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

started in the wrong direction. Of course, she had to take Woof-Woof with her, and because Woof-Woof got tired after a while, Mother Bear couldn’t hunt as thoroughly as she would have done had she been alone.

At first Woof-Woof felt very badly indeed at the loss of her little twin brother. Down in her heart she admired him for his boldness in running away, but when she thought of all the dreadful things that might happen to him out in the Great World, she became very sorrowful. This was at first. After she had tramped and tramped and tramped behind Mother Bear, tramped until her feet ached, she became cross. She blamed Boxer, and quite rightly, for those aching feet. The more they ached the crosser she became, until she tried to make herself believe that she didn’t care what happened to that heedless brother.

“I don’t care if I never see him again,” she grumbled. “I don’t care what happens to him. Whatever happens will serve him right. I wish Mother Bear would remember that my legs are not as long as hers. I’m tired. I want to rest. I want to rest, I do. I want to rest. Ouch! My feet are getting sore.”

Now such news as Jimmy Skunk’s punishment of Boxer travels fast through the Green Forest, and it wasn’t long before the story of it reached Mrs. Bear’s ears. She growled dreadful threats of what she would do if she met Jimmy Skunk, though she knew very well that she would politely step aside if she did meet him, and then she started for the place where Boxer had been given his lessons in politeness by Jimmy Skunk.

There was no doubt about the place when they reached it. “Phew!” cried Woof-Woof, holding her nose.

Mother Bear merely grunted and started off faster than before. Woof-Woof had to run to keep up with her. Mother Bear had that smell to guide her now. She knew that all she had to do now to find her runaway son was to follow up that smell.

So it was that just as the Black Shadows were beginning to creep through the Green Forest, and poor little Boxer, a very lonely, miserable and frightened little Bear, was beginning to dread another night, he heard a crashing in the brush, and out came Mother Bear and Woof-Woof. With a glad squeal of joy, Boxer started to run toward them. But a growl, such an ugly growl, from Mother Bear stopped him.

“Don’t you come near us,” said she. “You can follow us, but don’t you dare come a step nearer than you are now. It would serve you right if we had nothing more to do with you, but after all, you are rather small to be wandering about alone. Besides, there is no knowing what more disgrace you would get us into. Now come along.”

Boxer looked at Woof-Woof for some sign of sympathy. But Woof-Woof held her head very high and turned up her nose at him. “Phew!” said she.

XXXIV All Is Well at Last

If you are taught not to forget
Your punishment you’ll ne’er regret.

Mother Bear

Mrs. Bear is one of those mothers who believe in punishment. She believes that the cub who is never punished for wrongdoing is almost sure to grow up to be of little or no use in the Great World, provided he lives to grow up at all. She doubts if he will live to grow up at all. So her cubs are promptly punished when they disobey or do wrong, and they are punished in a way to make them remember.

Now when Boxer, the lost little cub who had had such a dreadful time, saw Mother Bear and his sister Woof-Woof, he thought all his troubles were at an end. Perhaps you can guess what his feelings were when he was stopped short by a growl from Mother Bear. He wanted⁠—oh, how he wanted⁠—to rush up to her and snuggle against her and feel her big paws gently patting him.

But there was to be none of that. It was plain that Mother Bear meant exactly what she said when she told him to come no nearer. And when he looked to his twin sister, Woof-Woof, she turned up her nose and it was quite clear that she wanted nothing to do with him.

Poor little Boxer. He didn’t understand it at all at first. You see, in the joy of being found, he had forgotten that he still carried that dreadful scent with which Jimmy Skunk had punished him, and so no one, not even his mother or sister, would want him very near. When Woof-Woof cried “Phew!” as she turned up her nose he remembered. He hung his head and meekly shuffled along after his mother and sister, taking care to get no nearer to them. He didn’t dare to, for every few steps Mother Bear would swing her head around and grumble a warning.

And this was just the beginning of Boxer’s punishment. Day after day he tagged along, far behind, but always keeping his mother and sister in sight. You may be sure he took care to do that. He had had quite enough of seeing the Great World alone. Not for anything would he be lost again. But it was hard, very hard, to have only what was left when Mother Bear found a feast. What he didn’t know was that Mother Bear always took care that there should be a fair share left. At such times Woof-Woof took great joy in smacking her lips while Boxer sat up watching from a distance.

When they slept Boxer had to curl up by himself. At first this was the hardest of all. But little by little he got used to it. He didn’t know and Woof-Woof didn’t know, but Mother Bear did, that this was good for him; it was making him more and more sure of himself. And tagging along behind as he did every