g
out his knife he cut a long slit up the back of it. Then not waiting for
the mermen to come back he hurried home again over the ice to the bears'
cave, and crawling in he laid himself down again between the sleeping
cubs.

The little bears were beginning to stir themselves and the Mother Bear
was yawning and stretching when Sprawley came sneaking into the cave
again.

"Why! why!" said the Mother Bear, "where have you been?"

"I ain't been anywhere," said Sprawley. "I just thought I heard a
sea-lion roaring and I went out to see."

"Well, there's no use your going to sleep again," said the Father Bear,
"for we have to go a long ways to-day, and it's time we were getting
ready to start now."

With that he shuffled out of the cave, followed by the Mother Bear,
and stood looking about him. Presently the cubs came out, too, still
blinking with sleep.

"Oh, Mother!" cried Dumpy, "just look at Sprawley's back!"

"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked the Mother Bear.

"There ain't anything the matter with it," growled Sprawley, twisting
his head round and trying to see.

"Yes, there is too!" cried Fatty. "Oh my! Sprawley's splitting hisself
all down the back."

"Why! why!" cried the Father Bear, "what's this?" He shuffled over and
looked at Sprawley's back, and then without a word he began to tear and
pull at the bear-skin. In another minute he had it off, and there stood
the merman shivering and blinking at them with his mouth open like a
gasping fish.

"Oh dear! oh dear!" cried the Mother Bear, turning whiter than ever.
"He's not my cub after all," and she sat down and began to whine and
cry. But Father Bear gave a growl, and rising on his hind legs he
fetched the merman a cuff that sent him tumbling head over heels across
the ice.

Father Bear was after him, but before he could reach him the merman was
up and running for the open strip of water in the distance. Father Bear
chased him the whole way; sometimes he caught him and gave him a cuff
that sent him flying, but at last the merman reached the water and dived
into it. He must have had a sore head for days afterward, however.

When the Father Bear came back again, he was panting and growling.
"There," said he, "I guess that's the last time any of the mermen will
try to play their tricks on us. Come, come," he went on, "it's time we
were off for our hunting."

But the Mother Bear only shook her head. She had been doing nothing
since she saw that Spr