sides of the massive tree. Her eye not being very quick, she reached the fork and passed it, mounting the main stem. Gerard drew breath more freely. The bear either heard him or found by scent she was wrong; she paused. Presently she caught sight of him. She eyed him steadily, then quietly descended to the fork.

Slowly and cautiously she stretched out a paw and tried the bough. It was a stiff oak branch, sound as iron. Instinct taught the creature this; it crawled carefully out on the bough, growling savagely as it came.

Gerard looked wildly down. He was forty feet from the ground. Death below. Death moving slow but sure on him in a still more horrible form. His hair bristled. The sweat poured from him. He sat helpless, fascinated, tongue-tied.

The bear crawled on. And now the stupor of death fell on the doomed man; he saw the open jaws and bloodshot eyes coming, but in a mist.

As in a mist he heard a twang; he glanced down. Denys, white and silent as death, was shooting up at the bear. The bear snarled at the twang, but crawled on. Again the crossbow twanged, and the next moment the bear was close upon Gerard, where he sat, with hair standing stiff on end and eyes starting from their sockets, palsied. The bough rocked. The wounded monster was reeling; it clung, it stuck its sickles of claws deep into the wood; it toppled, its claws held firm, but its body rolled off, and the sudden shock to the branch shook Gerard forward on his stomach with his face upon one of the bear's straining paws. At this, by a convulsive effort, she raised her head up, up, till he felt her

hot fetid breath. Then huge teeth snapped together loudly close below him in the air, with a last effort of baffled hate. The ponderous carcass rent the claws out of the bough, then pounded the earth with a tremendous thump. CHARLES READE.

From "The Cloister and the Hearth."

Biographical.

HELPS TO STUDY

- Charles Reade toiled long and hard for recognition in the literary world, which he did not secure until he was about forty years of age.

He was born in 1814 and was the youngest of eleven children of John Reade, an English country squire.

Like his friend, Charles Dickens, he labored to correct the social abuses of the time. He wrote "It's Never Too Late to Mend" to expose the evils of the prison system of England. "Put Yourself in His Place" dealt with the hardships of the laboring man. "Hard Cash" was intended to correct the abuses in the insane asylums, and "Foul Play" was directed against those connected with the merchants' shipping service. His blows struck all the harder because of his ability to weave facts and romance together in an interesting way.

Word Study.

un wa'ry - unguarded, careless.

de'vi ous-winding.

ra pine' the act of plundering or seizing forcibly. baf'fle to check or defeat.

Düs'sel dorf a city on the Rhine.

ay - yes.

as sas'sin

one who kills by surprise.

one of your kidney one of your sort.

con sort'ing with keeping company with. gigantic, huge.

co los'sal

Notes and Questions. What reason did Denys give for killing the bear? Relate the conversation that took place about the killing. With which of the men do you agree? Tell what the cub's mother did when she reached its side. How did the men make their escape? Describe the bear's attack on Denys. How did Gerard save his life? Describe the attack on Gerard. Why was the bear so desperate? In what ways did she show skill? Tell how Denys rescued Gerard. Describe the bear's last efforts to reach her foe. Describe the crossbow. Describe the killing of the young bear. Describe the attack by the large bear and the escape of the hunters. Compare this story with Audubon's "Panther Hunt." Do you think both are true stories? Which is the more exciting? Why? Which seems more probable to you? Would a naturalist and a novelist write the same kind of stories? Which is written by a novelist?

CONSERVE YOUR BIRTHRIGHT

The most vital question now before the American people is that of the conservation of our natural resources. Perhaps no other nation has ever been so abundantly endowed with wealth of mine and forest as are the people of the United States, and probably the citizens of no other nation have ever been so careless with their treasures-so prodigal of their birthright.

The next generation of men and women will be made up of the boys and girls now in the public schools of our country, and upon them will devolve the solution of the vital problem of saving from destruction the treasures with which our country is so bountifully blessed.

The young American whose birthright includes the birds of the air, the game of the forest, and the fish of the stream, may be compared to a young man coming into his inheritance. If he cares for his fortunes and is not a spendthrift, his wealth will increase till he can live in comfort or even luxury, and still have enough remaining to transmit to his children. But, on the other hand, if he proves improvident and wasteful, he will not only be impoverished during his own lifetime, but will leave his children paupers.

The American people have long been wasteful of their splendid treasures of mine and forest and stream, always taking from them more than their necessities demanded. Birds which keep insects from destroying vegetation have been wantonly killed by the unrestrained, for his own pleasure; great forests have been set on fire while the careless lumberman has destroyed the young and growing

trees which should have been left to take the place in the future of the great forest trees he fells for the use of man ; birds and other game have been ruthlessly destroyed in the mating season; and fish, wantonly dynamited by the thousands.

The American people have wasted their inherited wealth of mine, stream, and forest for more than a century, and only recently have they come face to face with the fact that if this great country of ours is to continue to be a land of plenty, we must conserve our birthright. If we draw from the national bank of our natural resources only just as much as will provide for our comforts, we can enjoy the blessing of a happy life, and still leave ample wealth for those who come after us. -JOHN H. WALLACE, JR.

con ser va'tion

prod'i gal

the act of preserving from decay or destruction. wasteful.

birth'right — any right to which a person is entitled by birth.

de volve'

trans mit'

ruth'less ly

to pass from one person to another by succession.

pass on.

cruelly, pitilessly.

Notes and Questions. What is a vital question before the American people? Why? Who must solve this problem? In what way can we make the most of our birthright? Mention some respects in which the American people have been wasteful. What can we do to preserve the birds, fish, and forests? What is our government doing to conserve the forests, birds, and game?