he cubs watched him in wonder. Fearing that
Mother Bruin might at any moment appear and misunderstand the situation,
the Hermit was about to call the dog and return to the house, leaving
the bears in possession of the tree. Before he could pucker his lips
for a whistle, however, the situation was taken from his hands. One of
the cubs, upon shifting his position, loosened a small apple which fell
directly into the upturned face of the dog. With a yelp of pain and
astonishment Pal scuttled for the cabin, his tail between his legs and
his interest in bear cubs suddenly evaporating.
The Hermit looked up in mock reproach at the cub. "Aren't you ashamed to
treat my dog that way after I fed you sugar and gave you my lunch?" he
asked. "And now I suppose I shall have to give you more sugar to get you
to come down. I don't care to have Mother Bruin with her three hundred
odd pounds roosting in my apple tree."
He went to the house, returning with a number of lumps of sugar and
several apples. The cubs at once scrambled from the tree, keeping their
eyes greedily upon the good things with which they allowed themselves to
be tolled some distance into the woods. There the Hermit left them to
feast while he made good time back to the cabin and his chastened dog.
In their wanderings one day in late summer the cubs, now so fat and well
fed that their gait was a mere waddle, came upon a great patch of
blueberries. Here was a treat indeed. They rose upon their hind legs and
greedily stripped the branches until their faces were so stained with
juice that Mother Bruin would scarcely have recognized them.
Now it happened that they had found the same blueberry patch on the bank
of the Little Vermilion that Mokwa, the big bear, had discovered after
his strange ride the year before. And as so often happens, history
repeated itself. The cubs wandered to the edge of the river, and seeing
a log with one end resting on the bank and the other in the water, the
more venturesome of the twins crouched upon it with his face close to
the water to look for fish. His weight at the end caused the log to tip.
Into the river he went, heels over head, while the log slipped loose
from its moorings.
At that point the water was not deep and the bear soon regained his feet
but, as he scrambled back upon the log, it drifted farther out. The next
moment it was caught by the current and carried swiftly along, the
little bear crouching upon it in a frightened
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