Green Forest Stories, Thornton W. Burgess [ebook reader color screen .TXT] 📗

by, when you are bigger, you will see him often. The fact is, he is your father.”

“What!” screamed the twins, quite horrified. “That dreadful fellow our father!”

“Just so,” growled Mrs. Bear. “Just so. And he isn’t dreadful at all. You mustn’t speak of your father that way.”

“But if it isn’t dreadful for a father to want to eat his own children, I guess I don’t know what dreadful means,” declared Boxer in a most decided tone. “I call it dreadful, and I hate him. I do so.”

“Softly, Boxer. Softly,” chided Mother Bear. “You see, he didn’t know you were his children. He knows it now, but until he saw me coming to your rescue he didn’t know it. He never had seen you before. You were simply two tempting-looking little strangers who, if I do say it, look good enough to eat.” She squeezed them and patted them fondly. “His name,” she added, “is Buster Bear.”

XIX The Cubs Talk It Over

Things seem good or things seem bad
According to the view you’ve had.

Mother Bear

That is why people so often cannot agree. Each sees a thing from a different point of view and so it looks different. Just take the case of Buster Bear and the twins. When Boxer and Woof-Woof looked down at Buster Bear climbing the tree after them, he seemed a terrible fellow. But when they saw him running from Mother Bear, he didn’t seem so very terrible after all.

Of course it was a great surprise to the cubs to learn that Buster Bear was their father. They couldn’t think or talk of anything else the rest of that day.

“Did you notice what a beautiful black coat he had?” asked Boxer, glancing at his own little black coat with pride.

“I like brown better myself,” sniffed Woof-Woof, whose coat was brown like their mother’s.

“He really is very big and handsome,” continued Boxer.

“And a coward,” sniffed Woof-Woof. “You noticed how he ran from Mother Bear.”

“That was because he discovered his mistake about us. Of course he wouldn’t fight then,” Boxer said in defense.

“I don’t care, I think he is a poor sort of a father, and I’m not a bit proud of him,” persisted Woof-Woof.

“I hope I grow up to be as big and handsome as he is. I’m glad my coat is black,” Boxer declared.

“Huh!” sniffed Woof-Woof. “A black coat may cover a black heart. We are lucky not to be inside that black coat of his right now.”

This was true, and Boxer knew it. He wisely attempted no reply. “Where do you suppose he lives?” he ventured.

“I haven’t the least idea, but I hope it isn’t near here. I don’t want to see him again ever,” retorted Woof-Woof.

“But he is your own father,” protested Boxer.

“I don’t care. If all fathers are like him, I don’t think much of fathers,” sputtered Woof-Woof.

Mother Bear came up just in time to hear this. “Tut, tut, tut,” said she. “I won’t have you talking that way about your father. By and by you will know him better and learn to respect him. He is the handsomest Bear I have ever seen, and some day you will be proud that he is your father.”

“I like mothers best,” confided Woof-Woof, snuggling up to Mother Bear. Mother Bear’s face suddenly grew very stern. “I want to know,” said she, “how he happened to find you up that tree.”

“We-we met him and he chased us up that tree,” explained Boxer.

“And how did you happen to meet him?” persisted Mother Bear. “That tree was a long way from where I left you at play and charged you to stay.”

The cubs hung their heads.

“We-we-we found his tracks and followed them,” stammered Boxer in a low voice.

“And got a fright, which was no more than you deserved,” declared Mother Bear. “You ought to be spanked, both of you, for your disobedience. Now you see what comes of not minding. I hope the fright you have had will be a lesson you never will forget. And don’t let me hear you say another word against your father.”

“No’m,” replied the twins meekly.

XX The Twins Get Their First Bath

You cannot learn to swim on land,
So waste no time in trying.
And if you keep from getting wet
You’ll never need a drying.

Mother Bear

Wonderful days were these for the twins, Boxer and Woof-Woof. Every day there was something new to see or hear or taste or smell or feel. And then there had to be tucked away in each funny little head where it could not be forgotten the memory of exactly how each of these new things looked or sounded or tasted or smelled or felt. Mother Bear was very particular about this. So, though the twins didn’t know it, they were really going to school all the time that they thought they were simply having good times and wonderful adventures.

One day Mother Bear led them over to the pond of Paddy the Beaver. How the cubs did stare when they got their first glimpse of that pond. The Laughing Brook was the only water they were acquainted with, and in that part of the Green Forest it was narrow and the pools were very small. They had not supposed there was so much water in all the Great World as now lay before them in the pond of Paddy the Beaver.

Mother Bear led the way straight to one end of the dam which Paddy had built to make that pond. She started across that dam. The twins followed. Every few steps they stopped to wonder at that pond. The Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind were dancing across the middle of it and making little ripples that sparkled as the Jolly Little Sunbeams kissed them.

Close to the dam the water was smooth, for the Merry Little Breezes had not come in there. Boxer and Woof-Woof looked down. Perhaps you can guess how they felt when they saw two little