d Kernel Cob went up to him as brave as you please and put out his
hand to the bear and said:

"Hello, Teddy!" but the bear growled and showed his teeth.

"Don't start anything like that," said Kernel Cob, "unless you want to
get hurt."

"Well, don't you call me names," said the Cub.

"Who's calling you names?" asked Kernel Cob.

"You are," said the Cub.

"What name did I call you?" asked Kernel Cob.

"Would you like to be called after a make-believe bear if you were a
real one?" asked the Cub.

"No, I guess not," said Kernel Cob.

"Well then," said the Cub.

"Excuse me," said Kernel Cob, for he liked to see anybody who had
spunk.

And they shook hands and were friends at once.

"Who are you?" asked the Cub, "and what are you doing up here?"

"I'm Kernel Cob," said he, "and this is Sweetclover and Jackie Tar,"
and the cub came forward and shook hands with them, and really he had
very nice manners for a bear who lived so far away from nice people
and things.

"You haven't told me what you are doing way up here."

"We're looking for Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather," answered Kernel
Cob, "and we believe they are up here near the North Pole. Are we far
away from it?"

"About a hundred miles or so," said Wak Wak, for that was the cub's
name.

"Goodness," said Sweetclover, "how are we ever going to walk so far in
this dreadful cold."

"If you'll come to my cubby hole," said Wak Wak, "we can sit down and
talk it over. It's not far." So they came to his cubby hole, they went
inside and it was nice and warm and comfortable.

"You must stay the night with me," he said.

So he covered them over with some pieces of fur and they all went to
sleep.

But, in the middle of the night, they were awakened by loud yelping,
and running to the doorway of the hole they saw thousands and
thousands of what looked like little lanterns dancing on the ice.

"What are all these lights for?" said Kernel Cob.

"Those aren't lights," said the Cub, "those are eyes."

"Who's eyes?" asked Sweetclover.

"Wolves' eyes," said the Cub.

"Stand back inside of the hole," said Kernel Cob, and he drew his
sword and stepped outside.

On came the wolves, yelping and growling and showing their great
yellow teeth.

And one by one as they came up to devour our little friends, Kernel
Cob's sword flashed, and with each stroke down came a wolf.

And when the last one had been slain Kernel Cob wiped his sword upon
his coat and we