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Title: The Bear Family at Home, and How the Circus Came to Visit Them
Author: Curtis D. Wilbur
Illustrator: W. R. Lohse
Release Date: September 1, 2019 [EBook #60209]
Language: English
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THE BEAR FAMILY AT HOME
[Illustration: What do you suppose that ant-bear did?]
The Bear Family At Home
AND HOW THE CIRCUS CAME
TO VISIT THEM
By
CURTIS D. WILBUR
Illustrated By
W. R. LOHSE
[Illustration: Decoration]
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1908, 1923
By Curtis D. Wilbur
_Printed in the United States of America_
PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
Dedicated to the Memory of
RALPH GORDON WILBUR
CONTENTS
PAGE
HOW THE LITTLE CUB BEAR GOT BACK INTO THE WOODS AGAIN 2
HOW THE MONKEY WENT TO SCHOOL 6
THE COMING OF THE GREAT BIG ANIMAL AND HOW HE HELPED
THE BEAR FAMILY 12
THE "LITTLE-CUB-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" AND
HOW HE TOOK AN UNEXPECTED BATH 22
HOW THE "LITTLE-CUB-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"
WAS NEARLY DROWNED AMONG THE LOGS 29
THE "LITTLE-CUB-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" 36
THE STORY OF THE "LITTLE-SPLIT-NOSED-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT
-MIND-HIS-PAPA" 42
THE "ONE-EARED-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" 48
THE LION'S STORY OF HIS NARROW ESCAPE 55
THE TRUE STORY OF HOW TEN MEN DID NOT KILL CLUB-FOOT 58
THE "CLUB-FOOT-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"--A
GREAT SMASH-UP 68
THE PARROT'S MOST NARROW ESCAPE 73
THE "LITTLE-CLUB-FOOT-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"
AND THE DYNAMITE 80
THE COMING OF THE ANIMAL WITH THE LONG NOSE 89
THE MONKEY'S STORY OF HIS MOST NARROW ESCAPE 97
THE STORY OF THE LITTLE BIRD'S ESCAPE FROM THE ALLIGATOR 101
HOW THE RACCOON WAS CAUGHT 105
THE ANIMALS PLAN HOW THEY WILL DEFEND THEMSELVES
AGAINST THE CIRCUS MEN 112
JIMMIE BEAR'S STORY 116
HOW THE CIRCUS CROSSED THE OCEAN 124
OUT ALL ALONE 131
THE PAPA BEAR'S LULLABY 139
THE BEAR FAMILY AT HOME
And How the Circus Came to Visit Them
Once a little cub bear was caught in a big log trap, and taken on a
train to a circus. He lived in the circus a long, long while, and every
day a great many people came to see the bear, and the lions, and the
tigers, and the leopards, and the elephants, and the camels, and the
other animals.
Every night the animals would all be put in the wagons made for them,
then the wagons would be rolled on the flat-cars of a railroad train.
The train would go all night to another town, where a great many people
would come to see the animals and the men and women in the circus. The
Cub Bear saw a great many wonderful and strange things while he was in
the circus and while traveling on the trains. Once he crossed the ocean
in a great ship, and came back again in another ship. This story tells:
HOW THE LITTLE CUB BEAR GOT BACK INTO THE WOODS AGAIN
One night, after the wagons and the animals had all been put on board
the cars, the fireman rang the bell, and the engineer started the
train, and away it went, whistling and coughing down the track. The
animals were so used to the train going rattle-te-bang, rattle-te-bang,
all night long, that they all went to sleep, and remained asleep a
long while. While the animals and every one on the train, except the
engineer and the fireman, were asleep, the engineer looked ahead and
suddenly saw a big rock on the track. He blew the whistle, "Toot-toot,"
to call the brakemen, and the brakemen ran as fast as they could and
began to put on the brakes to stop the train, but the train came nearer
and nearer to the big rock.
The poor engineer couldn't stop the train, and the brakemen couldn't
stop the train, so the engine ran into the rock, and was knocked off
the track, and turned a somersault, and was smashed all to pieces, and
all the cars ran off the track into a ditch, and the wagons were all
broken, so that the animals got out of their cages and found they were
free in the dark woods.
They were all so glad to be free that they ran away as fast as they
could and hid in the woods; all except the Cub Bear and a friend of
his, a monkey named Jim. They ran a little way, and then the Cub Bear
stopped and looked around. He saw a path, then he looked at the trees
and the mountain and he thought he would wait there until morning. As
soon as it was light the Cub Bear looked way up on the mountain side
and saw a cave, and where do you suppose they were? In the very same
forest where the Cub Bear was born. They walked a little way, and the
Cub Bear said:
"Why, here is the path where little brother Jimmie Bear lost his foot
in a trap."
They ran up that path as fast as they could to the cave in the
mountains. The Cub Bear's heart was beating very fast, pit-a-pat,
pit-a-pat, because he knew that this was his old home, and he wondered
whether his Papa Bear and Mamma Bear and his little Susie Bear and
little brother Jimmie Bear were still there. They went in very quietly,
and found a great big brown bear asleep.
When the big brown bear heard them come in, he jumped up quickly and
looked at little Cub Bear, and little Cub Bear looked at him. It was
the Papa Bear! He ran to the Cub Bear and put his arms around him and
gave him a great bear hug. You know bears can hug awfully tight. Papa
Bear hugged the Cub Bear, and the Cub Bear hugged the Papa Bear, and
they were very, very glad to see each other. The Papa Bear woke up the
Mamma Bear, and then the Mamma Bear gave the Cub Bear a great bear hug,
because she was so glad to see him. Susie Bear waked up and gave the
little Cub Bear a big bear hug. But Jimmie Bear was not there. Did you
ever give your papa a bear hug?
After the Papa Bear and the Mamma Bear had talked a little while to the
Cub Bear, they said, "We have something to show you," and they took the
Cub Bear away back into the back part of the cave and showed him the
sweetest, cutest little baby bear you ever saw in your life, and the
Papa Bear said:
"We call this little baby bear 'Cub Bear' now. So we will have to call
you 'Circus Bear' after this," for the little Cub Bear had told his
papa and mamma that he had been in the circus while away.
All this time the monkey Jim had been sitting off by himself in the
cave, watching the big bears. They were so big and strong that he was
frightened, so he climbed up to the top of the cave, and there he
stayed until the little Cub Bear waked up; and the Circus Bear didn't
know where he had gone. After a while the little wee Cub Bear waked up
and saw the monkey, and said:
"Oh, see that funny little man up there on the root. He has hair all
over him, and he has a long tail, and he is making faces at me."
He asked the Circus Bear what it was, and the Circus Bear said:
"It is a monkey, named Jim, a very dear friend of mine. Would you like
to shake hands with him?" And the little Cub Bear said, "Yes."
So the Circus Bear told the monkey not to be afraid, and the monkey
came down and shook hands with the little wee Cub Bear and they said
they would always be good friends. The very first thing this little
Cub Bear did was to ask the monkey to tell him a story, for he was the
greatest bear for stories you ever saw. He was always teasing his papa
and his mamma and everybody that came to the den, to tell him a story.
The monkey said:
"All right, I will tell you a story about the time that I went to
school."
So that morning when the Papa and the Mamma Bear and the Circus Bear
and the little Cub Bear were sitting in the den, the monkey told his
story.
HOW THE MONKEY WENT TO SCHOOL
"Now, little Cub Bear, I am going to tell you about the time I went
to school, the only time in my whole life that I went to school." The
little Cub Bear said he had never been to school in his life, and he
would like to hear the story.
The monkey Jim said:
"Well, one night when we were riding on the train, going from one town
where the circus had been, to another where they were going to give a
show, I was riding in a wagon on one of the cars with a lot of other
monkeys. The man who took care of the monkeys forgot and left a door
open. A monkey named Joe and I climbed out through the open door and
got on top of the wagon, and we just had a lot of fun, jumping around
and playing with each other, and pulling each other's hair and climbing
down on the car.
"After we had played a long while, the train went into a covered
bridge, and I said to Joe, 'Let's jump up and see if we can catch hold
of one of those iron rods.' He said, 'All right,' and we gave a great
jump, and we caught hold of an iron rod overhead. The train was going
so fast that we almost missed the rod, but we hung on, and in a moment
when we looked down, what do you suppose had happened? The train
had run out from under us, and there was nothing under us except the
railway track and ties, and, away down below them a deep, dark river.
We were frightened, because it was very dark and very cold. We climbed
down as fast as we could, and walked across the ties, until we came to
the ground.
"There were a lot of trees near the track, and we ran over as quickly
as we could and climbed a tree, but it was very, very cold. We hugged
each other very tight and tried to keep warm, but it grew colder, and
colder, and colder, until it seemed as though we would freeze, for
you know we had always lived in a very warm country, until we came to
the circus. By and by, though, it commenced to get light, and when we
looked over in the woods a little farther, we saw a little red school
house. By and by a man, who took care of the little red school house,
came and opened the door and went inside. Pretty soon we saw the smoke
coming out of the chimney, for the man had built a fire.
"Joe said to me, 'Let's go down as quickly as we can and run over
there, and see if we can get warm by the fire.' So we climbed down the
tree, and ran as fast as we could to the little red school house. There
we found a window open a little way, and we climbed up and went inside
the school house. The man wasn't looking, so we hurried over near the
stove, and Joe climbed into one desk where a boy kept his books, and I
climbed into another desk where a girl kept her books. The man looked
around quickly, for he thought he heard something, but we kept so quiet
that he didn't see us. By and by he closed the window, went out and
shut the door, and there we were locked up in that little red school
house! But the fire was so nice and warm that we were glad to be there.
"Pretty soon Joe said, 'Let's go out and see if we can find something
to eat;' so we got out and looked all over the building. We opened the
drawer in the teacher's desk, and in it we found an apple that he had
taken away from a little boy in school the day before, for you know
that little boys are not allowed to have apples in school. I gave Joe
the biggest part of the apple, and we ate it all up; and just as we had
eaten it up, a great big boy came to the door and made such a noise
that we scampered back and got into the desks. We stayed there very
quietly.
"Pretty soon another boy came, and then another, and then another, and
then a girl came, and by and by all the scholars had come. Some of them
were playing in the yard, and some of them in the room, and just then
the teacher came. He rang the bell, 'Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong,'
and the pupils came into the school room and took their seats. Then
the teacher struck a small bell, and the pupils sat up very straight
and sang a song. Just then I reached out and grabbed the ear of the
boy who was sitting in my seat, and pulled it very hard. He screamed,
'Ouch, ouch!' And just then Joe reached out and pulled the hair of the
girl that was sitting in his seat, and she screamed, 'Ouch, ouch!' The
teacher pounded the desk and cried, 'Order, order!' The little boy
thought it was the boy behind him that pulled his ear, and the little
girl thought it was the girl behind her that pulled her hair.
"When everything was still again, the teacher told the boys and girls
to take out their books. The boy reached in to get his book and I bit
his finger, and he yelled 'Ouch!' just as loud as he could, and jumped
out of his seat. And the little girl reached in to get her book, and
Joe bit her finger, and she yelled 'Ouch!' just as loud as she could,
and jumped out. All the pupils looked over to see what was the trouble;
but we kept very still, and the teacher came down quickly to find out
what caused the trouble. He reached his hand into the desk quickly,
and I grabbed hold of his hand and hung on. Then he jerked his hand
out, and I came out with it, and I jumped on his shoulders and began
to pull his hair; and Joe jumped out of his desk, and he jumped on the
teacher's shoulders, and the teacher yelled and tried to hit us with a
stick, and we jumped over on to the teacher's desk, and then we jumped
over the pupils' heads. I jumped out of the window, and Joe ran out
of the door, and as he ran out he took one of the boys' dinner pails
with him. They all screamed and yelled and ran after us as fast as they
could.
"We ran over to a tree, and a couple of dogs saw us, and they barked
and barked, and ran after us. The boys threw stones, but none of them
could hit us, and pretty soon we got to a tree. We scampered up as
fast as we could, and all the pupils, and the teacher, and the dogs,
came to the foot of the tree, and the dogs barked, and the boys yelled
and threw stones, and the girls danced and shouted. The teacher had
something that looked like a gun, but I think it was only a stick,
because he didn't shoot at all. Just then Joe reached into the dinner
pail, and he found a soft boiled egg. He threw this down at the teacher
and hit him right on top of his bald head.
"Then we scampered out on the branches, and jumped into another tree,
and then into another tree, and then into another tree, and pretty
soon we had gone so far that they couldn't find us. Then we opened the
dinner pail, and we found a fine dinner, some apples, and nuts, and
bread and butter, and a piece of pie. When we had eaten everything
there was in the pail, we left the pail up in the tree, and climbed
down to the ground. Then we walked and we ran, until we came to a town,
and there was the circus tent. For this was the _very_ town where the
circus was going to show! We ran as fast as we could, and a lot of
dogs got after us. They barked and barked, but we got away from all
the dogs but one, because he could run faster than the others. He was
a very little dog, and when he came close to us, Joe ran to one side
of the road and I ran to the other, and just as he got between us, we
grabbed the dog by his tail and his ears, and pulled so hard that he
just yelled, 'Ki-yi, ki-yi, ki-yi!' and ran toward the tent as fast as
he could; so we both jumped on his back and rode until we came to the
tent. Then we jumped off and scampered into the tent under the canvas
and found our wagon. The door was still open, and we got into the
wagon, and there we went to sleep, for we had been up all night.
"That is the way I went to school," said the monkey.
And the little Cub Bear said, "I will be glad when I am big enough to
go to school."
THE COMING OF THE GREAT BIG ANIMAL AND HOW HE HELPED THE BEAR FAMILY
After the monkey had finished his story, Papa Bear and Mamma Bear and
the little Cub Bear were talking about the animals in the circus, and
the little Cub Bear said, "I wonder where all those animals are?"
And the Circus Bear said, "Why, I think they are somewhere in the
woods."
Then the little Cub Bear said, "Maybe these animals will come to see
us. I think it would be fine if we had a nice large cave, big enough
for all the animals."
The Mamma Bear said, "I think that _would_ be nice," and the Papa Bear
said, "That would be nice," and the little Circus Bear said, "I think
that would be nice, too," and the Cub Bear said, "Maybe we can have a
bigger cave, and have all the animals come and live with us."
And just as he said it they heard a rustling sound, as though something
was coming up the path. The little Cub Bear ran to the mouth of the
cave and said:
"There is a very strange looking animal coming up the path. It is the
biggest animal I ever saw. It has a nose that reaches clear to the
ground, and it has a thumb and finger on the end of its nose, and every
once in a while it stops and picks up a piece of straw with the thumb
and finger and puts it into its great mouth. It has teeth that are so
long that they stick way out of its mouth. The teeth are as large as a
small tree, and look like great sharp horns growing out of its mouth,
and its legs are as big around as a large stump. Its ears are as large
as the mouth of this cave. It can move its nose around and scratch its
back with the thumb and finger on the end of its nose. It has no hair
at all except on the end of its tail."
Just then the animal made a tremendous noise, a sort of a blowing and
trumpeting sound.
The Circus Bear said, "I know who that is; it is Jumbo, the elephant
from our show. Ask him to come into the cave."
Jumbo came to the mouth of the cave, and the little Cub Bear said to
him very politely, "Come in, Mr. Jumbo!" But of course Jumbo could not
come into the cave; it was too small. Mr. Jumbo said:
"I would like to come into the cave and see the Circus Bear, because he
was very good to me when we were in the circus together."
So the little Cub Bear said, "Try and see if you can not make the mouth
of the cave larger."
Mr. Jumbo said, "I will try."
So Mr. Jumbo commenced to dig with his great tusks and pull with his
great trunk at the dirt and stones and the roots that were in the way,
until the mouth of the cave was ever so much larger than it had been,
but it was still too small for the elephant to get in; so the Circus
Bear came to the mouth of the cave and told Jumbo how glad he was to
see him. Mr. Jumbo took hold of the Circus Bear's foot with his trunk
and shook it, just like two people shaking hands. He was so glad to see
the bear that had been so good to get things for him when he was in the
circus, for there he was tied to a stake by a great chain. (That is the
way they keep elephants with the circus, you know.)
When Mr. Jumbo found that he could not get into the cave, he said to
the Circus Bear and to all of the bears, "You know that the other
animals are trying to find this cave, and as soon as they find it they
will want to live here, and we ought to get the cave ready for them."
Then the Papa Bear said, "What do you think that we ought to do? Do you
think that we could make the cave larger for all of the animals?"
Mr. Jumbo said, "Well, I think the first thing we ought to do is to go
down to the wreck of the train and get some of the things that we want
from the wreck, before the men come back and take everything away."
All of the bears, and the monkey, thought that was the best thing they
could do. They went down right away, and found that all of the animals
had gone, but there were lots of things that they wanted to take up to
the cave. Mr. Jumbo found the beautiful howdah that the circus man used
to place on his back.
A howdah, you know, is that big saddle they put on an elephant's back
for the people to ride in. It was painted with red and yellow paint,
and had beautiful red plush cushions in it. It had a top to keep the
sun off of any one that was riding in the howdah, on the elephant's
back. The bears said that they could put the howdah on the elephant's
back, but that they could not fasten it there, for they had no hands to
buckle the straps with.
Then the monkey said, "I can fasten the buckles with my hands, for you
know that I have fingers just like a man, and a man buckles the straps
by using his fingers."
The Papa Bear and the Mamma Bear, Susie Bear, the Circus Bear, and the
little Cub Bear lifted as hard as they could, but of course they could
not lift the heavy howdah way up on Mr. Jumbo's back, for they were not
tall enough, so Mr. Jumbo said, "I will kneel down, and then you will
not have to lift so far, and I can help you with my trunk."
So he knelt, and the bears all lifted at once, and Mr. Jumbo helped
them with his trunk, and finally they got the howdah in the right place
on his back. Then the monkey buckled the straps, and everything was
ready to take the howdah up to the cave, where the bears live.
The Papa Bear said, "Let us fill the howdah with the things we want to
take up to the cave." And they commenced to hunt for the things that
they wanted, and what do you think they found? A great bass drum, so
big that a little bear could get into it; and they also found a smaller
drum, and a fife and some big brass horns that belonged to the band.
