainted boat, which the boys no sooner saw than they
jumped into. There was but one paddle inside, which the boys used by
turns. They had never before been in a boat, and were not scientific
navigators; still they managed to paddle around the little pond, greatly
to their satisfaction.
“I wonder if there’s any fish in this pond,” said Julius.
“I don’t see none,” said Teddy.
“If there was, it would be good fun to catch some,” said Tom.
“We could use Teddy for bait,” suggested Julius.
“I wouldn’t advise a small fish to swaller me,” said Teddy. “I’d dance a
double shuffle in his stomach, and he’d soon want ter let me go.”
The boys enjoyed floating about, and time passed quickly.
“What time is it?” asked Tom.
Julius drew out his watch with an air.
“It’s five o’clock,” he said.
“We ought ter be goin’ back; Mr. O’Connor told us we must be back in
time.”
They turned the boat toward shore, when all at once Tom, who was looking
toward the shore, exclaimed, “What’s that, boys?”
Following the direction in which he pointed, the boys were startled by
seeing a large, clumsy animal walking deliberately down toward the place
where they were about to land.
They paused in their progress, and Julius, after a careful examination
of the stranger, announced, “I’ll tell you what it is, boys; it’s a
bear!”
“A bear!” exclaimed Tom and Teddy, simultaneously.
“Yes; I’ve seed a picture of one in Frank Leslie’s. It’s a bear, sure.”
“What will we do?” said Teddy, alarmed. “They’ll bite, won’t they?”
“I guess they will,” said Julius. “They’d kill you just as easy as
winkin’.”
“I didn’t know there was any wild animals around here,” said Teddy,
nervously.
“Yes,” said Tom; “there’s bears, and wolves, and panthers. I’ve read
about ’em in a dime novel called ‘Pathfinder Pete; or, The Wild Hunter
of the West.’ You know we are in the West now.”
“How will we get back?” asked Teddy, rather anxiously. “He’s squattin’
down, waitin’ for us.”
The bear had come to a pause, and, squatting on its hind quarters, was
steadily and seriously regarding the boys with an expression which, to
their excited imaginations, seemed particularly savage and bloodthirsty.
“I wish’t I had a rifle like the one ‘Pathfinder Pete’ had,” ejaculated
Tom.
“You wouldn’t dare to fire it if you had one,” said Julius.
“Yes, I would. I’d fire a bullet into his right eye and then I’d fire
another right into his left eye, and then he couldn’t see to chase us.”
“That would be good enough if we had a rifle,” said Julius; “but we
haven’t. S’pose we land on the other side of the pond, and run for the
fence.”
“Don’t yer do it!” exclaimed Teddy, in terror. “He’d catch us before we
got halfway there.”
“Do bears run fast, Tom?” asked Julius, deferring to the superior
knowledge of his comrade, who had had the great privilege of reading the
instructive story of “Pathfinder Pete.”
“Don’t they? They can go twenty miles an hour without hurtin’ ’em.”
“They don’t look like it,” said Julius, surveying the clumsy form of the
bear. “I’ll bet that bear can’t keep up with me.”
“Maybe he don’t look it, but he can run like lightnin’. ‘Pathfinder
Pete’ was chased by a bear, when his rifle wasn’t loaded, an’ the only
way he got off was to hide behind a tree till he’d loaded his gun, an’
then he blazed away, and keeled him over on his back.”
“Then I wish ‘Pathfinder Pete’ would happen around this afternoon.
Teddy, jist sing a bit. Maybe that’ll frighten him.”
“I don’t feel like singin’,” said Teddy. “Oh, boys, how will we get
home?”
“I move,” said Julius, who was least disturbed of the three, “that we
pitch out Teddy. While the bear’s eatin’ him, we’ll run away.”
“Don’t yer do it,” entreated Teddy, his teeth chattering with fright.
“We won’t jest yet. Wait an’ see if he won’t go away himself.”
“He’s goin’ to swim out to us,” screamed Teddy, in fright, as the bear
arose to his feet, and put one foot in the water. But he quickly
withdrew it, apparently not liking the feeling.
“Do you think we’ll have to stay here all night?” asked Tom, soberly.
“If the bear don’t get tired, and go away.”
“I wish I was back at the Lodgin’ House,” said Teddy, gloomily.
The bear arose to his feet, and walked slowly around the pond, looking
from time to time at the boat and the three young navigators.
“What time is it now, Julius,” asked Tom, after a while.
“Wants five minutes ter six,” said Julius.
“What’ll Mr. O’Connor think?”
“He can’t blame us for not comin’. I say, boys, I’m gettin’ hungry,”
said Tom.
“So is the bear,” said Julius, significantly.
At this suggestion, Teddy turned a shade paler.
So the boys watched and waited in vain for their unwelcome visitor to
depart, keeping the little boat as near the middle of the pond as
possible.
“I guess we’ll have to stay all night,” said Tom.
Just at that moment the attention of the three boys was drawn to a boy
of about their own age, who was walking across the field toward the
pond.
“Does he see the bear, I wonder?” said Teddy.
“The bear sees him,” said Tom. “He’s goin’ for him.”