Chapter III: Part 3

"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.

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.