Then they found some harness that was used for the beautiful black and
white horses that ran the chariot races. They put all of these things
into the howdah.
When the howdah was nearly full, the little Cub Bear asked his papa if
he couldn't ride in the howdah. Mr. Jumbo heard the little Cub Bear
ask, and he said it would be all right, because he was very strong and
could carry a great deal more than they had put on his back. When the
little Cub Bear climbed into the howdah, Mr. Jumbo straightened out
his front legs to get up, and the little Cub Bear nearly tipped out of
the rear end of the howdah; and then he straightened his hind legs and
stood up, and the little Cub Bear nearly fell out again.
Just as they started up the hill, the monkey said, "You need a driver;"
and he grasped Mr. Jumbo's tail and climbed up the tail just as if he
were going up a tree; then he scampered along Mr. Jumbo's back, clear
over the top of the howdah, until he sat right on top of Mr. Jumbo's
head, just as the drivers do, when they drive elephants. Then the
monkey asked Mr. Jumbo to hand him a stick with a sharp hook in the end
of it, that the drivers used to guide the elephants with. Mr. Jumbo
reached over with his long nose that had a thumb and finger on the end
of it, and picked up the stick and handed it up to the monkey, for he
knew the monkey was not strong enough to hurt him much.
[Illustration: Mr. Jumbo reached over and picked up the stick.]
The monkey said very proudly, "Get up, Mr. Jumbo," and away they went
to the bears' cave. When they got there, Mr. Jumbo knelt down, and the
little bear nearly tumbled out again, but he jumped out all right, and
they took the howdah off Mr. Jumbo's back. The bears and monkey took
everything out of the howdah and carried it into the cave.
Then the animals all went back again to the place where the train was
wrecked, to see if there was anything else they could get. This time
they found a chariot, that had two wheels, and it was all covered with
gilt and with angels made of gold, and it was very, very beautiful.
Mr. Jumbo said that if the bears and the monkey could hitch him to the
chariot, they could fill it with things and take them up to the den.
So they looked and looked, and finally found a harness, that was used
for the elephant. The monkey and the bears harnessed Mr. Jumbo to the
chariot, and then they looked for things to put into the chariot.
The monkey found the clothes that he used to wear in the circus--a
pair of red trousers, with a green coat, and a little red hat with a
black feather in it, and he put them in the chariot. Mr. Jumbo found a
bale of hay, but they all said that would have to wait until the next
time, because there would not be room in the chariot for this bale of
hay and the other things they wanted to take up. They found the little
drum that the monkey used to play on in the circus, and put that in
the chariot. Then they found a lot of biscuits that the dog in the
circus had to eat, and they put these in the chariot, too. And soon the
chariot was full.
The little Cub Bear thought there was just room enough for him to ride
in the chariot, and he asked Mr. Jumbo if he could ride; and as soon
as Mr. Jumbo said "Yes," he climbed in on top of the things in the
chariot, and they all started up to the cave. They had not gone very
far before the monkey got hold of Mr. Jumbo's tail and scampered up to
his place on top of Mr. Jumbo's head. They soon reached the cave, and
there they unhitched Mr. Jumbo and left the chariot and all the things
in it, and went back to the train wreck, because they knew that there
was another chariot there even more beautiful than this one; and when
they reached the wreck again, Mr. Jumbo went over to where the big bale
of hay was; and how do you suppose he carried the bale of hay?
He knelt down, and he ran his great teeth, called tusks, under the
bale of hay, then he wrapped his long nose, or trunk, as it is called,
around the bale, and stood up and carried the hay over and put it in
the chariot. Then he went for two more bales in the same way, and
placed them in the chariot. The monkey then hitched Mr. Jumbo to the
chariot, and they again started up the hill. In this way they hauled
two or three loads of hay, and then they unhitched Mr. Jumbo and left
the chariot up near the bears' cave.
Then the bears, the monkey, and the elephant went back to the wreck,
and each one carried everything he could. The bears got their arms
full, and walked all the way up to the den on their hind legs. The
monkey got his little arms full--of what do you suppose? Bags of
roasted peanuts. The elephant carried up three great sacks filled with
barley. They worked so hard that it took them nearly all day.
That night as they were wondering whether any of the animals would find
the cave in the dark, they suddenly heard the flapping of wings. The
little Cub Bear ran at once to the mouth of the cave to see what it was.
"Oh! Circus Bear," he said, "here is a great bird. He has great big
eyes as large as marbles. He has the funniest pointed ears. He has a
hook nose; he has great claws, and he is as big as half a dozen doves."
The Circus Bear said, "That is Mr. Owl. Ask him to come in."
So the little Cub Bear said to the owl very politely, "Come in, Mr.
Owl," and the owl came into the den.
He blinked his great eyes, and looked solemn and wise, and the little
Cub Bear said, "Mr. Owl, we are going to build a house, so that all the
animals can come to live with us if they want to, and we want to know
if you can help us to build the house."
And Mr. Owl said, very solemnly, "I would be very glad to help you,
because when we lived in the circus, your brother was very good to me,
and I should like to do anything I can to help you."
The little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the owl said, "If you want me to I can be door-keeper, and when any
one comes I can ask who he is, because, you know, I can say, 'Who-o-o?
who-o-o?'"
The little Cub Bear danced up and down, and said that would be very
fine. And he said, "I am very glad that my brother was kind to you when
you were in the circus."
So the owl went out to the mouth of the den, and there was a great big
tree, and away up near the top of the tree was a long limb sticking out
like an arm, and the owl flew up to this limb and sat there, looking
very solemn and very wise, as all owls do, blinking his great eyes. And
there he sat day and night, winking and blinking his great eyes, so
solemn and wise, keeping watch for the bears and the animals, just like
a soldier sentry standing guard at the General's tent.
Now the little Cub Bear, like all little cubs, was very fond
of stories, and was always teasing the Papa Bear to tell him
stories about little bears, and all sorts of things. The
little bear liked the stories that his papa told him about the
"Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa."
That night after the owl had flown up to the limb of the dead tree,
the little fellow said, "Papa, please tell me another story about the
'Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his papa.'"
The Papa Bear said, "Little one, you are always asking me to tell you
stories; it is hard for me to think of so many, but if you want me to
do so, I will tell you of:
THE "LITTLE-CUB-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" AND HOW HE TOOK AN
UNEXPECTED BATH
"This 'Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' was a tame little
bear that lived with his papa near a great saw-mill. You know what a
saw-mill is? It is a place where they take great pine trees that have
been chopped down and cut up into logs, and saw the logs into boards,
and shingles and lumber, to make houses for men to live in, with their
little cubs, that they call 'boys' and 'girls' and their little wee
cubs they call 'babies.' This saw-mill was on a great river, and near
the saw-mill was a place where the water fell straight down from a
place higher than this house, and of course the stream ran very swiftly
above the falls and below the falls. These falls were not so large as
the Niagara Falls, but they were so large that the water poured over
with a great roaring sound, and the water whirled about, after it
reached the bottom of the falls, and great waves dashed up against the
banks of the river.
"Above the falls, the water ran so swiftly that no one
could swim in it. The Papa Bear knew this, but the
'Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' didn't know that the
water ran so swiftly. The Papa Bear had told his little son many, many
times not to go too near the river, and never to try to drink out of
the river, above the falls.
"But one day the little fellow was very, very thirsty, and he ran up to
the bank of the river, and saw the beautiful, cool water, and thought
how nice it would be to have a drink. He was so thirsty he didn't want
to go away down below the falls, where he and his papa usually took a
drink of water, so he thought he would see if he couldn't get a drink
right where he was, there above the falls. He went down to the very
edge and reached way over and began to lap up the water, and, oh! how
good it was. Just then he heard a noise, and as he looked up quickly,
his foot slipped, and into the river he went, _kersplash_!
"Now, this little bear could swim. That is one reason he wasn't afraid
to drink from the river, because he thought if he fell in, he could
swim out very easily and very quickly, so he started to swim as hard as
he could for the shore, but he soon found that the water was so swift,
that instead of getting nearer the shore, he was getting farther and
farther away all the time. And then he looked around to see where he
was going. He found that he was going nearer and nearer to the falls,
where the water went over with such a great roar, so he swam harder
and harder and harder, and faster and faster and faster, but all the
time he was going closer and closer to the terrible falls! Finally the
little bear gave up trying to swim out, and just kept his nose out
of the water, so that he could breathe, and down the stream he went
faster than you could run. Sometimes great waves would cover him up
completely, and when his nose would come up above the water, he would
blow almost like a whale, to get the water out of his nose. Almost
before you could think, that little bear came to the edge of the falls,
and over he went!
"Do you think that was the last of him? Well, if he had been a little
boy, I suppose he would have been drowned; but this little Cub Bear was
so light and so strong, that after a long, long while, he came up to
the surface of the water, right in the middle of a great whirlpool. He
went round and round and round in the water, and it seemed as though he
never would stop. But finally, he found a big log that had come over
the falls, and he got one foreleg over the log, and swam as hard as he
could toward the bank, and finally succeeded in getting ashore.
"There he lay on the grass, all wet and tired out, and all he could
think was, 'I am so glad I wasn't drowned. I will never again disobey
my papa.' And he thought this over and over in his mind. Soon the
'Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' went to sleep right
where he was, for he was too tired to go home.
"After a long while, his papa began to look for him, and finally
found him lying there all wet, and sound asleep. His papa knew what
had happened, but he felt so bad he didn't waken the little bear, but
picked him up in his great arms and carried him back to the den and
laid down close beside him to keep him warm. And the little fellow
slept all that night, and all the next day, until four o'clock in the
afternoon.
"Then he wakened and put his arm around his papa and said, 'Oh, I had
the most terrible dream in the whole world. I thought I was nearly
drowned, and I was too tired to get home.'
"And the Papa Bear said, 'I guess that wasn't a dream, but I am so glad
that you are alive, that I am not going to scold you for disobeying
me.'"
When this story about the
"Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa" was finished, _our_
little Cub Bear, who lived away up in the cave in the mountain, said,
"I should think that every little bear ought to mind his papa and do
just as he says, else they might get drowned, you know."
Then the little bear went off to bed and to sleep.
The next morning early the little Cub Bear got up and rubbed his eyes
with his paws, instead of washing them as little boys do.
Just then he heard a noise as if some animal was coming, and he ran to
the mouth of the den and looked out, and said:
"I see the queerest looking animal coming up the path. It has long ears
and a great big mouth, and a queer looking tail, and looks something
like a horse, but still it looks different from a horse."
And just then the owl saw the animal and said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?" and
the animal answered, "Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw."
And the Circus Bear said, "I know who that is. That is a mule. Her name
is Jenny."
Just then Jenny came to the mouth of the den, and the little Cub Bear
said, very politely, "Come in, Mrs. Jenny."
And she came into the den, and the little Cub Bear said, "Mrs. Jenny,
we are going to try to build a house big enough for all the animals, so
if they come to see us we will have a place for them to stay. Can you
help us?"
Then Mrs. Jenny said, "I would be very glad to, because your brother
was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And Jenny said, "I haven't worked for a long while, but I can kick like
everything."
The little Cub Bear said, "Well, here is a soft place in the rock.
Perhaps if you will kick, it will fall down and make more room."
And Jenny turned around and kicked the rock, and it fell down, and she
kicked and she kicked, and more rocks fell down; and she kicked, and
more rocks fell down; and she kept on kicking, and more rocks fell
down, and the bears picked up the rocks and carried them out, and when
she got through there was a nice large room.
And the little Cub Bear said, "We will call this Jenny's room. I am
very glad that my brother was good to Mrs. Jenny when she was in the
circus, because if he hadn't been, maybe she would have kicked me
instead of the rocks."
That day the bears worked hard all day trying to find enough to eat
for themselves and for all of the animals that were coming to see them
from the circus. The Circus Bear told them just what things the animals
liked to eat; so the Papa Bear and Susie Bear went one way and the
Mamma Bear went another. The elephant looked all over the mountain, to
see if he could find some grass to eat.
That night, when the animals came to the cave, the elephant told them
that he thought he had found a fine place for the animals that liked to
eat grass. He said there were a great many horses where he found the
grass, but that they said they were not going to come with him because
they did not want to live in a cave. They said they wanted to live out
in the open air; and that if any one came to take them back to the
circus, they would run away as fast as they could.
The bears were very tired that night, but the little
Cub Bear teased his papa for a story about the
"Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa." Finally the Papa Bear
said that he would tell just one story, if the Cub Bear would promise
that he would not ask for another one, and would go to bed as soon as
the story was finished. So the little Cub Bear and Susie Bear came as
close as they could to the Papa Bear, and he told this story:
HOW "LITTLE-CUB-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" WAS NEARLY DROWNED
AMONG THE LOGS
"Just on the edge of the stream which flowed by the saw-mill where
the 'Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' lived, there was
a pond of still water, and in this pond there were a great many logs
that floated down from the forest away up the river. These logs were in
this pond waiting to be sawed up into boards and timber, to be used in
building houses. Now, this was a very dangerous place for little boys,
and for little bears. The Papa Bear had told his little son never to go
out on the logs, and the little fellow had promised that he never would
go out on the logs. But, day after day, the little Cub Bear saw men
going out on the logs with long sticks that had big spikes in the end
of them, and long sticks with hooks on the end of them; and they pushed
the logs here and there, to bring them over to the saw-mill, where they
were hoisted into the mills by great chains, and then were moved over
in front of a great saw to be sawed into lumber.
"As the little Cub Bear watched these men every day he would think how
easy it was, and how nice it was to ride around on those logs, and to
step from one log to another, and how foolish his papa was to tell him
not to go down on the logs, when it was so easy.
"One day after watching the men for a long while, the little Cub Bear
thought he would go down very, very carefully and walk out on one of
the logs, and this he did. There he waited for a long while, sitting
on the log. It was great fun, and didn't hurt at all, so finally he
stepped over on to another log, and then on to another. My! how he
enjoyed it. The little bear felt sure that his papa had make a great
mistake in telling him to keep off the logs.
"Just then, as the little bear stepped from one log to another, both
logs rolled, and down he went into the water. But he didn't mind that
much because he could swim very well. The little bear swam to the
surface as quickly as he could, but instead of getting his head out of
the water, he bumped his head into the logs, for the surface of the
water was all covered with floating logs.
"Then the little bear saw why his papa had told him never to play on
the logs, because if he once fell into the river, he was very apt to
be drowned. The little Cub Bear didn't give up and drown like that. He
began to swim as hard as he could, and held his breath as long as he
could, and after he had swum just as far as he possibly could, he came
up to the surface again, and this time his nose came out between two
logs, and there was just room enough for his nose to get up out of the
water, so he had a chance to breath again. And oh, how good it seemed.
And he took such long, deep breaths, and it seemed as though he could
never get enough air. Then he thought he would see if he couldn't find
a way out, and he tried and tried, but there wasn't room between the
logs for his head to come up out of the water. He couldn't even get his
eyes above the surface of the water, and so he couldn't see where he
was. Pretty soon the logs began to move closer and closer together, and
then he knew if he stayed where he was he would surely be killed. So he
took a long breath, just as deep a breath as he could.
"Can you take a long, deep breath, little Cub Bear?" (And the little
Cub Bear said, "Yes, papa," and he took a long, deep breath to show his
papa how the little bear breathed when he just had his nose above the
water.)
"Then the little bear dropped down again under the water, and he swam
as hard and fast as he could, hoping that the next time he came up he
might possibly find another place where he could breathe. He knew that
if he did not, he surely would be drowned and would never see his papa
again.
"When the little Cub Bear came up, he found a place just big enough for
his nose, and again he took a very long breath, and waited until the
logs began to come together again, then he dropped down and swam under
the logs. And as he was swimming he could feel the logs scrape his
back, and he knew that he was still underneath the great log raft.
"Finally, just as he had to breathe anyway, whether he breathed water
and drowned, or breathed air and lived, he saw a little light place
under the water where the light shone down between the logs and he swam
to the surface, and this time his whole head came out of the water,
and he got a deep breath of fresh air, and another and another, but he
couldn't get out. He stayed there, and pretty soon he found that the
logs were moving apart just a little bit at a time, so that his head
could come up farther and farther. And finally he got his whole back
out of the water. Then the logs moved so that the little bear was able
to crawl clear out of the water; and there he lay on the logs, tired
out, and it was a long, long time before he could move or walk or do
a thing. He was terribly frightened. But after a while, he managed to
walk clear to the shore on the logs, and he was very careful not to
fall in the water again. He walked home and lay down and went to sleep.
His papa came home after a while with something to eat for supper. He
shook the little bear, but the little bear was so tired he didn't wake
up. And so his papa let him sleep all night."
When the Papa Bear had finished telling his little cub the story about
the "Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," he said: "Little
Cub Bear, what do you think of this story?"
And _our_ little Cub Bear scratched his head, and thought quite a long
while, and then he said, "I think it is best to try, try again, and not
to give up too easily, or you might get drowned."
The Papa Bear said, "I think so, too, little Cub Bear. Now, run to bed
and go to sleep."
So the little bear went to bed, and went to sleep. During the night
he seemed to be dreaming. He moved his paws just as though he was
swimming, and then he snorted like a whale, and took long, deep
breaths, and then he moved his paws again, and then he breathed deep
breaths again, and finally he sighed a great sigh, and slept quietly.
The little bear was dreaming about something? Can you guess what it was?
The next morning the little Cub Bear waked up early and wondered if
any other animal would come from the circus. He rubbed his eyes and
listened.
Just then he heard a sound of small hoofs pattering along the path. The
little Cub Bear ran to the mouth of the cave and looked down to see
what it was, and he saw something white. He said:
"I see something coming up the path. It looks something like a sheep,
but has long, straight horns, and it has a beard, and long, straight
hair."
Just then the owl saw the animal, and said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?"
And the animal answered, "Ba-a-a, ba-a-a." And the Circus Bear said, "I
know who that is; that is Billy the goat;" and just then the goat came
to the mouth of the den, and the little Cub Bear said, very politely,
"Come in, Mr. Goat," and the goat came in, and he looked around and saw
the Circus Bear and the big bears.
The little Cub Bear said to him, "Mr. Goat, we are going to try to
build a house large enough for all the animals, so if they come to see
us we will have a place for them to stay."
