They were half-way home when a happy thought came to Malcolm.  “Keith,” he cried, excitedly, “if you would put your money with mine, that would make four dollars, and maybe it would be enough to buy that bear!”

“Let’s do it!” exclaimed Keith, turning a handspring in the snow to show his delight.  “Come on, we’ll ask the man now.”

But the man shook his head, when they dashed into the cabin and told their errand.  “No, sonny, that ain’t a tenth of what it’s worth to me,” he said.  “I’ve raised that bear from the time it was a teeny cub.  I’ve taught it, and fed it, and looked to it for company when I hadn’t nobody in the world to care for me.  Couldn’t sell that bear for no such sum as that.  Couldn’t you raise any more money than that?”

It was Malcolm’s turn to shake his head.  He turned away, too disappointed to trust himself to answer any other way.  The tears sprang to Keith’s eyes.  He had set his heart on having that bear.

“Never mind, brother,” said Malcolm, moving toward the door.  “Papa will get us one when he comes home and finds how much we want one.”

“Oh, don’t be in such a hurry, young gen’lemen,” whined the man, when he saw that they were really going.  “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t sell it to you for that much.  You’ve been so kind to me that I ought to be willing to make any sacrifice for you.  I happen to need four dollars very particular just now, and I’ve a mind to sell him to you on your own terms.”  He paused a moment, looking thoughtfully at a crack in the floor, as he stood by the fire with his hands in his pockets.  “Yes,” he said, at last, “you can have him for four dollars, if you’ll keep mum about us being here for one more day.  You can leave the bear here till we go.”

“No!  No!” cried Keith, throwing his arms around the animal’s neck.  “He is ours now, and we must take him with us.  We can hide him away in the barn.  It is so dark out-doors now that nobody will see us.  It wouldn’t seem like he is really ours if we couldn’t take him with us.”

After some grumbling the man consented, and pocketed the four dollars, first asking very particularly the exact spot in the barn where they expected to hide their huge pet.

Unc’ Henry, coming up from the carriage-house through the twilight, thought he saw some one stealing along by the clump of cedars by the spring-house.  “Who’s prowlin’ roun’ dis yere premises?” he called.  There was no answer, and, after peering intently through the dusk for a moment, the old darkey concluded that he must have been mistaken, and passed on.  As soon as he was gone, the boys came out from behind the cedars, and crept up the snowy hillside.  They were leading the bear between them.

“We’ll put him away back in the hay-mow where he’ll be warm and comfortable to-night,” whispered Malcolm.  “Then in the morning we can tell everybody.”

While they were busily scooping out a big hollow in the hay, they were startled by a rustling behind them.  They looked into each other’s frightened faces, and then glanced around the dark barn in alarm.  An old cap pushed up through the hay.  Then a weak little cough betrayed Jonesy.  He had followed them.