n. Sprawley, too, was silent for a moment, and then he
said in a low, impressive voice, "The Counterpane Fairy brought him."

There was a long, quavering cry from the mermen, and several of them
dived off into the water and did not reappear again for some minutes;
when they did, their faces were all wrinkled up with anxiety.

They climbed up onto the edge of the ice and sat there blinking at the
sky for a while in silence; then one of them said in a trembling voice,
"Well, we haven't been doing anything but just frightening the bear cubs
a little."

"How about knocking Fatty down with a piece of ice?" asked Sprawley,
derisively.

"Scritchy did that," cried all the mermen but one. "We didn't do it.
Scritchy did that."

The merman who hadn't spoken, and who was Scritchy, still did not say a
word. He looked at the others with his goggle eyes and then he tumbled
off into the water and swam away as fast as he could and did not come
back any more.

All the other mermen looked after him in silence until he had
disappeared; then one of them said in an awe-struck voice, "It's bad for
you, Sprawley, ain't it? Just think what you've been doing."

"Pooh," said Sprawley, pretending he was not frightened, "what do I
care? I can fix it all right."

"How?" asked all the mermen together.

"Well, listen, and I'll tell you," said Sprawley. "To-morrow Father and
Mother Bear are going hunting, and all of us little cubs are to go with
them. I suppose this strange fairy cub will go with us, and when we
stop to rest I'll get him away from the others and near the edge of
the water. You must come under the ice and break off the piece he is
standing on, and float him far, far away toward the South until he
melts."

"Yes, yes! we'll do it," cried all the mermen jumping about and
shouting. Then they turned to Sprawley. "Come," they cried, "let's have
a game in the water before you go back."

"That I will," said Sprawley, and with that what should he do but strip
off his bear-skin just as though it were a coat, and there he was,
nothing more nor less than a merman who had been dressed up in an old
skin, pretending to be a bear cub.

Sprawley and all the other mermen dived off into the water and began
splashing and shrieking and pulling at each other and getting farther
and farther away.

"All the same, I don't think you'll float me off," said Teddy to
himself.

Very quietly he crept to where the bear-skin lay on the ice, and takin