And the goat said, "I will be very glad to help you in any way I can,
because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the goat said, "I don't know. I can butt like everything."
And then the little Cub Bear said, "Well, there is a very soft place in
the ground, perhaps you can knock some of the dirt and rocks down, so
we can carry it out and make more room."
And then the goat said, "All right;" and he butted, and he butted, and
he butted, and knocked down more dirt, and they carried it out, and
he kept on and butted and butted and butted, and when he got through
butting, there was a fine large room.
And the Cub Bear said, "Thank you. We will call this room Billy's room.
I am very glad that my brother was good to Billy when he was in the
circus, because if he hadn't been, maybe Billy would have butted me
instead of the rocks."
The animals worked hard all that day trying to make the cave bigger.
They scratched and dug the dirt, and the rocks, and worked as hard as
they possibly could, for they were sure that soon the animals would be
there and the cave would not be large enough.
At night they all sat down and rested, and just as soon as the Papa
Bear was seated, the little Cub Bear ran over to him and asked for
another story about the "Little-Cub-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa."
The Papa Bear was very tired, but he loved the dear little cub, and so
he began the story:
THE "LITTLE-CUB-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"
"A saw-mill, you know, is a very dangerous place for any little bear to
play, because there are so many saws and knives and wheels, whirling
around in every direction. This little bear, you remember, lived near a
saw-mill, and belonged to his papa, who belonged to the man that owned
the mill.
"The Papa Bear told the little bear not to touch anything in the
saw-mill, for if he did he would be sure to be hurt. The little bear
said that he would not touch a single thing, for he didn't want to be
hurt any more than his papa wanted him to be hurt. So the Papa Bear
said that he would rather that his little bear would stay away from the
mill; but the little bear teased so hard, that finally the Papa Bear
told him he could go into the mill if he would be sure _not to touch a
single thing_. The little bear said that he would be very careful, so
Papa Bear let him go into the saw-mill, where all of the wheels were
going around and around. My! How the little bear did enjoy the mill.
"The great wheels and saws were going around so fast, with a
whir-r-r-r, whir-r-r-r, and buz-z-z-z, buz-z-z-z. The great saws looked
like shining wheels, and they went around so quickly that you could
not see their teeth at all. A big log would come up to the saw on a
sort of a carriage, and then buz-z-z-z, buz-z-z-z the saw would go
clear through the big log from one end to the other, and before the
little bear could think, the log would be made into boards. At first
the little bear was very careful, for he remembered what his papa had
told him, but after a while the little bear went close to the biggest
saw in the whole mill and watched it go through the logs.
"Now, you know that bears always smell of a thing when they want to
know what it is, so this little bear said to himself, 'Papa didn't tell
me not to smell of the saw; he told me not to _touch_ it. I think that
I will smell of this wonderful thing that eats through the logs and
makes them into boards.' He went closer and closer. He was a little
afraid even to smell of the saw after all that his papa had told him,
but he went closer and closer to the saw, until finally he reached
out as far as he could with his nose to smell. Ouch! ouch! ouch!! The
awfullest howling and squealing that you ever heard from a little bear.
"The Papa Bear ran in as fast as he could, and what do you think he
saw? The poor little bear's face was all covered with blood, and he was
howling and screaming as hard as he could. You see, the little bear
could not see the teeth of the great saw, for they were going around
so fast, and he had put his nose too close, and the saw had sawed the
end of his nose right in two.
"Well, the poor Papa Bear was very, very sorry. He licked the blood off
the little bear's face, and took him over to the house that the man had
made for them. After a long time the little bear went to sleep. But his
nose hurt so badly that he awoke in the night many times.
"The next morning the little bear said to his papa, 'Papa, I am sorry
that I didn't obey you; you knew best; you always do, and I'll try not
to be a bad little bear again.' The Papa Bear said, 'That's right, my
little one, I am sorry that you were so badly hurt; I will not scold
you, for I am sure that you have learned it is really best to do what
papa tells you to do, and not to do the things that your papa tells
you not to do.' The little bear said, 'I have, papa.' What do you
suppose they called the little bear after that. They called him the
'Split-Nosed Bear.'"
When the Papa Bear had finished the story, he said to the Cub Bear,
"What do you think of that story?"
And the little Cub Bear answered, "I think that it is best to do what
papa says."
Then the Papa Bear said, "That is right. Now you must run back into the
cave and go to sleep."
That night the little Cub Bear dreamed a bad dream. I do not know what
it was, but he spoke aloud in his sleep and said, "I am always going to
mind my papa," and then he felt the end of his nose with his paw. Can
you guess what he was dreaming about?
The next morning the little Cub Bear wakened very early and rubbed
his eyes and wondered whether any of the animals would come from the
circus. He listened and listened.
Pretty soon he heard a very faint little patter, as if made by very
small feet, and the Cub Bear listened and listened, and then he went to
the door and looked out, and he said:
"I see a very strange animal coming. He has the shortest little legs.
He is smaller than a very small dog, about as large as two cats, and he
has a funny little sharp nose, and he has black and white stripes down
his back."
Just then the owl saw the animal, and he said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?" but
the animal didn't answer him. He came right along to the mouth of the
den.
Just as he reached there, the Circus Bear said, "I know who that is.
That is Mr. Badger. Ask him to come in."
So the little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Badger;" and
the badger came in.
The Cub Bear said, "We are going to try to build a house large enough
for all the animals, so if they come to see us we will have a place
for them to stay. Can you help us?"
And the badger said, "I would be very glad to help you if I could,
because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the badger said, "I can dig a round hole, just as big around as I
am, and dig very fast."
And the little Cub Bear said, "That is nice. Perhaps you can make us a
chimney. Here is a place in the side of the den where there is nothing
but earth and dirt."
He took the badger over and showed him, and the badger said, "Yes,
I can make you a fine chimney." So he commenced to scratch, and he
scratched and he scratched very fast, digging up, instead of down; and
he scratched and scratched, and the first thing you know, when the
little Cub Bear looked, he didn't see any badger, but he saw the dirt
falling out of the hole where the badger was; and the badger scratched
and scratched, and more dirt came down. First thing you knew, no more
dirt came down, but the little Cub Bear went and looked up the hole,
and he could see clear out to the blue sky. Just then they heard a
patter at the door, and there was Mr. Badger. He had made a hole clear
out into the open air, a nice chimney, and he came in and sat down with
the other animals.
That day the animals all worked as hard as ever, and at night
when the Papa Bear sat down to rest, the little Cub Bear ran over
to him and said, "Papa, please tell me another story about the
'Little-Split-Nosed-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa.'"
"All right," said the Papa Bear, "I will, if you will promise me to go
to bed as soon as I have finished."
The little Cub Bear said, "I will, papa." So the Papa Bear told:
THE STORY OF THE "LITTLE-SPLIT-NOSED-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"
"You remember that the little bear that had his nose split by the great
circular saw lived with a man who owned a large saw-mill. For a long
time after the little bear had his nose sawed in two, he kept away from
the mill.
"He said to himself, 'I will never go in that mill to be hurt again,
and I will mind my papa.' For his papa had told him to keep out of the
saw-mill.
"But one day the little Split-Nosed Bear was playing with a dog that
belonged to the man who owned the saw-mill. They were having a fine
time, playing bear hunt. The little Split-Nosed Bear was playing the
bear, and the little dog was playing that he was a big bloodhound dog
running after the bear. The dog was really a very small dog, white,
with brown ears, and a stub tail. You see he lived in a saw-mill, too.
The little Split-Nosed Bear would growl, g-r-o-w-l, g-r-o-w-l, and the
little dog would run away as if he was terribly frightened. Then the
dog would run after the little Split-Nosed-Bear and bark, and he could
bark very, very loud for so small a dog. Bow! wow! wow! Bow! wow! wow!
Then the little Split-Nosed-Bear would run away just as if he was
terribly frightened. Then the little Split-Nosed-Bear would hide, and
it would take the dog a long time to find him.
"They were having a splendid time jumping around and running in and
out of the dark places, when the little Split-Nosed-Bear ran into the
saw-mill, for he was playing so hard that he forgot all about the saw
and what his papa had told him. The little dog was so close to the
little Split-Nosed-Bear that the little bear ran as fast as he could,
and jumped up on to an iron platform that looked just as if it were
made on purpose for a little bear to jump up on, and there the little
Split-Nosed-Bear stood looking down at the dog and g-r-o-w-l-i-n-g,
g-r-o-w-l-i-n-g, at him. The little dog jumped up as far as he
could and bit the Split-Nosed-Bear on his heel. Then the little
Split-Nosed-Bear whirled around like a flash, and what do you suppose
happened?
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
"And such growling and howling and squealing you never heard. The
little dog ran away as fast as he could, for he was really frightened
this time. 'K-i-yi! K-i-yi! K-i-yi!' he howled, as he ran out of the
door.
"The Papa Bear heard the noise. He was afraid that the Split-Nosed-Bear
was really killed this time, so he ran as fast as he could to the
little bear, and--what do you suppose he saw? There was the little
Split-Nosed-Bear rolling about on the floor, and up on the iron
platform where he had been playing was a little brown bear's ear. Oh!
how sorry the Papa Bear felt to think his poor little bear had lost his
ear, just because he had forgotten to do as his papa had told him to
do. You see the little Split-Nosed-Bear had been standing on the iron
platform of a band saw. What he thought was a strap whirling around two
wheels was really a saw. When the Split-Nosed-Bear had turned around
quickly, his ear had come against the saw, and it was sawed off quicker
than you could think, with a zip-p-p and a buz-z-z.
"The Papa Bear licked the stump of the ear and said, 'I am so sorry,
dear little Split-Nosed-Bear, that you forgot and did not mind your
papa.'
"As soon as he could talk the little Split-Nosed-Bear said, 'I'll
always mind my papa after this.'
"The Papa Bear put him to bed, but his ear hurt so that
he wakened several times in the night. After the little
Split-Nosed-Bear got well they always called him the little
'One-Eared-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa.'
"This is the end of my story about the little Split-Nosed-Bear," said
the Papa Bear, as he finished. "Now, little Cub Bear, run to bed in the
back of the cave, and go to sleep as quickly as you can."
The little Cub Bear ran quickly to bed, and went to sleep in the dark
alone, for he wanted to be a brave little bear. But after he had been
sleeping a while, he talked in his sleep and said, "I am always going
to mind my papa." Then he felt of his ear and m-o-a-n-e-d. Can you
guess what the little Cub Bear was dreaming about?
The next morning the little Cub Bear wakened very early, and as soon
as he had rubbed his eyes, he wondered if any of the animals would
come that day. He listened, the Circus Bear listened, and Susie Bear
listened. Pretty soon they heard something coming up the path, and
little Cub Bear rushed to the mouth of the den to see what it was, and
he said:
"I see a very strange animal coming up the path. It has the most
beautiful fur I ever saw, ever so much finer than bear's fur, and the
animal looks something like Mr. Badger, only its fur is all one color,
and it has the funniest tail, almost as big as a shovel, flat and
broad."
Just then the owl saw the animal and said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?"
But the animal didn't answer at all, except he gave two slaps with his
broad flat tail on the ground.
And the Circus Bear said, "I know who that is. That is Mr. Beaver. Ask
him to come in."
Mr. Beaver came to the door, and the little Cub Bear said very
politely, "Come in, Mr. Beaver."
The beaver came in, and the little Cub Bear said, "We are going to try
to build a house big enough for all the animals, so if they come to
see us we will have a place for them to stay. Can you help us?"
And the beaver said, "I will be very glad to, because your brother was
very good to me when we were in the circus."
The little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the beaver said, "I can build dams across streams so as to make
beautiful lakes, such as they have in parks, and I can build a nice,
round house in the lake to live in and large enough for a little bear
to live in, if he can only get inside without getting wet."
And the Cub Bear said, "That would be fine, because we could have a
park for the animals to play in, and some of the animals would rather
live in the water, anyway, than live in a cave."
So the beaver said, "All right; I will make you a dam and a beautiful
lake."
So they all went down to the stream, and the beaver went up to a tree,
and he commenced to bite it. He bit, and he bit, and he bit, and the
chips just flew, and he bit, and he bit, and he bit, and the chips just
flew, and the first thing they knew, the tree fell over. Then he went
to another tree, not a very large tree, only about so thick (three
inches). Then he went to another tree, and he bit, and he bit, and bit,
and the first thing they knew, that tree fell over. So he kept on until
he had cut down a great many trees, and then he took them down and
put them in the stream, and he put in leaves; and then the water began
to rise higher and higher, and the beaver kept piling in and piling in
leaves and trees, and soon he had a high dam clear across the stream.
The next morning when they looked, the water had filled up above the
dam and made a beautiful lake. Soon the beaver went to work, and made
a house out of mud. He used his fore feet like hands, walking on his
hind feet, and he used his flat tail to make a beautiful mud house, big
enough to live in himself, and big enough for little Cub Bear to get
in, if he could only get in without getting wet. Could you make so nice
a mud house?
And the little Cub Bear said, "Thank you, Mr. Beaver," very politely.
"I am very glad my brother was good to Mr. Beaver in the circus."
As soon as they had seen the dam built by the beaver, all of the
animals began to work again as hard as they could work to make the cave
larger, because it was much too small for the animals that were already
there, and the elephant could not get in at all.
At night they were all very tired, but as soon as the Papa Bear
sat down, the little Cub Bear ran over and got as close as he
could to his papa and asked him to tell another story about the
"Little-One-Eared-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa." So although he
was very tired, the Papa Bear began the story of:
THE "ONE-EARED-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT MIND-HIS-PAPA"
"You remember that the little bear had promised that he would not go
into the saw-mill at all; but one day the little One-Eared-Bear was
very lonesome. He wanted to go into the mill, but he remembered that
his papa had told him again, that very morning, that he must be sure
to keep away from the saw-mill. He thought a while, and then he said
to himself, 'Papa didn't tell me to keep out of the _planing-mill_. I
think that I will go in there.'
"Now the planing-mill was just as bad a place for little bears as the
saw-mill itself, and the little One-Eared-Bear knew this, but you see
he _wanted_ to go in, and so he went in any way. What do you suppose
happened to the One-Eared-Bear this time?
"He played for a while, and had a very fine time. He enjoyed it so much
that he said he would come again; he liked to see the wheels go round
and round with a whiz-z-z-z-z-z and whir-r-r-r. Just then the little
One-Eared-Bear saw a funny machine with a thing buzzing around that
looked like a roller such as a cook uses to roll out cookies with.
"The little bear said, 'I want to feel the wind that must be made by
this roller going so fast, but I'll not get close enough to touch the
thing, for I might get hurt, and I don't want to get hurt again.'
"So the little One-Eared-Bear reached out his paw very carefully,
closer and closer. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Such howling and squealing you
never heard. What do you think had happened? The little One-Eared-Bear
had touched the sharp knives or planes that whirl round and round in
a planer. You see they go around so fast that you can not see them at
all, for they look just like a solid roller. Well, the poor little
One-Eared-Bear's foot was bleeding and looked terrible.
"The Papa Bear heard the little One-Eared-Bear's howling, and ran in to
the mill as fast as he could, and there he saw that the little one had
lost all the toes of one foot. The Papa Bear licked the little one's
foot, and did everything that he could to make his little bear feel
better, but he could not put back those poor little toes. The little
One-Eared-Bear was very, very sorry, too. Once he whimpered, and told
his papa that he was ever so sorry that he had not done as his papa had
told him to do, and said that he would never, never again do anything
that his papa told him not to do. But that didn't make his toes grow
again.
"The little One-Eared-Bear went to bed that night, but he didn't sleep
very well, because his foot hurt him so much. After a long while the
foot healed, so that the little bear could walk around, but he always
limped as long as he lived. He said that he could never again forget
to do as his papa told him to do, because every step that he took he
remembered that foot, and how he had lost all his toes by not doing
as his papa told him. After that they didn't call the little bear the
little One-Eared-Bear any more. They always called him--what do you
suppose? The Club-foot Bear."
When the little Cub Bear's papa had finished telling the story of the
little One-Eared-Bear, the little Cub Bear said, "I think that it is
best to do what papa says."
And the Papa Bear said, "That's right, dear little cub. Now run back
into the cave and go to sleep."
The little Cub Bear ran quickly to the back part of the cave, where
it was all dark, and went to bed on some roots and brush and was soon
asleep. When he was fast asleep, he talked in his sleep and said, "I
am always going to do what my papa tells me to do." And then he felt
of one of his paws and moaned, m-o-a-n-e-d, a sad little moan. Can you
guess what the little Cub Bear was dreaming about?
The next morning the beaver and the owl and the monkey were talking
together, and the beaver said:
"I am going down to live in that beautiful mud house that I made
yesterday in the lake. The house has several rooms inside, and the door
is under the water. I can swim out there, and then dive under the water
and come up inside the house. No one could find me in there. When I am
swimming around in the lake, or working on the dam, if I see any one
coming, I will jump into the water and hit the water two great slaps
with my tail."
And the monkey said, "Yes, I know how that sounds. That sounds just
like a gun."
The owl said as soon as he saw any one coming he would say, "Who-o-o?
who-o-o?"
And the monkey said that he thought he would go out every morning and
see if he couldn't find some of the animals and bring them up to the
cave, and see if they would like to live there in the cave, if it could
be made big enough for them.
So the beaver went down to the dam to work, and the monkey went out to
see if he could find any of the animals, and the old owl flew up into
the tree, and sat out on the end of a dead limb and waited.
Before very long the little Cub Bear heard, "Bang! Bang!" He knew the
beaver had seen some animal coming, and had struck the water with his
tail, so he ran to the mouth of the cave to see what it was. Soon he
heard a rustling noise and looked down the path.
"I see a large animal coming," he said. "He looks very fierce. He is as
large as a large bear, but he is yellow all over, and has long, shaggy
hair all over his head, and beautiful, large eyes, and a long tail,
with a tassel on the end of it."
Just then the owl saw this animal and said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?"
The animal opened his mouth and gave the most awful, "Roar!! Roar!!
Roar!!! Roar!!!!" you ever heard. It frightened the little Cub Bear so
that he didn't stop to hear what the Circus Bear said, or find out what
kind of an animal it was at all, but he ran clear back in the very back
of the cave, into Jenny's room, and there he waited, almost frightened
to death.
