“We have landed.  Please disembark to the exciting world of camping in the Yellowstone’s,” Dad said, playacting as he opened up the back of the camper.

    Out jumped Don and his younger brother Gus, laughing at Dad’s acting.

    “Can Gus and I sleep in the pup tent instead of the camper tonight?” Don asked his parents.

    “I think twelve and eight is old enough,” Dad agreed.

    “Yeah!” the boys shouted together, and set up the pup tent.

    After dessert of s‘mores Dad yawned  “Time for bed boys” and went to the camper.  The boys crawled in the pump tent and Don soon heard his brother snoring and then he thought he heard footsteps outside the tent.  “I wonder who’s up?  Maybe something is wrong with the neighbor’s tent.”  Then the footsteps stopped and a whap sound.  That’s when the neighbor lady started screaming, “Bear! Bear! Get out of my ice chest, you dirty old bear!”

    “Bear?” he thought.  “Bear!” he shouted, realizing what the neighbor camper had just yelled.

    “Gus!” he half-whispered, shaking Gus’s arm.
       
    “Hey!  What do you,” Gus started.

    “Shh!” Don hissed and whispered as he opened the tent flap slowly.  “There’s a bear next door.  It must be the biggest grizzly bear in the world.”

    “Bear? Really!  Let me see.”  Gus couldn’t help but look, so he popped his head out.  Then back in.

    “Are you all right?” Don asked Gus, for now Gus was white as a ghost.

    “Let’s get in the camper!” Gus said, almost in tears.

    “Okay, but we have to do it quietly,”  Don said as he started out, expecting Gus to follow.  Don soon realized Gus seemed frozen in fear.

    “GUS!” Don said and grabbed his arm.  Gus tripped, then ran for the camper.

    They both pounded on the door.  Dad came to the door.

    “Look!” Don pointed.

    “Oh!” Dad said and opened the cupboard, and pulled out a road flare.  He stepped out and lit the flare.  He tripped on a stone and lost his slipper as he started across camp.

    “Here, hold this a minute,” Dad said, handing the flare to Don.  Then he hunted under the picnic table for his slipper while saying, “bears are afraid of snakes and fire.  This should keep him out of our camp.”

    “Hey, Mom, Look!” Gus said from inside the camper.  “The bear is rising up on his hind legs and sniffing the air!”

    “Oh!” mom said, coming to look out.

    “Look! He’s moving his ears and looking at us!”  Gus continued.

    Don took a couple more steps, fascinated by the bears reaction.

        Don’s father was just getting his balance and asking for the flair, when Don took off running after the bear.

    “Don, No!” but Don didn’t stop.

    After a while Don realized he couldn’t hear the bear’s footsteps like he had before.  In fact, when he stopped to listen, he couldn’t hear much of anything, only crickets, the hiss of the flare and far off campers.

    “Well, I guess that takes care of the bear,” he thought, then he remembered something about bears circling around and attacking the chaser.

    “The chaser!  That’s me!” his words echoing in the dark.  Don looked around uneasily.  His heart was pounding in his throat.  The night sounds seemed even louder.

    “Oh my!” he gasped as he looked a the size of the flare.  It was now only two inches long.  “I don’t have enough to get back to camp with.  What am I gonna do?”  Don worried as he started working his way back the way he had come, every little noise making chills run up and down his spine.

    A raccoon on a stump with it’s eyes reflecting the moon made done yell and almost break into a run, but he caught himself.  “You only get lost if you panic,” he reminded himself.  The flare was to small to hold anymore, so he propped it up on the stump with a couple of rocks as he rested.

    Don started sneaking along the path towards camp only to hear heavy footsteps in front of him.  “bears circle around” ran through his head several times like words to a song.  “I’d better find a tree,” said to himself and looked around.

    “That’s a good one,” he mumbled and started to climb it.

    The footsteps where getting closer.

    There on the ground was the bear sniffing the air.  The grizzly came to the tree and started to shake it.

    “Oh, No!” Don screamed as he lost his grip and fell a couple of fee and breaking a large limb which landed on the bears head.

    “Knocked you a little dizzy, huh” Don hoped as he watched the bear stager off into the forest.  “I guess I can climb down now.” and he did.

    As he walked back into camp he heard his father’s excited voice.  “He went into the trees heading for the lake chasing that bear with a flare.”

    “Okay, Mr. Hampton, we’ll go and look for him.  Just give me a minute to call it in,” the ranger tried to make Don’s father relax.

    “That won’t be necessary.  I’m right here and the bear has a headache,” Don said hugging his family.