Chapter I

It happened at noon, when all the mosquitoes hid in the marsh to escape the heat.

Mr. Long-Nose settled under a leaf and fell asleep. His sleep was disturbed by a despairing shout.

"Wow! Wow! Help! Help!"

Mosquito Long-Nose jumped out from under the leaf and called:

"What happened? Why are you screaming?"

A whole swarm of mosquitoes flew about, buzzed and shrieked--apparently for no reason at all.

"Oh, my! Just think what happened! A bear came into our marsh, stretched himself out full length and fell asleep. And as he lay down, he crushed five hundred of us; and as he opened his mouth, he swallowed a hundred of us. Some trouble, brothers. We hardly escaped being crushed to death ourselves."

Mosquito Long-Nose grew furiously angry--angry at the bear and at the foolish mosquitoes, who were shouting to no purpose.

"Stop your squealing!" shouted he. "It's all very simple. I will go and chase the bear away. Your noise is foolish."

Mosquito Long-Nose grew even more angry and flew away. He reached the marsh and there lay the bear in the very thickets where the mosquitoes had lived from the beginning of time.

The Bear lay stretched full length, snoring and whistling like a trumpeter.

"The beast! Grabbed the place that doesn't belong to him ... killed off so many mosquitoes ... and now he sleeps so soundly! It's outrageous!"

"Hey, Uncle, what are you doing?" shouted Mosquito Long-Nose through the forest. He shouted so loudly that he grew afraid of himself. Fuzzy Mishka opened one eye and saw nothing. Then he opened the other eye and all he could see was a mosquito hovering over his nose.

"What do you want, Comrade?" grumbled Mishka, getting angry, and justly so. There he was all ready for a nap when along comes this good-for-nothing squealing at him and waking him up.

"Hey, Uncle, get away! Get up and go away in a friendly fashion!" advised Long-Nose.

Mishka opened his eyes, looked at Mr. Impudence, snorted and grew furiously angry.

"What do you want, you good-for-nothing?" growled Mishka.

"Leave our quarters or I'll eat you up, fur coat and all."

The bear was very much amused. He turned over on the other side, covered his face with his paw and fell asleep, snoring immediately.