He had not waited long , when the father came in sight , stooping as he went to look for his sons ' tracks in the snow . When he saw the marks of snow-shoes along the path on the right he was filled with joy , not knowing that the servant had made some fresh tracks on purpose to mislead him ; and he hastened forward so fast that he fell headlong into a pit , where the bear was sitting . Before he could pick himself up the bear had quietly broken his neck , and , hiding the body under the snow , sat down to see if anyone else would pass that way . Meanwhile the mother at home was wondering what had become of her two sons , and as the hours went on , and their father never returned , she made up her mind to go and look for him . The youngest boy begged her to let him undertake the search , but she would not hear of it , and told him he must stay at home and take care of his sister . So , slipping on her snow-shoes , she started on her way . As no fresh snow had fallen , the trail was quite easy to find , and she walked straight on , till it led her up to the pit where the bear was waiting for her . He grasped her as she fell and broke her neck , after which he laid her in the snow beside her husband , and went back to tell the bear chief . Hour after hour dragged heavily by in the forest hut , and at last the brother and sister felt quite sure that in some way or other all the rest of the family had perished . Day after day the boy climbed to the top of a tall tree near the house , and sat there till he was almost frozen , looking on all sides through the forest openings , hoping that he might see someone coming along . Very soon all the food in the house was eaten , and he knew he would have to go out and hunt for more . Besides , he wished to seek for his parents . The little girl did not like being left alone in the hut , and cried bitterly ; but her brother told her that there was no use sitting down quietly to starve , and that whether he found any game or not he would certainly be back before the following night . Then he cut himself some arrows , each from a different tree , and winged with the feathers of four different birds . He then made himself a bow , very light and strong , and got down his snow-shoes . All this took some time , and he could not start that day , but early next morning he called his little dog Redmouth , whom he kept in a box , and set out . After he had followed the trail for a great distance he grew very tired , and sat upon the branch of a tree to rest . But Redmouth barked so furiously that the boy thought that perhaps his parents might have been killed under its branches , and stepping back , shot one of his arrows at the root of the tree . Whereupon a noise like thunder shook it from top to bottom , fire broke out , and in a few minutes a little heap of ashes lay in the place where it had stood . Not knowing quite what to make of it all , the boy continued on the trail , and went down the right-hand fork till he came to the clump of bushes where the bears used to hide .
Now , as was plain by his being able to change the shape of the two brothers , the bear chief knew a good deal XXXXX magic , and he was quite aware that the little boy was following the trail , and he sent a very small but clever bear servant to wait for him in the bushes and to try to tempt him into the mountain .
As Before Besides at beside near of on till upon