CHAPTER V.

THEY MEET THEIR FIRST BEAR

When Coppertop opened her eyes, her first thought was that the bed had become very hard, and her second that she was cold, freezingly cold.

She sat up. And then, to her great surprise, she saw that she was on the bed no longer, but seated upon something white and glistening.

“Why, it’s snow!” she declared, “beautiful, crisp snow. But however did I get here?”

“What does that matter?” said a familiar voice, and, looking round, she beheld Tibbs and Kiddiwee.

With a scream of delight, she flung her arms round them, but Tibbs wriggled out of her reach--he never liked being hugged.

“But I simply must know how we all came to be here,” repeated Coppertop, when she had recovered from her excitement.

“It’s awfully strange!”

“Don’t bother about a little thing like that. Girls _are_ funny,” remarked Tibbs, grandly.

“But it isn’t a little thing,” said Coppertop.

“Well, anyhow, _you_ are!”

“’Es, and Tibbs and me is too,” piped up Kiddiwee, “twemendously small!”

“Small, are we?”

“Rather,” assured Tibbs; “why we’re not as large as these snowflakes, see.”

“Good gracious!” exclaimed Coppertop, “so we are! However did it all happen?”

“Oh, _don’t_ bother about that,” said Tibbs again.

“Pretend we know,” suggested Kiddiwee.

“All right. That’ll be rather fun,” assented Coppertop. And so it was settled.

“Oh, how the dear old snow sparkles,” she continued, “and isn’t it a lovely day. Perhaps we can find a fine day here to take back to Australia for Mummie and Daddy to arrive on. Do let us try.”

“You can’t take one without asking the South Wind,” warned Tibbs. “He’d be furious about it. Besides this is too cold for December.”

“My toes are freezing, they are,” cried Kiddiwee.

“Joggle them about,” suggested his sister.

“I can’t, Cece, they won’t joggle!” came a pitiful little voice.

“Then rub some snow on them,” said Tibbs.

While this was being done, he climbed up to the top of a snowflake to spy out the land, and find the way to the South Wind’s Castle.

“It’s just snow, and snow, and snow, as far as I can see,” he cried.

“Oh, do let me see,” said Coppertop. “Pull me up.”

Tibbs lent her his hand from above, and Kiddiwee did his best to push from below. But she found it was not at all easy to climb a snowflake. Each piece that she took hold of melted away under her warm hands.

“How wonderful!” she exclaimed, when she at last reached the top. “And look--LOOK! Whatever is it? It looks like a huge white mountain running towards us.”

They all looked. And, surely enough, a great white mass was charging down upon them.

“It’s a Teddy Bear!” exclaimed Kiddiwee, “only it’s the hugestest that ever was.”

“Kiddi is right!” cried Tibbs. “It _is_ a bear, I can see his mouth and teeth.”

“Oh, dear! Whatever shall we do?” cried Coppertop, beside herself with fear.

“Don’t be ’fraid, Cece,” said Kiddiwee; “I’ll just shoo him away.”

“Stupid! He wouldn’t even see you,” cried Tibbs. “Look out, he’s coming! We must run!” And he seized hold of the other two and pulled them along with him, helter-skelter down the snowflake, away from the bear. They could hear the thud! thud! of his great paws, under which the snow shook.

Faster and faster they ran! But the bear was running faster still. When suddenly the thud of the paws stopped.

After waiting breathlessly for some moments, Tibbs climbed up to a snowflake top to see what had happened.

“Look! Look!” he cried, and the other two scrambled up after him.

A few yards away sat the mighty bear, solemnly staring at a large brown hair-ribbon.

“Why, it’s mine!” exclaimed Coppertop, feeling one of her plaits and finding the ribbon gone; “but how tremendous it’s grown!”

“He’s never seen one before,” whispered Tibbs. “Look, I believe he is going to eat it.”

“’Es. P’r’aps that will do instead of us!” said Kiddiwee.

And so it did, for no sooner had the bear swallowed the hair-ribbon--which he seemed to enjoy--than he smiled broadly, and, lifting up one paw, he waved it at the children in the friendliest way.

“He really does look very nice and soft and kind,” whispered Coppertop to Tibbs, “he reminds me, somehow, of my big bed. I wonder if we ought to speak to him.”

“Yes, let’s,” agreed Tibbs. “I haven’t spoken to many bears--it’ll be rather a rag!”

After a little hesitation, the three adventurers walked boldly up to the Polar Bear.

“How-de-do?” he said, smiling his broadest smile, and holding out his paw, which, however, was far too large for them to shake.

“How do you do, Mr. Bear?” replied Coppertop, in her best society manner, and feeling, somehow, that she was addressing her bed, which was rather absurd.

“Mr. Bear, indeed!” said the animal, and went off into peals of huge laughter. “Bare! Ho, ho! That’s a good one! Bare, indeed! With all this fur on! I’m not nearly as bare as you are!” And he rolled about and gurgled with mirth.

And the children laughed too, although not quite sure what the joke was.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“That’s just what I was going to ask you,” interrupted Tibbs, “because there aren’t any bears at the South Pole, you know.”

“That’s why we came,” replied the Bear. “We thought it was quite time they had some. But what about yourselves?”

“We’re looking for the Castle of the South Wind,” said Tibbs. “Perhaps you can tell us the nearest way.”

“That I can,” replied the Bear, good-humouredly. “Jump up on my back and I’ll give you a lift. I’m going that way myself.”

“How perfectly splendid!” cried Coppertop, joyfully, and scrambled up on to his back, followed by the others. And off they started at a big jog-trot.

Swiftly over the snow and ice trotted the Bear, climbing, at times, to the top of a huge iceberg, to spy out the way, and the children had to hold tightly to his fur as he swung along.

Mile after mile they went, and Coppertop felt sure they must be nearing their journey’s end.

“We shall soon get the December day at this rate!” cried Tibbs.

“Will you?” screamed a piercing voice in their ears. “Not if I can prevent it! Oh, dear me, no!”

“The Clerk of the Weather!” they all three exclaimed.

Before they could utter another word, they found themselves in the midst of a terrific blizzard.

And a squalling, snowing, blowing, freezing, breezing, tearing, scaring blizzard it was, to be sure.

It blew the children down from the back of the Bear, and rolled them over and over. It bowled them along helplessly till they arrived at the bottom of a great bank of snow. And here it could blow them no further, and so it heaped the snow over them, in a large white mound, until they were completely buried.