As soon as the little Cub Bear got over his fright, he noticed the air
blowing through a crack. It seemed to come right out of the mountain.
He did not understand, and thought he would ask his brother about it.
Just then the Circus Bear said, "Come out, come out, little Cub Bear;
don't be afraid; the animal is a lion, and he won't hurt you, because
he is a tame lion, and is a very good friend of mine."
So the little Cub Bear came out and went to the mouth of the cave, just
in time to meet the lion and the monkey, and he said very politely,
"Come in, Mr. Lion." And the lion came in, and the little Cub Bear
said, "We are going to try to build a house big enough for all the
animals, so if they come to see us, we will have a place for them to
stay. Can you help us?"
And the lion said, "I would be very glad to help you if I could,
because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the lion said, "I don't know. I never built a house, because I
always lived in the jungle, where there are lots of trees and grass,
and we found our houses already built, just like your den. But I will
do anything you want me to. I can jump ever so far."
And the little Cub Bear said, "That is nice. Let's see how far you can
jump."
Then the Papa Bear and the Mamma Bear, and the little Cub Bear, and the
monkey all went out to see how far the lion could jump. The owl flapped
his great wings and said, "To-whit! To-whit! To-whit!"
The lion crept away, then he said:
"Now, I will show you how I catch things to eat."
And he pointed to a log of wood ten or fifteen feet away, and he said,
"I will show you what I would do if that log were a deer."
The lion crouched and lay as still as a little mouse, and the bears
were all still, waiting to see what the lion would do. There was not
a sound in the forest. Suddenly, little Cub Bear saw a yellow flash
through the air and heard a thud. Then he looked at the log of wood,
and there was the lion on the log with his claws stuck into it.
And the little Cub Bear said, "My! I am glad I am not a deer, and that
the lion does not want me for his dinner."
The animals worked all morning, trying to make the cave larger, but the
Papa Bear went off with little Susie Bear to see what they could find
to eat. When dinner time came, the animals all rested for a while.
As they were sitting there talking, little Cub Bear said to the lion,
"Mr. Lion, I wish you would tell me a story about the most narrow
escape you ever had in your life."
THE LION'S STORY OF HIS MOST NARROW ESCAPE
"Well," said the lion, "you know I used to live in Africa, and used to
eat deer and other animals. You remember I showed you this morning how
I would catch deer?
"Well, one night it was very dark, and I climbed up on a bank, and
there I waited. I could not hear a sound. Everything was just as still
as could be. Suddenly, a long way off, I heard a sound as if an animal
was moving. Below the bank there was a path that the animals took when
they went to get water, and it seemed to me that this animal was coming
along the path, and would soon be right under the place where I was
waiting. I watched and watched, and the animal came nearer and nearer
and nearer; but it was very dark, and I couldn't see a thing, and I
was very sure, any way, that it was a deer, and that I could have him
for my supper. The animal came nearer and nearer, and, finally, I gave
a great leap; and what do you suppose I landed upon? The back of a
rhinoceros.
"You know a rhinoceros has a skin almost as hard as iron, and right
on the end of his nose two horns, very sharp. If I had landed on
those horns, it surely would have killed me. The rhinoceros was
terribly frightened, and so was I. He snorted and roared almost like a
locomotive. I tried to dig my claws into his back, but I couldn't get
through his tough hide at all. It was just like trying to scratch a
locomotive. He jumped and rolled over and hurt my foot, and I found I
couldn't move, because he had one of his great feet on my claws."
Then the lion pointed to his claw and showed how it was all bent and
twisted and scarred, and said, "That is where the rhinoceros stepped on
my foot.
"Finally the rhinoceros grew so angry that he put his tongue out. I
reached up and bit a hole clear through his tongue, and then he ran
away as fast as he could, and I ran away as fast as I could, but I had
to run on three feet. And that is the end of my story."
The little Cub Bear looked at the lion, then he looked at the lion's
lame foot, and then he scratched his head and said, "I think it is a
good plan to 'look before you leap.'"
And the lion said, "I wish somebody had told me that a long time ago."
After the lion had finished his story, and the animals had eaten their
dinner, they commenced to work again, and worked all afternoon. Late
that night the Papa Bear came home with a lot of strawberries that he
had found, and all of the bears had a fine supper. The elephant ate hay
and grass and the other animals found something they liked to eat.
After the lion had finished the story, the little Cub
Bear commenced to tease his papa for a story about the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but the
Papa Bear said that he was tired of telling stories about the
"Little-bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but would tell a story
about a club-foot grizzly bear, if the little Cub Bear wanted to hear
it. The little Cub Bear said that he did, and snuggled up as close as
he could to his papa, for grizzly bears are as large as four or five
grown-up brown bears all put together, and they have great teeth and
claws. They like to eat little pigs, and little calves, and such things
instead of berries and honey. When the little Cub Bear had snuggled up
as close to his papa as he could the Papa Bear commenced.
THE TRUE STORY OF HOW TEN MEN DID NOT KILL CLUB-FOOT
"When I was a little cub bear, long before I met your mother, and long
before you were born, I lived in a small cave near a store, where
men used to meet and talk about the bears that they had killed, and
mountain lions that they had seen, and all sorts of stories of that
kind. Well, I used to come down in the dark sometimes, and put my ear
up to the crack between the logs, and listen to what the men said.
"One evening, while the men were telling stories, one of them said,
'Did you ever hear of the big grizzly, called Club-Foot?'
"And all the men said that they had heard of Club-Foot, except one of
the men that had not lived there very long. He said that he had never
heard of this grizzly. The men told this newcomer that Club-Foot was
a very large bear, one of the largest that had ever been seen. The
men said that a great many men had tried to kill this giant grizzly,
because he would kill their little pigs and their little calves and
colts. Then, too, they wanted to get his great skin to make a carriage
robe. But they had never been able to get the bear. For even if they
hit him with bullets from their guns, it did not seem to hurt him
much, but made him very angry. This grizzly, instead of running away
from a man with a gun, would run right up to him and knock the gun out
of his hand. No one could kill this bear.
"They said that the bear lived in the San Bernardino Mountains, and
that his great tracks had often been seen, and that all of his toes
were missing from one foot. That was the reason they called him
'Club-Foot.' Probably when he was a little bear he had been caught in a
trap and lost his toes. They said that the bear made regular trips from
Mount San Bernardino to the Antelope Valley, sixty miles away. He had
made the trips so often, that he had made a sort of trail through the
mountains. This trail, the men said, was only a mile or so back of the
store.
"While the men were talking, another man came in and said, 'Old
Club-Foot has started from his den, in the side of Mount San
Bernardino, and is coming this way. He ought to be along here some time
to-night.'
"Then one of the men that they called 'Alex' said, 'It is a fine
moonlight night to-night. Let's all get our guns and go up to the old
grizzly's trail, and see if we can't kill him. There is a pig-pen right
near the trail, with little pigs in it, so that the grizzly will be
sure to stop there long enough for us to shoot him.'
"Then the man that came in last and told about the Club-Foot's coming,
said, 'There are two Irishmen that live a little farther on along the
trail that are going to do the same thing. They are going to watch near
another pig-pen that is farther on, and they think that they will kill
Club-Foot.'
"'Well,' Alex said, 'there will be ten of us with guns of all sorts,
and I think that those Irishmen will never see old Club-Foot, for he
will never get as far as they are. We will have his skin by that time.'
"All the men said, 'We'll do it. It will be lots of fun, and Club-Foot
will not bother the farmer's little pigs and calves, and colts any
more.'
"All the men got their guns and rifles, and some lunch to eat while
they were waiting for old Club-Foot to come along. I was very curious
to see what the men would do and how they would kill the grizzly, and
then, too, I wanted to see a great grizzly bear; so I followed the
men, but I kept so far behind that they did not see me at all. As the
men walked along they talked about how they would kill old Club-Foot,
as they called the great grizzly bear. The men said they thought they
would climb trees, and wait in the tops of them, where they would be
safer, and where the bear could not get at them before they had had a
chance to kill him. Two men, though, said that they were going to stay
on the ground, and that the other men ought not to be afraid and climb
in the tops of the trees; they ought to stay down on the ground and
shoot the bear there, and they laughed at the men who said they were
going to stay up in the trees.
"Finally they came to the path that old Club-Foot usually traveled, and
there was the pig-pen with the little pigs in it. All the men but two
climbed up into the trees, and there they waited. I went around and hid
behind a rock, to see what would happen.
"Very soon there came a great crashing noise, and as I looked up along
the path I saw old Club-Foot coming very fast. He didn't stop for
anything. He went right through the bushes, and jumped over the tops of
the small trees, and as he came out into the moonlight he seemed to be
as big as Jumbo. I waited and thought I would hear the men shooting;
but suddenly I heard the men who were on the ground crying out to the
men who had gone up in the trees, 'Don't shoot; don't shoot. If you
shoot the old Club-Foot and don't kill him, he will surely kill us.'
"And they dropped their guns and ran as fast as they could and
commenced to climb trees. They climbed up a little way, but they were
so frightened, and so hurried, that they would slip back.
"Old Club-Foot came right along, but he didn't notice the men at all,
or pay any attention to them. He went right up to the pig-pen, and he
hit it one blow and knocked it all to pieces. He took up two pigs, one
in each of his two great forepaws, and off he went down the path, and
not one of the men fired a single shot.
"Pretty soon the men came down from the trees, and then they all began
to scold one another. One man said to Alex, 'Why didn't you shoot?'
"'Well,' he said, 'the old Club-Foot looked as big as an elephant, and
I thought if I shot him and didn't kill him, that he would come and
shake the tree down and eat me up.'
"And the other men said that was the reason that they didn't shoot.
Then they said to the brave fellows who stayed on the ground, 'Why
didn't you shoot?'
"'Well,' they said, 'we didn't know the bear was so big.'
"After the men had got nearly home, they sat down and talked it all
over, and one of them said, 'What will you say to the two Irishmen that
were going to kill Club-Foot? You know we thought we would kill him,
and he would never get as far as the Irishmen?'
"And they all agreed that they would not say a thing about it to any
one, but would wait and see what the Irishmen said when they came into
the store the next evening.
"Well, the next evening, I went down and hid behind the house to hear
what the men would say. And sure enough, very soon in came the two
Irishmen. One Irishmen was named Mike, and the other, Pat. The men all
said, 'Hello, Mike,' and 'Hello, Pat.' But no one said anything about
old Club-Foot.
"After a while Alex said, 'Well, Mike, where is the bear skin you were
going to bring us?' For Mike had said that he would have a bear skin
for them that night. 'Didn't you see old Club-Foot?'
"'Yes,' Mike said, 'we saw Club-Foot. He came right by us, and we were
sitting on the roof of the pig-pen. He knocked the pig-pen right out
from under us, and took a little pig and ran off with it.'
"'Well,' Alex said, 'why didn't you shoot him?'
"And Mike said, 'Well--well, we couldn't find our guns.'
"And so that was the way that the ten men didn't kill old Club-Foot.
And it is said that he is still living in the San Bernardino Mountains,
and still goes over the same old trail every year. For some reason, no
one has ever succeeded in getting him."
After Papa Bear had finished the story, little Cub Bear said, "I wish I
were a great big grizzly bear, so that I would not be afraid of a gun."
But the Papa Bear said, "It is always a good thing to be afraid of a
gun, no matter how big you may be."
The little Cub Bear ran off to bed in the dark, and was soon fast
asleep. In his sleep he reached out with his paw and gave a great slap,
then a moment after he reached out again and gave another slap. Can you
guess what he was dreaming about?
The next morning the little Cub Bear woke up very early, and rubbed his
eyes, and wondered if any animal would come that day. He listened and
listened, but he heard nothing.
Suddenly there was a loud "Bang! Bang!" and he knew that some animal
was coming. The little Cub Bear ran to the mouth of the den, where he
could hear a rustling sound. He looked down the path, but could see
nothing. He looked again and this time he looked up among the branches
of the trees, because he thought it might be a bird coming. And what do
you think he saw? Away up among the branches of the trees he could see
an animal's head. He said:
"I see an animal's head moving among the trees. His head has large ears
and very large eyes, and two horns different from any horns I ever saw.
They are blunt on the end, and stick straight up, and seem to have hair
on the end of the horns. I can't see the animal, but I see a long, long
neck, covered with big yellow spots. As the animal comes nearer, I can
see more of his neck. And now I can see his legs and his body. His body
looks something like a horse, only the hind legs are much shorter than
the front legs. If you tried to ride on his back you would slip off
behind, because it is slanting, like a hill, and all covered with those
yellow spots."
Just then the owl saw this animal, and he said, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o-o?"
The animal did not answer a word, but came right along. Just as he got
to the mouth of the den, the Circus Bear said, "I know who that is.
That is Mr. Giraffe. Ask him to come in."
So the little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Giraffe."
[Illustration: "Come in, Mr. Giraffe."]
But, of course, the giraffe could not come in.
Finally, he knelt down and stuck his long neck into the cave, and the
Cub Bear said to him, "We are going to try to build a house big enough
for all the animals, so if they come to see us we will have a place for
them to stay. Can you help us?"
And the giraffe said, "I would be very glad to help you if I could,
because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the giraffe answered, "I don't know. I never built a house in my
life. I eat the leaves off the trees and live out-of-doors, just like
horses and zebras and cows. I never had a home. But, I have the longest
neck of any animal in the whole world, and if there is anything up in
the air you want me to look for, or if there is anything a long way off
that you would like to have me see, I think I can look for it for you."
And the little Cub Bear suddenly thought of the hole way back in the
back part of the cave where the wind came from, and he said, "I wish
you would come in and see if you can put your head through a hole in
the back part of the cave. Maybe you will find something."
And the giraffe said, "I will be very glad to try."
And so he wriggled, and twisted, and got into the den, and got away
back in the back part, and he found a hole, and it was just large
enough for his head and his long neck. He stuck his head farther and
farther into the hole, and stayed there so long that the little Cub
Bear was afraid something was wrong, so, he and the monkey took hold of
the giraffe's tail and pulled just as hard as they could.
The giraffe finally pulled his head out of the hole, and the Cub Bear
said, "What did you see?"
And the giraffe said, "I found it very dark, and I had to keep my head
in a long time so that my eyes would get used to the darkness, but I
could see that there was a large room--a large cave back of this cave.
I couldn't see the end of it at all. I think if we could only get into
this room, we would have a place large enough for all the animals in
the circus, if they wanted to come here to live."
And the little Cub Bear said, "My! Wouldn't that be nice? I wonder, if
all the animals would help, if we couldn't break down the rock and get
into this room?"
That night, after all the animals had done all they could to get things
to eat and to make the cave large enough, the lion and some of the
other animals came into the cave. The giraffe was still out trying to
get enough leaves to eat, and the elephant was eating the last of the
baled hay that had been brought from the train wreck.
"Papa, please tell me another story about the
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa'." The Papa Bear
sighed a great sigh, because he was very tired, but he wanted to please
the little fellow so he told the story of:
THE "CLUB-FOOT-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"--A GREAT SMASH-UP
"After the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' had had
his nose split, had lost an ear, had nearly drowned three times, and
all of the toes had been cut off of one foot, the Papa Bear thought he
had better move away to some place where there were not so many things
to hurt little bears. So he moved a long, long way to a place where
there was a great coal mine.
"There the men would go down in the ground and dig coal from away under
the ground. The coal was to be burned in stoves to keep little boys
and girls warm in the winter time, for they do not sleep all winter as
little bears do. The coal was used also to cook what the little boys
and girls and their papas and their mammas ate--bread, and meat, and
pies, and cakes, and everything nice. The coal was used to make the
railway monsters go back and forth on the tracks, hauling men, and
circus trains, and freight trains. A railway monster could not go,
'T-o-o-t, t-o-o-t!' or 'C-h-u, c-h-u, c--h--u!' move, or do anything
without coal or coal-oil.
"The 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' thought that
the coal mine was very fine. He liked to watch the men as they went
down into the ground in the cages or elevators, and to watch them come
up at night with their little coffee-pot-like lamps, hanging in the
front of their caps to show them where to go in the dark. (You see that
it was always dark way down in the mine.)
"He liked to watch the engine as it went, 'Puff, puff, puff!' but this
engine did not move back and forth, like a locomotive. It was called
a stationary engine, because it stood in one place, and how do you
suppose it moved the men? One part of the engine was called a drum,
because it was round like a drum, and on this was a great steel rope,
like a thread on a great spool. As the drum or spool turned around and
round, the rope would be wound up or unwound, and the rope went up over
a great wheel and then hung down in the hole and the cage with the men
in it was on the end of the rope, and as the rope unwound, the cage
went down into the hole in the ground, and as it wound up the cage came
up to the top of the ground. But the man had to be very careful to stop
in time, or the men and cage and all would be wound around the drum and
smashed and killed.
"Now the Papa Bear was very careful to tell the little bear never,
never to touch the engine, or anything about it; but one day the
'Little Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' went into the
engine room, when every one else had gone away to dinner. The
engineer had just stepped out. It was a cold day, and the little
bear enjoyed the warm room. The machinery was all so bright, some
looked like gold, and some looked like silver, and some parts were
a beautiful bright red, and others were a pretty green. After the
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' had been there
a while, he saw a sort of handle, and before he stopped to think, he
reached up and gave it a strong pull, to see if it would move. And what
do you think happened?
"The engine went 'Puff, puff, puff!' The wheels went around and around,
and the drums commenced to wind the rope up very, very fast. My! how
frightened the little Club-Foot-Bear was. He ran away as fast as he
could run, but he was scarcely out of the door before the cage came to
the top of the ground. But there was no one to stop the engine, and
so the cage went on up to the wheel, and there was a great crash, and
down came the wheel and cage. And on and on to the great drum, and then
there was the greatest tearing, and smashing, and breaking you ever
heard--'Bang! Bang! Smash! Smash! Crack! Crack! Crash! Crash!' and then
the noise stopped, for the beautiful engine was broken all to pieces,
and the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' ran and
ran, and he didn't go home that night, nor the next night, for he was
ashamed to meet his papa.
"And all the time he was saying, 'Oh, why didn't I mind my papa?
