"I didn't fall in that time, did I? I fell out," interrupted
Stacy. "Lucky for me that I did, too. I would have been in a nice
fix if that tent had come down on me and that animal at the same
time." He shivered at the thought. "What is it, a lion?"

"Lion! No, you ninny, it's a bear. B-e-a-r," spelled Ned, with
strong emphasis. "Do you understand that?"

"Y-y-e-s. I-I-I thought it was a lion. I did, honest," he
muttered. "And it tickled my neck with its paw, too. Wow!"

Stacy instinctively moved further away from the tent.

Disturbing as their situation was at that moment. the lads could not
repress a shout of laughter over Stacy's funny words. But Stacy's
face was solemn. He saw nothing to laugh at.

"Lucky for both of you that you didn't yawn. The bear might nave
fallen in," jeered Ned.

"Might have been a good thing for us if Chunky had yawned. Maybe the
bear would have got to yawning at the same time, and yawned and
yawned until he was so helpless that we could have captured him,"
laughed Walter.

"Not much chance of that," answered Tad. "Bears don't yawn until
after a full meal. I guess our bear over there hasn't had one lately
or he wouldn't have been nosing about our camp when we were all
there."