"What's this?" Farmer Green exclaimed, when he went to the piggery in the morning and found Grunty Pig lying up against the door. "Did you get locked out last night? Was it you that old Spot was barking at?"  
Grunty Pig didn't dare answer. When Farmer Green dropped him into the pen he said nothing to anybody—not even "Good morning!"
 
A little later Farmer Green found something more outside the piggery. In the loose dirt he discovered—bear tracks!
 
 
"Aha!" he cried to his son Johnnie. "Look here! We had a visitor last night. It was no wonder old Spot woke us all up. A bear called on us! And he'd certainly have had that pig if Spot hadn't scared him off."
 
Naturally the news soon spread all over the farmyard. And when Mrs. Pig heard it she began to tremble.
 
"To think," she quavered, "that my littlest child spent the night out of doors, with a bear prowling about the neighborhood! And I slept through it all!
 
"Tell me all about it, Grunty!" she commanded that young gentleman.
 
It is not surprising that Grunty Pig was puzzled. Hadn't his mother told him, during the night, not to mention the word bear again? And now she was urging him to talk about that very animal.
 
" up!" said his mother sharply—which57 was the same as saying, "Speak up!"
 
So he told his story. And when he had finished Mrs. Pig fairly covered him with .
 
"It seems to me—" she sniffed—for she was quite upset—"it seems to me that I remember your saying something about a bear last night. But I wasn't wide awake at the time. And I th............