The beautiful engine is all smashed, and the poor little donkeys
that haul the coal cars way down in the mine will starve to death
because no one can take them anything to eat.' But finally the
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' went home. He
found his papa feeling very sad, because he thought his little cub was
killed. The papa kissed him, and gave him a great bear hug, but he felt
very sorry, and so did the little cub."
When the Papa Bear had finished telling the story to his little cub,
the little bear said very sweetly, "Good night, papa dear; I am always
going to do just what you tell me to do." And the Papa Bear said, "I
hope so, little cub."
That night the little Cub Bear got up in his sleep and ran as fast as
he could, but he soon ran against his papa, who was sleeping there in
the cave. The Papa Bear saw that he had been running in his sleep, so
he took him and put him back in his bed. He must have been dreaming.
Can you guess what he was dreaming about?
The next morning, after the animals had their breakfast, the little
Cub Bear told them that the giraffe had said that there was a fine
cave back of the one where the bears lived. So the animals all agreed
that they would do the best they could, and all work together, to see
if they could not succeed in making a hole large enough for all the
animals to get through into the next cave, for you remember that the
hole was only large enough for the long-necked giraffe to get his head
through.
They went to work to make the hole larger. The mule kicked down rocks;
the goat butted down more rocks; the monkey, the bears, the Mamma Bear,
the Papa Bear, Susie Bear, the Circus Bear, and the little Cub Bear all
carried the rocks out of the cave. The elephant helped as well as he
could with his trunk, but the mouth of the cave was so small that he
could not get in to work. They all worked until they were tired, but
they could not get through into the cave although the hole was made
much larger.
That night, before they went to sleep, the little
Cub Bear teased his papa for a story about the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but the Papa Bear
was so tired, that he asked if some of the animals would not be willing
to tell the little Cub Bear a story. The parrot said that she had heard
the story told by the lion about his most narrow escape, and that she
would be willing to tell the story of her most narrow escape, if little
Cub Bear would promise not to ask his papa for another story that
night. Of course, the little Cub Bear promised, and so the parrot told
the story of her most narrow escape from death.
THE PARROT'S MOST NARROW ESCAPE
"Well," said the parrot, "I lived in South America, where there were
many beautiful trees and many strange animals, and some of the largest
snakes in the whole world. The very largest snake that lives there is
called the boa constrictor. He is so large that he can swallow a deer
whole, and, of course, a poor little parrot, or a chicken, or a rabbit,
would not make a meal for him. It would hardly make a dessert.
"One day I was seated on the end of a long limb, nearly asleep, when
suddenly I looked up and saw a man pointing a gun at me, and all ready
to shoot me. I was so frightened that I could not move, and I expected
him to shoot any minute, but I thought that before I was killed, I
would take one last look at the blue sky that I was never to see
again--and what do you think I saw? A great snake, a boa constrictor,
coiled around the limb above me, and looking at me as though he wanted
to eat me. I was more frightened than ever. It seemed that his look
made me weak, sick and dizzy. Before I could move, the snake darted at
me like a flash, seized me and began to swallow me. In a moment I was
just like poor Jonah, only I was inside a snake instead of a whale.
Everything was dark and I could not think, except that I knew I would
die in a minute.
"Suddenly I heard a great 'Bang! Bang!' and the old snake began to
squirm and twist. Then in a moment I felt something cut through the
snake, and I was out in the bright sunshine, and the sun almost blinded
my eyes. You see, the man had shot the snake instead of shooting me, as
he had intended. He took me out and put me in a bag that he had with
him.
"Then he sent me to the circus, and I was there until the wreck
of the train. There I learned to talk like the men. I could say,
'Polly wants a cracker,' 'Come right in, ladies and gentlemen,' and
many other things. I learned to sneeze like a man, 'Ker-chou-ou-ou,
ker-chou-ou-ou,' and to snore like a man, 'Aw-hu, aw-h--u, a--w-h--u,'
and to cough, 'H-u-h, h-u-h,' and to whistle so that I could call a
dog, '---- --------,' and to cluck so that I could make the horses go,
and I learned to ride on a dog's back without sticking my claws in so
that it hurt him. But that is all my story."
"My," said the little Cub Bear, "what a narrow escape. We should never
lose hope. I'm glad that you escaped."
After the parrot had finished the story, the little Cub Bear went to
sleep. When he was sound asleep he suddenly began to breathe hard, as
though he could not get enough air, and he twisted around and seemed
to be smothering. Soon, though, he breathed a great, deep breath, and
then he was still and quiet. I think that he must have been dreaming?
Can you guess what he was dreaming about?
The little Cub Bear slept very late next morning, and when he got
up all of the animals were up, and were talking about the cave and
wondering whether any more of the animals would come that day.
While the animals were talking they heard two great noises, "Bang!
bang!" and they knew that the beaver was telling them that some animal
was coming.
The Cub Bear rushed to the mouth of the cave to see who it was, and he
said:
"I see two rats coming up the path. They are perfectly white. With the
two rats is a rat that is bigger than both of them. It has beautiful
fur."
Just then the Cub Bear looked up at the owl, to see why the owl did not
say "Who-o-o? who-o-o-o?" and just as he looked, he saw the old owl
start from his perch, with a great fluttering of wings, and pounce like
a flash down on the rats, and he caught one of the white rats in his
claws and flew back to his perch, and there he began to eat this poor
little white rat. But the other white rat and the muskrat came into the
cave.
The little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Rat."
But the little white rat was trembling so that he couldn't say a thing.
And the Cub Bear said, "I am very glad I am not a little rat, to be
eaten up by a wicked old owl."
But the Circus Bear said, "You know that owls eat rats, and mice, and
little birds, and things of that kind; but this owl is a very good,
kind owl, and I am surprised that he would harm one of the white rats
from the circus; but I guess he is very hungry, because he has been
sitting up there a long while with nothing to eat."
Then the Cub Bear said, "We are going to try to build a house big
enough for all the animals, so if they come to see us, we will have a
place for them to stay. We think there is a large cave, large enough
for us all, back of this cave, but we don't know. Can you help us?"
Then the muskrat said, "I should be very glad to help you if I can,
because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
And the muskrat said, "I can climb through this round hole here and see
what there is in there."
So he scampered through the hole where the giraffe had looked, and was
gone a long, long while, and they all waited and wondered why he didn't
come back. Finally the muskrat did come back, but he was all wet, and
all the animals wondered why.
The little Cub Bear said, "What did you find?"
The muskrat said: "I found the most beautiful cave in the whole world.
It has a level, smooth floor, and is nice and clean, and there are
beautiful columns that come down from the roof to the floor of the
cave, just like the pillars in a great palace, and away back in the
back part of the cave there is a beautiful stream of clear, cold water.
I had a fine swim in it. This cave is large enough for all the animals
in the circus. There is one place back in the cave that is big enough
for all the circus tents of the circus we used to be in."
And the Circus Bear said, "My! That is grand," because he knew how
large the tents were.
And the little Cub Bear said, "My! That is grand," because his brother
had said the same thing, and he knew it must be so.
Then the animals began to plan how they could get into this cave.
Finally they all agreed that if they could make the opening of the den
large enough for the elephant to get in, and if the rhinoceros should
come with his great horn, and some more of the animals would come, that
they surely could get into this cave.
So that night the elephant worked as hard as he could with his tusks
and his trunk, and all the bears worked carrying out rock and stones,
and digging out roots with their claws; and the monkey scampered around
and carried out small rocks, and pulled out small roots, and helped
some; but he kept pulling the elephant's tail every once in a while,
and was more bother than he was help; just like some boys that you
know. But finally they got the mouth of the den large enough so the
elephant could come in. He came in and sat down, and then there was
hardly room enough for any other animal.
The poor little Cub Bear and the Circus Bear were squeezed up tight
against the wall, and Papa and Mamma Bear had to get way back, in the
back part of the cave; and the monkey had to hang to a root way up on
the top of the cave. But by turning around slowly, the elephant found
that he could use his tusks and trunk to move some of the rocks.
They all worked hard until they were tired, and were nearly through
into the cave, and had made the room so much larger, that they all had
room to sit down and talk.
The next morning early the little Cub Bear heard the "Bang, bang!" of
the beaver's tail, and rushed to the mouth of the cave, and there he
saw a very large animal, with two horns on the end of his nose, and a
funny looking skin, hard and horny. He knew at once that the animal was
the rhinoceros the lion had told about the night before.
The owl said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o-o?" and the animal answered with a
terrible snort and r-o-a-r. Then the rhinoceros came to the mouth of
the cave, and the little bear said:
"I am very glad that you came, because we are trying to build a house
that will be large enough to hold all of the animals that used to live
in the circus, and the giraffe tells us that there is a large cave back
of this cave, and if we can only break through, we will have a house
that will be big enough for us all."
Then the rhinoceros said, "What can I do? For I would like to help.
Your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus, and I
would be very glad to do anything that I can."
The little Cub Bear said, "I think that with that great horn of yours
you could help to tear out some of the dirt and rocks, and the monkeys
and the bears could then carry them out. Perhaps the elephant could be
hitched to the chariot, and we could carry out some of the dirt and
rocks in it."
The rhinoceros said that he would be very glad to do this.
That night, after the animals were through with their work, the
little Cub Bear, who was the greatest fellow for stories that you
ever saw, began to tease his papa for another story about the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa." Finally, the Papa
Bear said that he would tell a story, if the little Cub Bear would
promise to go right to bed as soon as he was through with the story. Of
course the little Cub Bear said that he would, so Papa Bear told him
the story of:
THE "LITTLE-CLUB-FOOT-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" AND THE
DYNAMITE
"You know that little cub bears like to eat," said
the Papa Bear to his little Cub Bear. "But the
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' once found a
tallow candle, and he ate it all up, and it tasted as good to him as a
stick of candy does to a little boy, and so always after that he was
looking for tallow candles.
"Not far from where the little bear lived, there was a mine, where
miners were digging in the rock to see if they couldn't get out
some gold; and the miners had candles to use, so that when they
were away in the mine, where it was dark, they could light a
candle and see to work. One time the little Club-Foot-Bear found
a whole box of candles, and he took eight or ten candles out, and
carried them home and ate them. And when his papa found it out, he
told him not to go there any more, because he might get hurt. The
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' stayed away from
the mine for a long time.
"But one day, after he had eaten all the candles up, he thought he
would like to go back again and see if he could not find some more.
So he went and he found another box of candles, as he thought. They
looked almost like the other candles, but they were not so white; they
were yellow and covered with paper. If the little Club-Foot-Bear could
have read as little boys can, he would have seen these letters on the
box: 'D-y-n-a-m-i-t-e.' Just as he got his arms full of these candles,
as he thought, he heard the men coming, and he ran over to a tree and
climbed the tree as fast as he could, with his arms full of these
yellow candles. He got nearly to the top of the tree on a big limb, and
there he sat and waited. The men came out, but they went back into the
mine. The little Club-Foot-Bear took a big bite, but the very first
chew he took, he found that it did not taste right at all. So he spit
it out, and then he thought he would throw the rest down, because he
did not like them, and wanted to get home as fast as he could. So he
threw the whole armful of yellow sticks right down on to a rock. And
when it struck the rock, what do you suppose happened?
"'Bang!'
"A bigger noise than all the firecrackers in the world put together
would make, and the rocks began to fly through the air, and the tree
jumped right out of the ground and began to fall down, down, down, the
side of the mountain. The bear hugged the tree as tightly as he could,
but it kept falling. And finally it fell 'kersplash!' right into the
river.
"The little bear was terribly frightened, and was nearly drowned, but
he scrambled out on to the tree as fast as he could and you never saw
a little bear run so fast in your life. He could not have run faster,
if all the dogs you ever saw had been running after him. And when he
got home to his den, he ran to the very darkest part, and there he
covered his eyes and his ears with his paws, but all the time he could
hear a great ringing in his ears, and the terrible, 'Bang! bang! bang!'
That night, after the little Club-Foot-Bear finally went to sleep,
he suddenly made a great jump, and jumped clear over his Papa Bear,
and pretty nearly out of the den. After that you never could get that
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' to eat candles."
After the Papa Bear had finished the story of the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," he said, "Little
Cub Bear, what do you think of that story?" And the little Cub Bear
scratched his head and said, "I am glad the little bear wasn't killed."
And the little Cub Bear ran off and went to sleep.
During the night he dreamed, and several times he gave a jump, just
as though he were going to jump out of bed. Can you guess what he was
dreaming about?
The next morning the little Cub Bear said to his papa that he
had noticed a box marked just like the box from which the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa" had eaten the
things that looked like candles. The box had been left by some
miners away back in the woods, and had in big letters on it the word
"D-y-n-a-m-i-t-e."
When the Papa Bear heard this, he began to think and to scratch his
head. He was thinking that if the stuff in the box had knocked the big
tree down, perhaps it would help them to knock the rocks down, so that
they could get into the beautiful cave. The Papa Bear was wondering
about it, when he saw the old owl looking so solemn and wise. Then
he said to himself, "I will ask the wise old owl. He can't help much
digging into the cave, but as he is the wisest bird in the world, maybe
he can tell me what to do with this stuff that knocks great trees down."
So the Papa Bear said to little Susie Bear, "Run and tell the old owl
that I want to ask him a question."
So Susie Bear ran out as fast as she could and said to the owl, "Papa
wants you to come into the cave, so that he can ask a question of you."
And the old owl looked wise and said, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o-o?"
And Susie Bear said, "You-ou-ou-ou, you-ou-ou-ou-ou."
The old owl solemnly winked his great eyes, and slowly flapped his
great wings, and flew to the cave. "Well, we-l-l, w-e-l-l," said the
owl; "I am very glad to come into the cave, for you know that the light
hurts my eyes, and I usually go out only at night. What can I do for
you?"
The Papa Bear then told the owl what he had been thinking about.
The owl said very wisely, "I am sure that the stuff will knock down
the rocks, for I have seen miners use it, and it makes the rocks fly
so that they have to run a great way off, to keep from getting hurt. I
think if you could get some of the stuff, you would find you could soon
get into the beautiful cave that we all want to see."
The Papa Bear asked the elephant if he was willing to go with the
little Cub Bear to find the box. The elephant Jumbo said that he would
be glad to go, because the animals had all been so good to him in the
circus.
Jumbo got down on his knees, and the little Cub Bear climbed up on his
back, and away they went to find the box that had in it such wonderful
stuff. They went a long, long way, and finally the little Cub Bear saw
the box and pointed it out to Jumbo, who carefully picked it up with
his trunk and with his tusks, just as he had the bales of hay, and
carried it back toward the den. When they were coming back, what do you
suppose they saw?
The funniest little animal that the little Cub Bear had ever seen. It
was nearly as big as a pig, but it looked like a great mouse. Its
front legs were very short, like small arms, while its hind legs were
very long. Its tail was as large around as a man's arm. And then it had
a pocket, only the pocket was in front, as the animal stood up, instead
of on the sides as boys' pockets are. And what in the world do you
suppose was in this pocket? Another little baby animal just like the
big one. All you could see of the little fellow was his head peering
out of the pocket.
As they stopped to watch the animals, the little fellow hopped out
of the pocket, and took two little hops, and then when he saw the
elephant, scampered back as fast as he could. The elephant told the
little Cub Bear that this animal was the greatest jumper in the whole
world. And while the elephant was telling this to the little Cub Bear,
the animal saw the elephant, and was so glad to see his old friend
Jumbo, that with two great jumps it reached Jumbo, and with the third,
jumped clear over the elephant, bear and all.
Jumbo said, "How do you do, Madam Kangaroo and the little baby
kangaroo?"
And the kangaroo said, "Very well, thank you."
Jumbo then told the kangaroo where they were going and what they were
going to do.
Madam Kangaroo said, "It is very fortunate that you found me, for when
you drop a rock on the stuff to make it go off, you will want some one
that can jump out of the way quicker than scat, and no one can jump as
well or as fast as I can."
They hurried back to the cave, and here they found all the animals
waiting for them. While they were away the alligator had come, but he
had gone down to the beaver's dam to stay, because he liked the water
so well, and he had not had much to play and to live in while he was in
the circus.
The Papa Bear told the elephant to hurry up and put the stuff in the
cave, where they were trying to knock the rocks down. The Circus Bear
and the monkey rolled the box over and over to the place, and then the
elephant reached in with his trunk and put the box just where it should
be. Then they found that there was no way to drop a stone on the box
so that it would go off and make the rocks come down. The badger said
that he would dig a hole straight up and down like a well, right over
the box, so that they could drop a stone straight down on the box and
make it go off. So he scratched away just as he had scratched when he
made the chimney, and before you knew it, the hole was dug and all was
ready. The kangaroo took a great stone in her forepaws, and stood over
the hole ready to drop it on the box. The owl told them all that they
must get as far away as they could, for the rocks would be sure to fly,
and might hurt them. Then he told the beaver that as soon as all were
ready, he must strike the water with his tail, and the kangaroo would
then drop the rock on the box. So the little Cub Bear hid behind a
tree, and every one got ready. Then there was a "Bang! Bang!"
The kangaroo dropped the rock on the box, and gave three great jumps
out of the way; and there was the greatest "Bang!" you ever heard. It
made more noise than all of the firecrackers you ever saw would make,
if they should all go off together. My! how the little Cub Bear did
jump! And when he looked around, there was the mule, Jenny, kicking and
kicking and kicking. She had been hit by a rock. It did not hurt much,
but, of course, she had to kick anyway. As soon as it was safe, all of
the animals that were there ran down to the cave. The elephant went in,
and instead of his tail sticking out of the cave as it had before the
stuff went off, he disappeared entirely. The little Cub Bear then ran
to the cave, for he thought that the elephant had fallen into a great
hole.
He could not see the elephant at all, so he called, "Jumbo, Jumbo,
where are you?"
"Here I am," said Jumbo, and his voice sounded far away, for the
explosion had opened the way into the great cave, and the elephant was
already far back in it. All of the animals came running up, and how
glad they were to think they had such a beautiful home. The floor was
almost as level as the floor is in your house. It was a long way up to
the ceiling or roof. There were great pillars coming down from the
roof to the floor, and everything was so clean and nice that almost any
little boy or little girl would like to have lived there. Then there
was ever so much room in the beautiful new cave. There was room for the
great tent, that they all used to live in at the circus, to be put up
without touching the roof. There was that little stream of water that
the muskrat told them of, where all could drink. The animals went out
to get their things, and when they had put them all in the cave, it was
dark and time for little bears to go to sleep.
