Part 4

After the lion had finished the story, the little Cub Bear commenced to tease his papa for a story about the "Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but the Papa Bear said that he was tired of telling stories about the "Little-bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but would tell a story about a club-foot grizzly bear, if the little Cub Bear wanted to hear it. The little Cub Bear said that he did, and snuggled up as close as he could to his papa, for grizzly bears are as large as four or five grown-up brown bears all put together, and they have great teeth and claws. They like to eat little pigs, and little calves, and such things instead of berries and honey. When the little Cub Bear had snuggled up as close to his papa as he could the Papa Bear commenced.

THE TRUE STORY OF HOW TEN MEN DID NOT KILL CLUB-FOOT

"When I was a little cub bear, long before I met your mother, and long before you were born, I lived in a small cave near a store, where men used to meet and talk about the bears that they had killed, and mountain lions that they had seen, and all sorts of stories of that kind. Well, I used to come down in the dark sometimes, and put my ear up to the crack between the logs, and listen to what the men said.

"One evening, while the men were telling stories, one of them said, 'Did you ever hear of the big grizzly, called Club-Foot?'

"And all the men said that they had heard of Club-Foot, except one of the men that had not lived there very long. He said that he had never heard of this grizzly. The men told this newcomer that Club-Foot was a very large bear, one of the largest that had ever been seen. The men said that a great many men had tried to kill this giant grizzly, because he would kill their little pigs and their little calves and colts. Then, too, they wanted to get his great skin to make a carriage robe. But they had never been able to get the bear. For even if they hit him with bullets from their guns, it did not seem to hurt him much, but made him very angry. This grizzly, instead of running away from a man with a gun, would run right up to him and knock the gun out of his hand. No one could kill this bear.

"They said that the bear lived in the San Bernardino Mountains, and that his great tracks had often been seen, and that all of his toes were missing from one foot. That was the reason they called him 'Club-Foot.' Probably when he was a little bear he had been caught in a trap and lost his toes. They said that the bear made regular trips from Mount San Bernardino to the Antelope Valley, sixty miles away. He had made the trips so often, that he had made a sort of trail through the mountains. This trail, the men said, was only a mile or so back of the store.

"While the men were talking, another man came in and said, 'Old Club-Foot has started from his den, in the side of Mount San Bernardino, and is coming this way. He ought to be along here some time to-night.'

"Then one of the men that they called 'Alex' said, 'It is a fine moonlight night to-night. Let's all get our guns and go up to the old grizzly's trail, and see if we can't kill him. There is a pig-pen right near the trail, with little pigs in it, so that the grizzly will be sure to stop there long enough for us to shoot him.'

"Then the man that came in last and told about the Club-Foot's coming, said, 'There are two Irishmen that live a little farther on along the trail that are going to do the same thing. They are going to watch near another pig-pen that is farther on, and they think that they will kill Club-Foot.'

"'Well,' Alex said, 'there will be ten of us with guns of all sorts, and I think that those Irishmen will never see old Club-Foot, for he will never get as far as they are. We will have his skin by that time.'

"All the men said, 'We'll do it. It will be lots of fun, and Club-Foot will not bother the farmer's little pigs and calves, and colts any more.'

"All the men got their guns and rifles, and some lunch to eat while they were waiting for old Club-Foot to come along. I was very curious to see what the men would do and how they would kill the grizzly, and then, too, I wanted to see a great grizzly bear; so I followed the men, but I kept so far behind that they did not see me at all. As the men walked along they talked about how they would kill old Club-Foot, as they called the great grizzly bear. The men said they thought they would climb trees, and wait in the tops of them, where they would be safer, and where the bear could not get at them before they had had a chance to kill him. Two men, though, said that they were going to stay on the ground, and that the other men ought not to be afraid and climb in the tops of the trees; they ought to stay down on the ground and shoot the bear there, and they laughed at the men who said they were going to stay up in the trees.

"Finally they came to the path that old Club-Foot usually traveled, and there was the pig-pen with the little pigs in it. All the men but two climbed up into the trees, and there they waited. I went around and hid behind a rock, to see what would happen.

"Very soon there came a great crashing noise, and as I looked up along the path I saw old Club-Foot coming very fast. He didn't stop for anything. He went right through the bushes, and jumped over the tops of the small trees, and as he came out into the moonlight he seemed to be as big as Jumbo. I waited and thought I would hear the men shooting; but suddenly I heard the men who were on the ground crying out to the men who had gone up in the trees, 'Don't shoot; don't shoot. If you shoot the old Club-Foot and don't kill him, he will surely kill us.'

