The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bear Family at Home, and How the Circus Came to Visit Them, by Curtis D. Wilbur This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. 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 Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEAR FAMILY AT HOME *** Produced by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE BEAR FAMILY AT HOME 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 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 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: [Pg 1] [Pg 2] [Pg 3] [Pg 4] "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 [Pg 5] [Pg 6] [Pg 7] [Pg 8] [Pg 9] 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." [Pg 10] [Pg 11] [Pg 12] [Pg 13] 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. 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 [Pg 14] [Pg 15] [Pg 16] [Pg 17] 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.'" [Pg 18] [Pg 19] [Pg 20] [Pg 21] 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. [Pg 22] [Pg 23] [Pg 24] [Pg 25] 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. [Pg 26] [Pg 27] [Pg 28] [Pg 29] [Pg 30] "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." [Pg 31] [Pg 32] [Pg 33] [Pg 34] 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." [Pg 35] [Pg 36] [Pg 37] [Pg 38] Then the Papa Bear said, "That is right. Now you must run back into the cave and go to sleep." T...