The little Cub Bear soon went to sleep, and what do you think he
dreamed about? I do not know. Perhaps it was about heaven, whose
streets are paved with gold, and whose gates are of pearl. Perhaps, who
can tell?
THE COMING OF THE ANIMAL WITH THE LONG NOSE
The next morning the animals got up early, and the elephant said he
thought that they ought to go down where the circus train had been
wrecked, and see if there was anything more that they could bring up
and put in the cave, as they had plenty of room now.
But while they were talking about the way they would do the work, they
heard the beaver's tail go "B-a-n-g, b-a-n-g!" and they all looked up,
and what do you think they saw? The queerest kind of an animal.
He looked like a small bear, but he had very long hair on his back and
hind legs, and his front legs were much shorter than his hind legs. But
that was not the queerest thing.
The little Cub Bear said, "Oh, see his nose! It looks as if he had
caught the end of his nose in a trap, and had pulled and pulled until
he had stretched his nose like a piece of taffy, and had made it as
long as my leg. Did you ever see such a long nose in the whole world?"
The elephant said that he had a very long nose. But the little Cub Bear
said that he wasn't talking about trunks that had fingers and thumbs on
the end of them, but that he was talking about real noses. Then the
Papa Bear and Mamma Bear said they never, never in the world thought
that any animal would have such a nose. The Papa Bear asked the Circus
Bear what the animal was?
The Circus Bear said, "That is a bear. He is called an ant-bear."
"Oh!" said the Cub Bear, "I have two aunt-bears, and they don't look a
bit like that."
"Please don't interrupt me when I am talking," said the Circus Bear.
"This is an 'a-n-t'-bear, not an 'a-u-n-t'-bear. He is called an
ant-bear because he eats ants."
"Oh, I want to see him eat some of these ants that got into the honey,
that papa brought home the other day."
As soon as the ant-bear came near, the little Cub Bear ran to him
and asked him to show how he ate the ants. The ant-bear said that he
would be very glad to do so, because he had not had a good meal of
ants for the longest while. In the circus he said they fed him on
meat. The ant-bear said that he liked the taste of ants ever so much
better. I would not, would you? Well, the little Cub Bear showed the
ant-bear where the ants lived in a hole in the ground. Then he saw why
the ant-bear had such strong claws, for he dug into the ground very
quickly. Then what do you suppose that ant-bear did? He ran the point
of his long nose into the hole where the ants lived, and then stuck
out the longest tongue you ever saw, way, way down in the hole, until
it was covered with ants that had stuck to it. Then the little Cub
Bear saw why the ant-bear had such a long nose, and a long tongue that
looked like a pink rope. Do you see why?
As soon as the ant-bear had eaten all of the ants, the little Cub Bear
said, "The ants are such little things, I should think you would not
get enough to eat."
But the ant-bear said, "Down in South America, where I came from, the
ants are larger; they are as big as the big red and black ants, and
they live in houses that are as large as a haycock. I dig into these
with my strong claws, and eat up bushels and bushels of ants at a time."
While they were talking they heard the beaver go "B-a-n-g, b-a-n-g!"
several times, and each time the solemn old owl would say, "W-h-o?
w-h-o-o-o-o? w-h-o-o-o-o?"
The little Cub Bear counted four times, and thought that there must be
four animals coming, and sure enough, when they came to the den, there
were four new animals.
There was the raccoon with his striped tail. He was always washing his
face. There was a great striped tiger almost as large as a lion, and
quite as fierce looking. There was a leopard, that looked something
like the tiger, but was not quite so large, and instead of stripes, he
was covered with black spots.
[Illustration: The raccoon was always washing his face.]
Then, over in a corner, was a little thing that looked like a soft and
beautiful round ball. It looked so nice that the little Cub Bear ran
right over to play with it, and before the Circus Bear could stop him,
the little Cub Bear had given the little ball quite a hard slap. "Ouch!
Ouch!!" How the little bear did scream and cry. And his poor little
foot was full of stickers. The Circus Bear scolded the Cub Bear.
"Didn't you know that that was a porcupine, and that he was covered
with quills, on purpose to stick into people that touched him? You
ought to have known better."
But the little Cub Bear did not see how he could have known better,
for no one had ever told him before, and he had never seen a porcupine
before, and it looked like a nice ball for little Cub Bear to play with.
So the little Cub Bear thought to himself, "I hope my papa will tell me
about all of the things that hurt little bears, so that I will not get
hurt so badly again. I am afraid that papas sometimes forget to tell
their little cubs about the things that hurt. How am I going to get
these awful quills out, anyway? I've tried as hard as I can, and I can
not get hold of the little slippery things with my clumsy claws."
The Papa Bear came and tried, and he could not get the quills out.
Then the Mamma Bear tried, and she worked ever so much longer than
the Papa Bear, but she could not get the quills out of the little Cub
Bear's foot. The Mamma Bear was very angry with the "miserable little
porcupine," and wanted to give him a hard slap; but she knew that she
would get her foot full of the quills, and that would be worse than
ever.
The porcupine did not care at all, for he said to himself, "If they
don't want to get hurt, let them leave me alone."
But I do not think that was right, do you? Of course, they did not want
to get hurt.
Not long after, the monkey came and said, "What is the matter?"
The little Cub Bear then told the monkey how he had just touched that
mean old porcupine and had got his foot full of quills, that no one in
the whole world could ever get out.
But the monkey said, "I can get them out all right, for you know that I
have two hands with fingers on them, just like a little boy."
So the monkey pulled out all of the quills, and after that the little
Cub Bear could walk all right.
But he said to himself, "After this I will let other people alone,
until I get acquainted with them."
I think that is a good rule, don't you?
That evening, after dark, the little Cub Bear heard the beaver go
"Bang, bang!" and he rushed to the mouth of the cave to see who was
coming. He saw a very strange looking animal coming up the path.
He said, "I see an animal that is about the size of a rhinoceros, only
he has no horns on the end of his nose, and he has the biggest nose I
ever saw. It is not a long nose, but it is a short, stubby nose, about
the size of the seat of a chair; the two big nostrils in the nose
are almost as big around as a base ball. I can't see why the nose is
so big. Oh, yes, I can, too, for he has just yawned, and he has the
longest and largest teeth of any animal in the whole world, I guess.
They are as big around as the leg of a chair. His mouth is so large
that a little bear could sit inside of it. His legs are almost as big
around as an elephant's legs, only they are very short."
Just then the owl said, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o-o?" The animal did not say
a thing, but he gave a great snort.
The Circus Bear said, "I know who that is. That is Mr. Hippopotamus. In
the circus they called him Sam."
Just then the hippopotamus came up to the door of the cave, and the
little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Hittopotamus."
You see, it was such a long word he could not pronounce it right.
So Mr. Hippopotamus came into the cave, and as he did so, he gave a
great yawn, which frightened the little Cub Bear so that he ran way
back to the back part of the cave.
The hippopotamus said, "Don't be afraid, little Cub Bear, because your
brother was very good to me when we were in the circus, and I wouldn't
hurt you for anything."
So the little Cub Bear came back, and he looked the hippopotamus over,
and saw that he did not have any hair on his body at all, and that he
was about the color of an old slate, and that he had a very fierce
looking mouth. After a little while the little Cub Bear plucked up
courage, and he said:
"Mr. Hittopotamus, we are going to fix up the cave for all the animals,
and we want to know if you can help us?"
The hippopotamus said, "I would be very glad to help you if I can,
because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."
And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"
"Well," he said, "I don't know. I can't dig in the dirt, because when I
am at home I live in the water. Sometimes I stay all day in the water,
with nothing but the end of my nose above the surface, and then I can
stay under the water a long while without coming to the surface at all."
The Cub Bear said, "That is just like the whale."
And the hippopotamus said, "Yes, just like the whale; only when I come
to the surface, I don't make such a big blowing sound as the whale
does."
Well, the little Cub Bear thought a long while, and he couldn't think
of anything the hippopotamus could do.
So he said to his papa, "Papa, can you tell me what the hittopotamus
can do to help us in building our house?"
And the Papa Bear said, "I don't know. I think if he would go down and
live in the lake above the dam that the beaver built, that would be
the best place for him, and he could help the beaver to make the dam
higher, and then when the beaver went to sleep the hippopotamus could
make some kind of a noise to warn us when people were coming."
So the hippopotamus agreed that he would do this, and he went down to
the lake. Just before he left he said, "I am very hungry, and I would
like something to eat."
The little Cub Bear said, "We have plenty of meat here, if you would
like some meat."
The hippopotamus said, "I don't eat meat. I eat grass like a horse,
only the grass I eat I get way down under the water."
The little Cub Bear said, "Then you will find plenty to eat down in the
lake."
And the hippopotamus went away to the lake, where he got acquainted
with the beaver, and planned to live there as long as the animals were
living in the forest.
THE MONKEY'S STORY OF HIS MOST NARROW ESCAPE
The next evening the Cub Bear and all the animals were sitting in the
cave, just before the little Cub Bear was to go to bed, and the little
Cub Bear teased his papa for a story, but his papa said he was too
tired to tell a story, for he had hunted all day, trying to find a
honey tree, and had not found one. The little Cub Bear kept on teasing
for a story, but his papa said he was so tired he could not think of a
story to tell.
Then the monkey said, "I will tell you a story, little Cub Bear, if you
wish me to."
And the Cub Bear said, "Yes, tell me a story of your most narrow escape
from death."
"Well," said the monkey, "I once belonged to a man who owned a drug
store, in a large city. He had another monkey, named Jim, and a parrot.
The parrot was a large, green bird, and he had learned to talk like a
man. He could say, 'Good-by,' 'Good-day,' 'Good-night,' 'Polly wants a
cracker,' and 'See what you did.'
"One day Jim and the parrot and I were all down in the cellar, and the
druggist forgot and shut the door, so that we had to stay down there.
But we had a fine time, running about and jumping over everything that
came in the way. We jumped up to the ceiling, and jumped from one beam
to another, and then down to the floor. I pulled Jim's tail and ran
away. He would run after me and pull mine, and jump away quickly. And
once or twice the parrot got hold of us, but he really hurt us with his
great bill and his claws, so that we kept out of his way most of the
time. In fact, he hurt me so badly once, that I pulled a couple of his
tail feathers out, just to show him how it felt.
"Jim and I were scampering across the floor, when we struck a great
carboy--a great bottle--larger than a pail, and knocked it over on the
cement floor, where it broke. The stuff that was in it ran out on the
floor. And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!'
"This big bottle had on it in large letters 'S-u-l-p-h-u-r-i-c
A-c-i-d.' We were sorry that we had tipped over the bottle, but we
didn't feel very bad until Jim found that he had some of the stuff on
the end of his tail, and it was burning him terribly. It burned so
much that he tried to run away from the end of his tail. But he was so
careless in jumping about, that he struck another big carboy sitting on
the floor, and he knocked that over, too, and spilled the stuff that
was in it.
"And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!'
"This bottle had on it in big letters, 'N-i-t-r-i-c A-c-i-d.' This
stuff ran out all over the floor, and ran into a hole in the center of
the floor, that was shaped something like a bowl. I got some of it on
my foot, and it didn't feel very good. So I commenced to run around,
too, and jump up to the ceiling, and thought I would keep off the floor.
"There we found a great big can filled with glycerine. Do you know what
glycerine is? It tastes sweet, like honey. I dipped my foot in the
glycerine, to see if it would stop the smarting, and Jim put the end of
his tail in it, too. But we were so excited, that the first thing we
knew, we tipped over the entire can of glycerine on the floor, and that
went into the same hole where the other stuff was.
"And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!!'
"After we tipped over the glycerine, we noticed a horrible smell, so
Jim and I and the parrot all went back in the corner, as far away as we
could get, and stayed there about two hours. But after a while, Jim's
tail hurt him so badly, and the smell was so awful, that he commenced
to run around in the most reckless way. He jumped all over the cellar,
and finally, just as he was over this hole, where all the stuff had
been spilled, he knocked down a great stone jug, and that dropped right
into the stuff, and there was the most awful explosion that you can
imagine. The drug store and everything in it was blown away up into
the air, and poor Jim flew up so high that we never saw him again.
"The parrot was terribly frightened, but when he looked up and saw Jim
go up out of sight in the air, he said, 'Good-by, good-by.' And then he
looked over at me, and saw that nearly all of my hair was burned off,
and he looked at himself, and saw that his feathers were nearly all
gone. He said: 'See what you did! See what you did! See what you did!'"
When the monkey had finished his story, the little Cub Bear said:
"Well, what was it that made such a terrible explosion?"
The monkey said, "I don't know; but afterward I saw some men walking
around the ruins of the drug store, and they saw a broken carboy and an
empty can of glycerine, and they said the stuff must have become mixed,
and made nitro-glycerine."
Then the little Cub Bear said, "That stuff must be a good deal like the
stuff we found in the box that opened the way into the beautiful cave
for us."
And the monkey said, "Yes, I heard one man say that nitro-glycerine and
dynamite were the same; that dynamite was just nitro-glycerine mixed
with a kind of clay."
The next night, just before bedtime, little Cub Bear said he wanted to
hear the story the little bird had promised to tell them. All of the
animals said they wanted to hear it, too, so the little bird began:
THE STORY OF THE LITTLE BIRD'S ESCAPE FROM THE ALLIGATOR
"You see, I am a very small bird, and I live in a very peculiar
way. Almost all day I spend my time in the open mouth of the great
alligators as they lie on the shore of the river, basking in the sun.
You see, they keep their mouths open for me, so that I can pick up the
little flies and bugs that torment them very much. These I eat, and so
both the alligator and I are pleased. The alligator is very careful not
to hurt me, for, you see, if he should close that great mouth it would
kill me.
"Well, one day the alligator went to sleep as I was hopping about on
his great tongue, and he dreamed that he was in the water swimming
after a big fish. In his dream he thought he was near the fish and just
going to catch it, and 'Snap!' down came his great upper jaw right on
top of the poor little bird in his mouth. I expect you wonder why I was
not killed. Well, the alligator had a hole in the roof of his mouth
just large enough for me to get through, and it happened that I was
right under it, when his mouth closed, so I got out through the hole."
"How did he happen to have such a hole in his mouth? Do all alligators
have such holes in the roof of their mouths?" said the little Cub Bear.
"No," replied the bird, "but a man once tried to catch this alligator.
He took a stick that was sharp at both ends, and nearly as big around
and as long as his forearm, and when the great alligator swam after him
to catch and eat him up, the man turned around and thrust his arm with
the pointed stick into the alligator's mouth. As the alligator's jaws
came together with a snap, the stick went clear through his upper jaw,
and although the alligator got away, and got the stick out, the hole
was always there, and that hole saved my life."
"Well," said the Cub Bear, "I think I'd rather live in a safer place
than an alligator's mouth."
That night the little Cub Bear slept very soundly, and was out early
next morning, wondering whether any more animals would come. Soon he
heard a noise, as if some kind of an animal was coming up the path, but
he could not see what it was.
Suddenly he said, "I see the strangest thing; it looks like a bird's
head on a long pole. The eyes are as big as large marbles; the long
pole-like neck seems to have hair on it. The bill is much bigger than a
goose's bill."
Just then its body came into sight.
"It has a beautiful tail of black and white feathers, and small wings
with beautiful feathers. Its neck is as long as a yard stick, and its
legs are covered with great scales, and are as long as its neck."
Just then this strange bird or animal saw an ear of corn lying in the
path, and lowered its queer head to the ground, and began to swallow
it. The ear of corn was larger around than the animal's neck, but it
swallowed the ear whole without chewing it. The little Cub Bear was too
much surprised to say anything, so he watched and could see the ear of
corn going down the throat of this queer animal. The skin of the neck
stretched so that the ear of corn could go down. It started down in the
front of the neck, and then twisted around to the back of the neck and
disappeared into the top of its body.
The owl called out, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o-o?" but this strange animal did
not reply. The little Cub Bear told the Circus Bear about the corn, and
he said:
"Oh, I know who that is; that is the ostrich."
So the little Cub Bear said to him very politely, "Come in, Mr.
Ostrich. We have a beautiful cave, and we would like to have you live
with us."
But the ostrich said that he would stay a while, but that he liked to
lie out-of-doors, and that if any one came to capture him he would hide
his head behind a bush, or in the sand, and he would be all right.
"But," said the little Cub Bear, "they could see your great body, and
so could capture you."
But the ostrich said, "Never mind; that's my way."
So the ostrich stayed many days. There was not corn enough for him to
eat, but the bears found that he could eat apples, or oranges, or hay,
or grass; in fact, one day the little Cub Bear found the ostrich at the
scene of the train wreck, picking up all sorts of things to eat, and,
strange to say, eating broken window glass and pieces of iron and stone.
What a strange dinner that was!
When the little Cub Bear returned to the cave that night, he noticed
the striped tail of the raccoon, and at once asked the raccoon to tell
how he was caught and put into the circus. So the raccoon stopped
washing his face long enough to tell the true story of:
HOW THE RACCOON WAS CAUGHT
"Well," said the raccoon, "I don't remember when I lived in the forest,
or any time before I was caught. When I opened my eyes, I found that I
was living in a house where there were a man and woman, several little
girls, and a boy named Ray; and the only thing I know about the way I
was caught is what I heard the boy say.
"The boy said that one time he was hunting through the woods, and he
saw a nest, way up on the top of a tree. He climbed up the tree, and
there he found two little coons, myself and my little brother. We had
just been born, and neither of us had opened our eyes yet. He carried
us home to his house; and we were crying for something to eat. We cried
and cried and cried. And the little boy didn't know what to do with us
or how to feed us. But, finally, he left us with an old cat that had
just had some little kittens. Very soon we found that the old cat was
willing to give us something to eat, and she nursed us, just as she
did her own little baby kittens. The first thing I saw, when I opened
my eyes, was this dear old cat who had been a mother to me and to my
little brother. But we grew so fast that we were soon nearly as big as
the cat.
