WONDER TALES OF THE FOREST 55

being so kind to him before, and this was the first time anyone had been glad to see him.

Now as the orphan boy had no home in the Indian village where he had lived, there was no one to notice that he was not with them as usual. But after a week, some one happened to remember that he had not seen the little orphan boy.

“Have you seen the little orphan boy to- day?” he asked.

“No,” every one answered. “Where can he be?”

But nobody had seen him. Then they searched in the forest for him; but they could not find him.

“Ah!” they said, “he is lost.” And they went back to their village and forgot all about the little orphan boy.

That night, when the little child followed the gleam and found the light in the Wigwam, he did not know that the kind people were a family of bears. He could understand all they said, and so he did not realise that they were not Indians like himself. All winter long they had their home together. The bear had a good supply of dried meat and berries, and the child enjoyed the food with them.

At last spring came. The ice melted from the rivers and streams; and then the smelts gath-