He tiptoed up and blew in more pepper.
No response.
Cutting a pole, Addison then belabored the snow crust about the hole with resounding whacks--still with no result.
After this we approached less cautiously.

Asa broke up the snow about the hole and cleared it away, uncovering a considerable cavity which extended back under the partially raised root of the fallen tree.
Halstead brought a shovel from the wood-piles; and Addison and Asa cut away the roots of the old tree, and cleared out the frozen turf and leaves to a depth of four or five feet, gradually working down where they could look back beneath the root.

We had begun to doubt whether we would find anything there larger than a woodchuck.
At last Addison got down on hands and knees, crept in under the root, and lighted several matches.
"There's something back in there," he said.

"Looks black, but I cannot see that it moves." Asa crawled in and struck a match or two, then backed out.

"I believe it's a bear!" he exclaimed, and he wanted to creep in with a gun and fire; but the old Squire advised against that on account of the heavy charge in so confined a space.
Addison had been peeling dry bark from a birch, and crawling in again, lighted a roll of it.