"I remember one time my brother ran after the old cat for his
breakfast, and she didn't want him to have any, but he was so big and
strong that he rolled her over and thought he was surely going to get
his breakfast. The old cat began to spit and scratch and bite at him,
and my brother ran away as fast as he could.
"After that neither one of us ever got another meal from that old cat,
because when we came near her, she would box our ears, and if we tried
to get anything to eat, she would scratch and bite us. After that we
got very hungry, but finally the boy bought a rubber nipple at the
store and put it on an old bottle he found in the house; then he filled
the bottle with milk and gave it to my brother; and you would have
laughed to see that little coon sit up, just like a little boy, and
hold the bottle up to his mouth and suck, and suck, and suck, until all
the milk in the bottle was gone. And then when the bottle was empty,
the boy Ray filled it again and gave it to me, and I did the same
thing. After that, two or three times every day, this boy would give
us a bottle of milk, just as he would feed a little baby. And we ate
and ate and grew and grew, until the first thing we knew, we were full
grown, almost as large as a dog.
"One day, my brother and I saw some chickens out in the back yard. We
never had eaten anything in our lives but milk, but the first thing we
knew, we found ourselves running after a chicken, and we caught it and
killed it, and ate it all up, and the boy came out and found us all
covered with feathers. He scolded us like everything. He said that that
was his little pet chicken that he wanted to keep always--a beautiful
white bantam. And after that, he put us in a cage until he got a chain,
and ever since that time, we have either been in a cage or had a chain
around us, to keep us from killing chickens, or doing things that
people did not want us to do.
"Finally, a man came along and saw us and said he wanted to put us in
the circus. And the boy sold us to the man, and that is how we got
acquainted with all the other animals. We have been very happy and
contented all our lives, because men have always given us all we wanted
to eat, and taken good care of us, and while we are glad now that we
can climb trees and run around in the woods, still we remember that the
men were very kind to us."
As the little Cub Bear went off to bed he said, "Well, I guess that is
the best way, to be caught before you are big enough to know anything
about the woods and the mountains and the hills;" and the coon said,
"That is true."
The next day the monkey was telling the little Cub Bear about the
chariot races they had in the circus--how the men would hitch up four
beautiful snow-white horses to one chariot, and four coal-black horses
to another chariot, and then race around and around the track in the
circus; and how everybody in the circus would be as excited as could be.
The little Cub Bear said, "Why can't we have a race? You know the four
beautiful black horses are down at the foot of the mountain, in a
little valley, and the four snow-white horses are down at the foot of
the mountain, in another valley. Perhaps we can get them up here and
run a race. I will drive one chariot."
And then the monkey said, "You never learned how to drive horses. I
learned how in the circus."
But the little Cub Bear was a very brave little bear, and he said he
would try anyway.
So the next morning, they went down to see if they could get the horses
to come up and run the chariot race. Jumbo saw them, and asked where
they were going. The monkey told him, and Jumbo said that was fine. He
would be very glad to act as judge of the race, and that he would go
half way down the mountain and draw a line, and that the first one to
get over the line would win the race.
So the monkey went down and told the black horses and the white horses
what they wanted, and they all agreed that it would be great fun to
come up and run a race, just as they used to in the circus. So they all
came up to the den; and they were the most beautiful horses you ever
saw. It took the monkey a long while to hitch up the horses. The bears
helped him all they could.
All four of the white horses were hitched to one of the red and gold
chariots, and the four black horses were hitched to the other red and
gold chariot; and the monkey chose the white horses, and the little
bear chose the black horses. The monkey got into his chariot and took
the reins, and little Cub Bear climbed into his chariot and took the
reins, and looked over to see how the monkey held them, and he tried to
hold them the same way.
Then the monkey said, "How are we going to know how to start, so we can
both start together?"
And the Circus Bear said, "I will tell you what to do. We will get the
beaver to slap his tail on the water, and that will be just as good as
firing a pistol. When you hear the noise, you both start at the same
time."
So the muskrat ran down and told the beaver what to do. And little Cub
Bear and the monkey waited, all ready to start the moment they heard
the noise.
Soon there was a sharp "Bang!" and the horses all started, just as
though they had been shot out of a gun. The Cub Bear let go the reins
the very first thing, and just hung on to the chariot for dear life.
The monkey looked over and laughed. The black horses were getting
ahead of the white ones, for they were running down hill at a terrible
rate. Papa Bear came out of the cave just then, and he was dreadfully
frightened, because he felt that his little Cub Bear would surely be
killed. But the horses had run so many times that they were not afraid
at all. They were going like the wind. First the white horses would be
a little ahead, and then the black horses would be a little ahead.
The little Cub Bear hung on as tight as he could, and he looked
straight ahead of him. Suddenly he saw a stump right in the way ahead.
The horses saw it at the same time, and two of the horses went on one
side of the stump and two on the other, and the chariot ran right into
the stump with a terrible smash and crash, and broke the chariot all to
pieces. One wheel rolled down hill one way, and the other wheel rolled
down the hill the other way, and two of the black horses went in one
direction and two of the black horses went in the other direction, and
the bear went right up in the air.
When his papa looked to see what had happened, he saw him come down
just like a rubber ball, all rolled up; and he rolled on down the hill.
And just when the monkey thought he surely would win the race, he saw a
great stone ahead of him, and two white horses went on one side of the
stone and two white horses on the other, and the chariot ran "Smash!"
right into the stone, and two white horses ran in one direction and two
white horses ran in the other direction, and one chariot wheel rolled
down the mountain one way and the other chariot wheel rolled down the
mountain the other way, and the monkey went right up in the air, just
as though he had been shot out of a gun.
The elephant was standing at the line, and just as the monkey flew past
him in the air, he reached out and caught hold of the monkey's tail
with the thumb and finger on the end of his trunk, and swung him on top
of his back. And just as he caught the monkey by the tail, the bear
rolled across the line like a great big rubber ball. And that was the
end of the race. The elephant never could make up his mind which won
the race, the monkey or the bear. Which one do you think won the race?
THE ANIMALS PLAN HOW THEY WILL DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST THE CIRCUS MEN
One night the animals were all seated around in the beautiful cave,
wondering why the men had not come to take them back to the circus. And
they all said that if the men came they never would go. And the lion
said that if a man came to get him, he would just hit him one terrible
blow with his paw, and if that didn't kill him, he would just take the
man's head in his mouth and bite as hard as he could, and that would be
the end of the man. And then the tiger said that he would hide in the
old dead tree where the owl sat, and when the man came, he would jump
on him, and bite him, and scratch him until there was nothing left of
him. And then the leopard said that if the man came, he would hide in
another tree farther down, and he would wait and wait, and when the
man got right under the limb, he would jump on him and bite him, and
scratch him until nothing was left of him.
Then the kangaroo spoke up and said, "If the man gets after me, I will
run as fast as I can, and if he is on horseback, and gets near to me, I
will take my little kangaroo by the tail and throw him away out in the
weeds, where they can't find him at all. And then I will go faster and
faster."
The little Cub Bear said, "Suppose he should catch you in a corner,
where you couldn't get away, what would you do?"
The kangaroo said, "I would stand on my hind legs, and I would wait
until he came right up close, and when he got close to me, I would just
strike out with my sharp three-cornered claws, and if he got too near
they would cut him just like a knife, and I guess that man would think
that he didn't want any more kangaroo."
Then the rhinoceros said that if he saw a man coming, and couldn't run
away, he would get right up close to him and stamp on him and bite him,
and that he might use that long horn on the end of his nose to toss him
up in the air.
Old Jumbo said, "I would just take that man by one leg and throw him up
in the air so high that when he came down there wouldn't be anything
left of him; and if there was anything left, I would step on him and
run my tusks into him, and I guess he wouldn't want any more elephant."
Then the beaver said he would swim under the water so that nobody could
see him, and he would get right under his house, and come up through
the little hole that was in the bottom of his house under the water,
and hide, and they wouldn't know where he was. And the badger said
he would get in a hole and hide. And all the other animals told what
terrible things they would do to this man, when he came to try to take
them back to the circus, because they all said they would rather live
out in the open air under the trees, and in the beautiful cave, than to
be taken back to the circus.
And when they had all finished, the little bear said, "Well, I am glad
I am not the man, because I wouldn't want to be killed in so many
different ways."
While they were talking, they heard a "Bang! Bang!" and the little Cub
Bear ran to the mouth of the cave; and what do you think he saw?
A three-legged bear. He called the Papa Bear, and when he came to the
mouth of the cave, he saw that the poor bear looked tired out and very
thin, but soon he saw that it was Jimmie Bear, his own son that had
been away for so long a time from home. So he called the Mamma Bear and
the Circus Bear and said:
"Come quick! Come quick! Here is little Jimmie Bear, and he is coming
back home."
The old owl said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?" just as if he had not heard that
it was little Jimmie Bear, but no one paid the slightest attention to
the owl, they were all so glad that Jimmie Bear was home again.
As soon as he came to the mouth of the cave, the Papa Bear gave him a
great big bear hug, and the Mamma Bear gave him a great big bear hug,
and the dear little Cub Bear gave him a great big bear hug, at least as
big a hug as a little bear could give, and that was much harder than
you can hug, you know.
Of course, the Papa Bear wanted to know all about Jimmie Bear, and
Jimmie said that he would tell him how he happened to go away from home
and to be gone so long.
JIMMIE BEAR'S STORY
"You remember that when I was a little bear, one day I disobeyed my
papa. Papa told me that he did not want me to go far away from home
that day, because there were some great grizzly bears coming, and they
might want to take a little brown bear away with them, if they should
happen to see him playing away from his home. I thought that I would be
very careful, for I loved my papa and my mamma very much, and I did not
want to be taken away by a great grizzly bear. But I was interested in
running around, and I thought I would try to see how far I could run
without getting tired, so I ran and ran, on and on, for a long time,
and before I knew it I was several miles from home, and I began to grow
tired.
"Of course, I remembered at once what my papa had told me, and so
started home without waiting for anything. Before I had gone very far
I looked at the ground, and I saw that some very large animal had come
that way. The tracks looked like great bear tracks, and though I had
never seen the tracks of a grizzly bear, I thought that these had been
made by the great grizzly that papa had told me about. Of course I was
sorry that I had been so careless and forgetful. I wanted to get home
without seeing the great grizzly, and just as quickly as I could. I
went another way; but before I had gone far, I heard a sound that made
my heart go pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, for it sounded like a great grizzly
bear, and before I could think what to do, the grizzly had caught me
and told me that he was going to take me a long, long way into the
woods. I asked him to let me go back to the cave to say good-by to papa
and mamma, but the grizzly said that he had not time to let me go, and
besides that, if both the Papa Bear and the Mamma Bear should try to
keep me, he might have trouble in getting me, even if he were bigger
than both of the bears put together.
"So he took me into the far-away land that I am going to tell you
about. It is a beautiful land, and there are the most beautiful trees
there, and many, many caves where bears could live. I learned to love
the land very much, and when I grew up, I married the most beautiful
brown bear in the whole world. And we have four of the dearest cubs
that you ever saw; but I always wanted to see Papa Bear, and Mamma
Bear, and little Cub Bear, and Johnnie Bear, so I have come back, and
it is a dreadful journey across a desert. There is no water to drink,
and nothing to eat, and, as you see, I nearly died."
The animals all wanted to go and see the beautiful land that the
three-legged Jimmie Bear told them of, but they were afraid to go for
fear that they might die of thirst.
While they were wondering how they would cross the desert, they
suddenly heard a loud "Bang! Bang!" and the little Cub Bear ran to the
mouth of the cave.
He said, "I see some very strange animals. They have the funniest
necks--almost as long as the giraffe's, but curved instead of straight,
and their heads are very different from the giraffe. The animals have
long hair on their necks, and on their backs they have two hills--small
ones of course; and they walk very quietly; you can scarcely hear the
animals when they place their feet on the ground."
Just then the old owl said, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o?"
But the animals did not answer. The Circus Bear said that he knew what
the animals were; they were camels.
"How many of them are there?" asked the Circus Bear.
And the little Cub Bear began to count, "One, two, three, four," and so
on, until he had counted twelve camels.
When the camels came to the cave, the Circus Bear told the little Cub
Bear to tell them to come in. The camels came in, but they said they
were not in the habit of living in caves. They lived on the desert.
"How can you live on the desert, when there is no water to drink, and
nothing to eat there?" asked the little Cub Bear.
The oldest of the camels replied that the camel was a very strange and
peculiar animal, and they were made so that they could live on the
desert, where there was nothing to drink and nothing to eat.
Of course, the little Cub Bear wanted to know how it was possible for
an animal to live without anything to eat, and with nothing to drink.
But the camel told him that they had a place to carry water and a place
to carry food. He had ten stomachs for water, and four stomachs for
food.
The little Cub Bear thought a while, and then said that it seemed to
him that if the camels could live so long on the desert, it would be
easy for them to get to that new place where the Jimmie Bear lived.
The old camel said that it would be very easy, and that the camels
could take not only themselves, but that they could carry some of the
other animals, for they were used to carrying big loads. That was
why the men wanted them. They used the camels instead of the freight
trains. So it was agreed that the little Cub Bear, and some of the
other animals, should ride on the camels' backs, and that they would
take turns riding. They would start at once, as soon as the camels had
a good chance to take a big drink of water, and fill all four of their
stomachs with food.
But the camels said, "You must be sure that you do not stick your sharp
claws into our backs."
The bears all agreed with the animals that they would be very careful,
and not dig their claws into the camels.
So they soon started. All of the animals ate and drank all that they
could hold. The little Cub Bear was to ride all of the time, for he was
so small and so weak. The three-legged bear, too, was to have a ride
most of the way, for he was very tired, and had come so long a journey
with only three legs. The lion said that he thought he could walk most
of the way. He was used to the desert. And the camel said he was very
glad that the lion was going to walk, for his claws were very sharp,
and he was afraid that the lion might forget and stick his sharp claws
into his back.
Well, you would have laughed to see the little Cub Bear try to get on
the camel. The sly old camel knew that the little Cub Bear could not
climb up, but the little fellow was in such a hurry to start, that the
camel let him try to get on the best way he could.
Finally, the little fellow said, "Dear old camel, please tell me how to
get on your back."
Then the camel said, "Why didn't you ask me before? There is only one
way that you can get on the back of a camel. I will kneel down and show
you."
But as soon as the camel knelt down, the little bear saw at once that
he could get on his back, and he scrambled up and said:
"Get up, get up, Mr. Camel."
The camel got up, but it was a very funny way that he did it. When the
camel straightened out his hind legs, the little Cub Bear nearly fell
off; then the camel gave his hind legs another hump, to get them real
straight, and what do you suppose happened to the Cub Bear?
He fell off, and got a great bump on the ground, but it did not hurt
him very much, and the camel tried it again. This time the little Cub
Bear managed to stick on.
The tiger, the kangaroo, the two rats, the ant-bear, and the leopard
all got on the camels.
The hippopotamus tried to get on a camel, and he looked so odd that
all of the animals laughed, and told him that he would have to walk
anyway, because he was too big to ride on the back of a camel. The
hippopotamus said that he thought he would stay in the lake the beaver
had made; that he could not go far from water, for he liked to live in
the water all of the time. The beaver said that he was going to stay,
too, and that if any of the men came, the hippopotamus could hide under
the water, and he could go into his little house and stay there out of
sight until the men had gone away. So they had to leave the beaver and
the hippopotamus behind. But they all said that some time they would
come again, to see the hippopotamus and the beaver. The badger, the
giraffe, and all of the other animals started on their long journey to
that land where the wife and the little cubs of Jimmie Bear lived.
That night they were all very tired, and they had to lie down to sleep
without anything to eat or any water to drink. All except the little
Cub Bear, who had some berries in a pail that he had carried on the
camel's back.
Little Cub Bear wanted them all, but he thought, "Poor papa has walked
all day, and has had nothing to eat or to drink, and the way was very
hard."
The little Cub Bear was very hungry and very thirsty--hungrier and
thirstier than you have ever been; but he said, very sweetly and very
politely, "Papa, you may have some of my berries."
But the Papa Bear said that he would not take any of them. Then the
little Cub Bear offered some of the berries to the Mamma Bear, but she
would not take any of the berries. He offered some to the Circus Bear,
and the Circus Bear would not take any. Then he offered some to Jimmie
Bear, and Jimmie Bear took just one. Then the little Cub Bear offered
some to all of the animals, but no one would take any, except the baby
kangaroo.
I rather think that the baby kangaroo would have taken all of them, but
his mamma would let him have only three. So the little Cub Bear had all
the rest of the berries, and they tasted ever so much better than they
would have tasted if he had not been willing to share them with the
other animals. Don't you think they did?
The next morning the animals started and traveled all day. That night,
just as it was getting dark, they came to the edge of the terrible
desert, and they saw a little stream of water and plenty of things to
eat, and there they stayed that night. In the morning they started
again, and soon came to the most beautiful trees, and grass, and
flowers that they had ever seen, and Jimmie Bear pointed up to a cave
on the mountain side where his wife and little bears were. And right
there were three of the cutest little bears that you ever saw playing
in the sun. What a noise they made when they saw their papa and all of
the other animals. The Mamma Bear ran to the mouth of the cave, and how
happy she was to see Jimmie. The animals were all as happy as could
be in the beautiful forest, and what do you think the little bears of
Jimmie Bear called the little Cub Bear? They called him "Uncle Cub."
That night the Cub Bear teased the Circus Bear to tell him stories. "I
want you to tell me a story about the time you took a ride in a great
boat."
And the Circus Bear said, "I will tell you a story about the time we
crossed the great ocean and went over to another land."
HOW THE CIRCUS CROSSED THE OCEAN
"You may not believe it, little Cub Bear, because there is so much
land, so many trees and rocks, and so little water where we are, but
three-fourths of the whole world is covered with water; and I am going
to tell you about the time that I crossed the ocean.
"The circus was in a great city. The men said it was New York. And one
day, without our knowing anything about it, they rolled the big wagons
down on the wharf where there was a great ship lying. This ship was as
large as a dozen houses all put together--as large as the circus tents
all put together, but a different shape, of course. And then we saw
that all the men that belonged to the circus were on board the ship.
They began to wheel the wagons on board, and took the animals out, one
at a time, and put them in great cages on board the ship.
