When the men left the room and closed the window after them, Buster and the little girl felt greatly relieved. Satisfied that the bear had not climbed in the open window, the searching party turned their attention elsewhere. But the danger wasn’t over yet, and Nell knew it. She patted the top of the bed-clothes, and whispered:

“Keep quiet a little longer, Buster. Here comes some one up the stairs.”

Buster grunted and lay as still as a mouse. There was a knocking on the door, and when the little girl opened it her father appeared. He was very white and trembling.

“A bear that escaped from the railroad wreck is roaming around here, Nell,” he said. “I was terribly afraid he had climbed up the shed to your room. I’m so glad you’re safe.”

He kissed her and seemed greatly relieved to find his daughter safe. He crossed the room and looked out of the window. Then he returned to her.

[112]“Perhaps you’re safer here until they find him,” he added. “Stay right here in your room, and keep the door and window locked. I’ll come and tell you when they find him.”

The little girl could have laughed in her glee, for this was just what she wanted. She was terribly afraid Buster would smother under all those clothes and make a noise. She couldn’t get her father out of the room quick enough.

When he was gone, and the door locked, she ran to the bed, and threw back the clothes. Buster was all curled up just as she had left him. But he was fast asleep! It was a warm, comfortable bed, and after his long run and heavy breakfast of pies, rolls, bread and milk it had seemed impossible to keep his eyes open for long. And the moment he closed them he was sound asleep.

The little girl sat down on the floor, and laughed until the tears streamed down her cheeks. Buster woke with a start and blinked at her. He couldn’t for several minutes imagine where he was.

“Oh, Buster,” she exclaimed finally, “I thought you were being smothered to death, and you were so comfortable you fell asleep.”

Buster struggled to his feet and began chuckling. It made him happy to see the[113] merriment of the little girl. She pulled the clothes up and flung them back on the bed. She was a very prim little housekeeper, for she was not satisfied until the pillows were brushed off and patted in position and the sheets and covers carefully smoothed out.

Buster watched her in silence, and then in his clumsy way offered to help, but he pulled the clothes so hard, and made such a general mess of it, that he stopped when the girl sat down and laughed again at him.

“I never saw anybody so clumsy, Buster,” she said. “No, you can’t help any more. You sit down there in the middle of the floor until I’m through. Then we’ll have breakfast together.”

The moment she uttered these words she stopped. Have breakfast together? How could she arrange that? How, in fact, could she manage to get Buster any breakfast without somebody discovering him in her room?

What did bears eat anyway? And how much? Goodness, from the size of him, he might eat her father out of house and home! The little girl felt terribly distressed all of a sudden. She had saved Buster from his pursuers, but now that she had him what was she going to do with him?

[114]You couldn’t keep bears in a bed-room or closet, nor could you chain them up in the back yard like a dog? Everybody would be afraid to visit the house, and all the servants would leave. What could she do?

“Buster, haven’t you any home you can go to?” she asked suddenly, turning to him. Then she remembered what her father had told her. The train carrying the circus animals had bee............