"When it came time to put Jumbo on the ship, he didn't want to go. And
how do you suppose they got him on board? They put great straps under
him, and then they lowered a great rope from one of the masts and
fastened it into the strap, and they started the engine going, and the
first thing Jumbo knew, he was hanging in the air like a little toy
elephant, and he waved his trunk around wildly and kicked his legs,
but it didn't do him a bit of good. And then they hoisted him way up
in the air as high as a house, and then they swung him right over, and
lowered him clear through two or three decks, way down to the bottom of
the ship. And there they found a place for him.
"Then they brought back the straps, and put them around the
hippopotamus, and lifted him way up in the air and swung him over, and
lowered him way down into the bottom of the ship. And then they raised
the camel and the rhinoceros, in the same way. But the lions they
brought aboard, cages and all. After all the animals were on board, and
all the people belonging to the circus were on board, we heard a great
gong ring, and then the big engines began to turn, and the ship began
to move. The engine didn't go, 'Chu-chu,' like a locomotive, and there
was no sound, except, 'Throb! throb! throb! throb!' which kept up until
we were clear across the ocean, all day and all night, and the great
ship quivered as the engine throbbed.
"But this wasn't the worst of it. We hadn't gone very far, until
everything began to move. The cages went up and down, and up and down,
and up and down, until I got dizzy, and all the other animals seemed
to be dizzy. Then I felt so dreadfully, dreadfully sick, that I didn't
want to move or say anything to anybody, or look at anybody, or think
of anything.
"Once I opened one eye and looked out, and I saw that the men were
lying around just in the same way that the animals were, and they
looked awfully white and sick, and they didn't say anything to anybody,
and they didn't want anything to eat, and we didn't want anything to
eat, and I spent all my time wishing that the old boat would stop
rocking, and pitching, and turning, and twisting all the time. And the
old ship would go down, down, down, and just as soon as we would get
used to its going down, down, down, it would turn and go up, up, up,
and just as soon as we got used to its going up, up, up, it would turn
and go down, down, down again. And when the ship started up, my stomach
wanted to stay down, and when the ship would start down, it seemed as
though my stomach wanted to stay up. And so I got terribly sore on the
inside, and all the other animals seemed to be terribly sore. I hugged
myself as hard as I could to keep from coming to pieces. And I saw all
of the other bears hugging themselves. All the animals were lying down
looking sleepy. Everybody seemed to be sleepy, except some of the men
who were dressed in blue.
"They ran about, and whistled, and sang, and blew tobacco smoke in
our faces, and this made us feel terribly sick. But they seemed to be
having a splendid time. After a while I learned that these were the
sailors, and that they didn't mind the ship going up and down, and up
and down, all the time.
"After a while we all got so that we didn't mind it much. And then we
began to eat. It seemed as though we never would get enough. We ate,
and ate, and ate. We ate more than enough to make up for all the time
when we didn't eat anything. And some people who looked so pale, and so
sick, and so weak, seemed to eat and eat and eat, and some of them got
so fat, before we got to the other side of the water, that you would
hardly have known them.
"One day the ship pitched and tossed and rolled worse than it ever
had, and for some reason the engine stopped. I heard a man say that
something was broken, and as soon as the engine stopped, it just seemed
as though that old ship would go to pieces. She rose higher and went
lower. And one time there was a great splash, and the biggest lot of
water you ever saw came right down where the animals were.
"The hippopotamus thought it was fine, until he tasted the water, and
then he made up the most awful face that you ever saw; and you can
imagine what kind of a face it was, for he is homely enough anyway. His
nose is bigger than his face, and his mouth is right on the end of his
nose. I asked him what the trouble was, and he said it wasn't the kind
of water he liked; it tasted of salt and was bitter. It made him feel
as though he never wanted to eat anything again as long as he lived.
"I noticed, though, that the seal and the walrus seemed to enjoy it
ever so much. I asked them why, and they said that was the kind of
water they liked; that was the kind of water they had always lived
in--salt water.
"It seemed a long time, but after a while the engine started up again.
Then the ship was more quiet, but it kept going up and down, and up and
down, until we got clear across the water, and then we noticed that the
deck we were on became as quiet and steady as a floor. I heard one of
the sailor men say that we were coming into a harbor. And sure enough,
we soon stopped, and the men began to take the animals out again.
"They hung the elephant on the end of a long rope, with straps around
him, just as they had before, and the camel, and the hippopotamus,
and the rhinoceros, and they took us all out and put us on a train.
Everything looked so green and nice. How glad we were to be on shore!
But we couldn't understand anything the men said, because they all
talked a different language. It sounded like, 'Jabber, jabber, jabber,
mum-mum-mum.'
"I asked the lion, who had been in the circus longest, what it meant.
He said we were in a new country, where everybody talked a different
language, and that there were lots of other countries, where they
talked other languages.
"We stayed in this new country a long while, but finally came back. And
that is the end of my story."
The little Cub Bear said, "I would like to see the ocean, but I don't
think I would ride on a ship, if it makes you feel so terribly bad
inside."
And the Circus Bear said, "You would soon forget all about that and
just remember the beautiful things there are to see. I am glad I went
across."
Then the little Cub Bear went to bed and went to sleep, and that night
he dreamed so hard that--what do you think happened to him? He rolled
clear out of bed and fell into a stream in the cave--_kersplash!_
The Papa Bear asked him what the trouble was, and he said he dreamed
that he was on board ship and was nearly drowned. Some dreams, you see,
come true.
When morning came, the Papa Bear called the little Cub Bear to him and
said:
"Now, my little cub, it is time for you to go out alone, to see if
you can not find something to eat for yourself. I think if you go
and search carefully, you will be able to find some strawberries,
and if you can not find strawberries, you may be able to find some
blackberries. Don't try to eat any of the gooseberries that you will
see, because the wild gooseberries you will find are all covered with
stickers, and they will stick in your tongue. If you find a tree
filled with honey, come back and tell Papa Bear, because I think you
had better not try yet to get the honey out of the tree, for the bees
might sting you. And if you find any bumble-bees, be sure to let them
alone, for they have holes in the ground, where they make their honey,
and they have very long stingers, and they would sting you very hard,
so you better come home at once and tell papa. But if you find the
berries, you can eat all you want. And if you find a _big_ patch of
berries, you better come home and tell Mamma Bear, and then we will all
go and get all the berries we want to eat."
OUT ALL ALONE
So the little Cub Bear started out for the very first time in his
life all alone, and he did enjoy everything so much. He finally found
a patch of berries, and there he ate all he wanted, and then he went
over behind a log and lay down and went to sleep. When he awoke, it was
nearly dark, and he knew that he must hurry home. He started, but had
gone only a few steps when a little animal scampered across the path
and ran up a tree.
The Cub Bear thought he would like to see this animal, and so he
climbed up the tree after it, and there he found a strange looking
animal. It had a tail something like a rat, but it was a great deal
bigger than a rat, and bigger than a cat. It had long soft fur; but as
soon as the little Cub Bear touched it, it rolled itself into a ball,
and fell to the ground. Cub Bear clambered down the tree as fast as he
could, and there at the foot of the tree he found this strange animal
all rolled up like a ball. The Cub Bear smelt of it, and rolled it over
very carefully, and looked it all over, but it seemed to be dead, and
he felt so sorry to think that this little animal was dead.
And when he went home, the first thing he told his papa was, "Papa
Bear, I saw the strangest little animal to-day, and I am very sorry
that I killed it."
[Illustration: "I saw the strangest little animal to-day."]
Then he told the Papa Bear how the little animal scampered up the tree,
and how it rolled up into a furry ball, and how it dropped from the
tree and seemed to be dead. The Papa Bear said:
"My dear little Cub Bear, the animal was not dead at all. That was just
his way of fooling you, and making you think that he was dead, so that
you would not bother him any more. The animal was an opossum. That is
the way they always do when they are frightened, or when they think
some one is going to take them and hurt them."
Then the little Cub Bear told his papa what a fine time he had had, and
how he had found the berries and had eaten all he could, and that he
was nearly ready to go to sleep.
Next morning, bright and early, the Papa Bear called the little Cub
Bear again, for he wanted to teach him that he must work for himself,
and find his own living, and he said:
"Little Cub Bear, do you want to go again into the woods to-day, and
see if you can find some more berries?"
And the little Cub Bear said, "Yes, papa, I want to go, because I want
to learn to work for myself, and take care of myself."
So the Papa Bear again told him to be very careful, and if he saw any
men or any large animals, he was to come home as quickly as possible.
The little Cub Bear said that he would do this, and then he started
out joyously in the early morning light, while dew was on the ground,
to see if he could not find another berry patch. And sure enough,
before he had gone very far, he found a patch full of beautiful
blackberries. He ate all he could of these, but he got scratched many
times on his nose and on his paws. It did not hurt him any on his paws,
because they were thick, but on the end of his nose, where the skin was
very thin, sometimes the little Cub Bear was so badly scratched that he
felt like crying. But he was a brave little fellow, and did not cry,
and thought that as soon as he had enough to eat, he would go back and
tell the Papa and Mamma Bear where they could find all they wanted to
eat.
Pretty soon he left the berry patch, thinking he would go home a new
way, and so he started, and very soon came to a beautiful lake, larger
than the lake that the beaver had made near the den where they used to
live. It was so wide at some places that he could hardly see across the
lake. It was one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, and the most
beautiful lake that this little Cub Bear had ever seen. The little Cub
Bear sat down near a log to look at this lake, for it made him very
happy and contented to see such a beautiful sight.
While he was waiting, he saw in the air a very large bird, larger
than a hawk and larger than an eagle. This bird seemed to be flying
about over the water, and around, and around; and the little Cub Bear
wondered what this bird was trying to do. The most peculiar thing he
noticed about the bird was that he had such a long bill. The bill was
over a foot long, much larger than the bill of the ostrich, and larger
than the bill of a goose, or any bird that the little Cub Bear had ever
seen.
All of a sudden, this peculiar bird turned a sort of somersault and
fell head downward into the water. While falling, the bird's wings were
outstretched, and when it struck the water, there was a great splash
and the bird disappeared, but soon reappeared floating on the surface,
and shaking his head in a most peculiar way. The little Cub Bear
wondered and wondered what the bird was doing. He waited until this
strange bird began flying again, and then he noticed that there were a
number of other birds which looked just like this one, and that they
were flying about, and every once in a while one of these birds would
turn a sort of a somersault and fall with outstretched wings into the
water with a great splash, and then come up, and always bob his head in
just that peculiar way, as though he were nodding at some one.
The little Cub Bear thought that when he got home he would tell the
Papa Bear about it, and try to find out what kind of a bird it was. So
he hurried and got home just as the sun set.
And when his papa asked him how he got along that day, he told him
about the blackberry patch, and said that he hoped they would all go
the next day and get something to eat, for there were plenty of berries
for all the bears, and for any of the other animals who wanted to eat
the berries.
The lion and the tiger both said that they did not care for berries,
and the hippopotamus, too, said that he did not want any berries; the
rhinoceros did not care for berries, but all the birds and the monkey
thought it would be fine to go and get some of the berries the next day.
Then the little Cub Bear said:
"Oh, papa, I almost forgot. I want to tell you about the strange bird
that I saw to-day, at a big lake in the mountains; it was bigger than
a hawk, or an eagle. The bird had a long bill, and circled around, and
around, and then turned a somersault, and fell with outstretched wings
_ker-splash_ into the water; and then the bird came up and shook his
head as though he were nodding to a friend."
The Papa Bear said, "Why, I know what that was; that was a pelican, and
if you had been nearer to him, you would have seen a strange bag under
his bill."
The little Cub Bear said, "Well, what was he nodding his head about
when he came up out of the water?"
And the Papa Bear said, "You see, the pelican dived into the water to
get a fish, which he saw when he was flying about above the water, and
he dove down into the water so straight, that he caught the little
fish in his bill; and put it in the pouch under the bill, before the
little fish could get away. And then when he came to the surface, he
was nodding his head, so he could throw his bill up into the air, and
try to get the fish down his throat."
Then the Papa Bear said that one time he saw a pelican swallow the head
of a fish that he had found on the beach at the seashore, and this
head was larger than two baseballs, and when the pelican got the head
half way down his throat, it stuck there, and the poor pelican was in
great distress, for he could not get the fish's head up or down. The
Papa Bear said he did not know what happened to the pelican, for at
that time two men came up, and the Papa Bear had to leave as fast as he
could; but he thought perhaps these men might have helped the pelican
to get the fish's head in his throat either up or down.
The little Cub Bear said, "I think it was very foolish of the pelican
to try to swallow something so big without knowing whether he could get
it down or not."
The Papa Bear said, "You see, we never can tell what we can do, until
we try, and that is a good way to learn, if we are careful enough about
our trying."
Again, the next morning, the Papa Bear called the little Cub Bear very
early, and told him that he would like to have him go out again that
day, and that if he would be very careful he could go farther than he
had ever gone before.
So this time the little Cub Bear went a long, long way, and came to a
place he had never been before, either with his papa or without him,
and there was a great oak tree, and he saw high up in this tree little
squirrels running about on the limbs of the trees, with their bushy
tails over their backs. And the little Cub Bear, after he had found
something to eat, came back and watched the squirrels, and he saw that
they were gathering nuts and carrying them in their little paws into
holes in the top of the tree. He noticed, too, that sometimes these
little squirrels would sit on the end of the limb, just as the 'coon
did, and take in their little forepaws a nut and bite through the shell
of the nut very quickly, and get out the meat and eat it. He thought
this was very, very nice, but he wondered why they did not eat all the
nuts, and why they took some of them in the hole of the tree.
So that night, when he returned home, he talked to his papa about the
little squirrels he had seen that day, with their beautiful bushy tails
curling up over their backs, and their bright little eyes, and their
sharp little teeth and soft fur; then he said:
"Papa, why do the little squirrels take some of the nuts into the hole
in the tree?"
Papa Bear told him that it was because they were saving the nuts for
the winter, when the snow was on the ground and there were no nuts
to be had, and that the little squirrels spent all the winter time
inside the tree, where it was warm and cozy; and that whenever they
were hungry, they had this store of nuts to eat, and that the little
squirrels seemed to know whether it was going to be a long, hard
winter, or whether the winter was going to be mild, and that they knew
just how many nuts to put away for the winter, whether it was short or
long.
When it was night time, the little Cub Bear cuddled up in a ball and
said:
"Papa, I want you to tell me a story before I go to sleep, about the
inside of a nice warm tree, where the squirrels live."
And so the Papa Bear told this story:
THE PAPA BEAR'S LULLABY
"Once there was a big black papa bear, and he had a little black cub
bear. They lived in the woods a long way from any one. The mamma bear
had gone to the bear heaven, and so they lived alone.
"One night, as it was getting very, very cold, the papa bear went
a long, long way to find something to eat for the little bear, and
he walked and walked until he was very tired; but he could not find
anything to eat, for the snow had come and covered the ground, and all
the berries were gone.
"The papa bear grew more and more tired; he was so tired that as he
walked his eyes would close, and he could not keep them open, and his
head would nod so sleepily, but he kept on, hoping that he would soon
find something to eat for his little cub bear.
"So he walked and he walked. His eyes closed--he was so sleepy, sleepy,
sleepy. Soon he started home, and walked, and walked, and walked, until
he met the little cub bear, who had come out to meet him; and he said:
"'Dear little cub bear, I am so sleepy that I can not keep my eyes open
at all.'
"And the little cub bear said, 'I am so sleepy that I can not keep my
eyes open at all.'
"Then the papa bear said, 'I am going to find you a nice place to
sleep.'
"So they walked, and walked, and got sleepier, and sleepier, until they
came to a great hollow tree. Way up at the top of the tree was a hole
large enough for the little cub bear to get in. The papa bear told the
little cub to climb up the tree and go in the hole, and see if there
was a good place in the tree to sleep.
"The little cub did as his papa told him to; he climbed up and up until
he came to the hole in the top of the tree, and then he looked into the
hole to see if there was a good place in the tree for him to climb down
on the inside. The little cub bear turned around and backed into the
hole, and soon the papa bear could see nothing of the little cub bear,
for he was inside the tree. But he could hear him scratch as he slid
down on the inside of the tree.
"The papa bear listened, as he stood outside of the tree on the ground,
and he could hear the little cub's claws scratch, scratch, scratch.
And he listened again, and he could hear the little cub bear's claws
scratch, scratch, scratch. And he listened again, but he couldn't
hear anything. And he listened, and he couldn't hear anything. And he
wondered, and wondered, where the little cub was.
"So he listened again. This time he heard a faint sound, just inside
the tree, and he knew that the little cub bear was clear down inside
the tree at the bottom.
"The papa bear said, 'Go to sleep, dear little cub.'
"The little cub lay down in the bottom of the hollow tree, and curled
up into a little ball and closed his eyes. It was a nice, warm, soft,
sleepy place. And the papa on the outside heard the little bear lie
down, and so he listened and listened. And soon he heard the softest
little snore. Just the softest snore.
"And then the papa bear went a little farther, and found another hollow
tree, and he climbed up, and up, until he came to a big hole in the top
of the big tree, and he backed into the hole and scratched his way down
and down inside the hollow tree, until he came to the bottom, and then
he rolled himself up into a big, black ball, so snug and warm, and went
to sleep.
"He snored so quietly, and the little cub bear and the papa bear slept
all winter long in the cozy warm hollow trees, but once in a while the
papa bear would climb up, and up, out of the tree and go over to the
little cub's tree, and listen, and he would hear the faintest little
snore, so gentle.
"And then the papa bear would say, 'Dear little cub, I love you,' and
pat the tree.
"Then he would go back to his own hollow tree, up and up he would climb
outside, and down and down inside, until he came to the nice warm place
where his bed was.
"There he would curl up into a ball, and shut his eyes, and go to
sleep, and snore and snore and snore all night, and all day, and all
night, and all day, the whole winter long."
And the little cub was asleep before the story was ended, for, you see,
the story has no end.
Afterward many wonderful stories were told in the cave of Jimmie Bear,
and many wonderful things happened to the animals there; but I think
that we must say "Good-by" now to the dear little cub and to all of the
animals.
THE END
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bear Family at Home, and How the
Circus Came to Visit Them, by Curtis D. Wilbur
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