"And they dropped their guns and ran as fast as they could and commenced to climb trees. They climbed up a little way, but they were so frightened, and so hurried, that they would slip back.

"Old Club-Foot came right along, but he didn't notice the men at all, or pay any attention to them. He went right up to the pig-pen, and he hit it one blow and knocked it all to pieces. He took up two pigs, one in each of his two great forepaws, and off he went down the path, and not one of the men fired a single shot.

"Pretty soon the men came down from the trees, and then they all began to scold one another. One man said to Alex, 'Why didn't you shoot?'

"'Well,' he said, 'the old Club-Foot looked as big as an elephant, and I thought if I shot him and didn't kill him, that he would come and shake the tree down and eat me up.'

"And the other men said that was the reason that they didn't shoot. Then they said to the brave fellows who stayed on the ground, 'Why didn't you shoot?'

"'Well,' they said, 'we didn't know the bear was so big.'

"After the men had got nearly home, they sat down and talked it all over, and one of them said, 'What will you say to the two Irishmen that were going to kill Club-Foot? You know we thought we would kill him, and he would never get as far as the Irishmen?'

"And they all agreed that they would not say a thing about it to any one, but would wait and see what the Irishmen said when they came into the store the next evening.

"Well, the next evening, I went down and hid behind the house to hear what the men would say. And sure enough, very soon in came the two Irishmen. One Irishmen was named Mike, and the other, Pat. The men all said, 'Hello, Mike,' and 'Hello, Pat.' But no one said anything about old Club-Foot.

"After a while Alex said, 'Well, Mike, where is the bear skin you were going to bring us?' For Mike had said that he would have a bear skin for them that night. 'Didn't you see old Club-Foot?'

"'Yes,' Mike said, 'we saw Club-Foot. He came right by us, and we were sitting on the roof of the pig-pen. He knocked the pig-pen right out from under us, and took a little pig and ran off with it.'

"'Well,' Alex said, 'why didn't you shoot him?'

"And Mike said, 'Well--well, we couldn't find our guns.'

"And so that was the way that the ten men didn't kill old Club-Foot. And it is said that he is still living in the San Bernardino Mountains, and still goes over the same old trail every year. For some reason, no one has ever succeeded in getting him."

After Papa Bear had finished the story, little Cub Bear said, "I wish I were a great big grizzly bear, so that I would not be afraid of a gun." But the Papa Bear said, "It is always a good thing to be afraid of a gun, no matter how big you may be."

The little Cub Bear ran off to bed in the dark, and was soon fast asleep. In his sleep he reached out with his paw and gave a great slap, then a moment after he reached out again and gave another slap. Can you guess what he was dreaming about?

The next morning the little Cub Bear woke up very early, and rubbed his eyes, and wondered if any animal would come that day. He listened and listened, but he heard nothing.

Suddenly there was a loud "Bang! Bang!" and he knew that some animal was coming. The little Cub Bear ran to the mouth of the den, where he could hear a rustling sound. He looked down the path, but could see nothing. He looked again and this time he looked up among the branches of the trees, because he thought it might be a bird coming. And what do you think he saw? Away up among the branches of the trees he could see an animal's head. He said:

"I see an animal's head moving among the trees. His head has large ears and very large eyes, and two horns different from any horns I ever saw. They are blunt on the end, and stick straight up, and seem to have hair on the end of the horns. I can't see the animal, but I see a long, long neck, covered with big yellow spots. As the animal comes nearer, I can see more of his neck. And now I can see his legs and his body. His body looks something like a horse, only the hind legs are much shorter than the front legs. If you tried to ride on his back you would slip off behind, because it is slanting, like a hill, and all covered with those yellow spots."

Just then the owl saw this animal, and he said, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o-o?"

The animal did not answer a word, but came right along. Just as he got to the mouth of the den, the Circus Bear said, "I know who that is. That is Mr. Giraffe. Ask him to come in."

So the little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Giraffe."

But, of course, the giraffe could not come in.

Finally, he knelt down and stuck his long neck into the cave, and the Cub Bear said to him, "We are going to try to build a house big enough for all the animals, so if they come to see us we will have a place for them to stay. Can you help us?"

And the giraffe said, "I would be very glad to help you if I could, because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."

And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"

And the giraffe answered, "I don't know. I never built a house in my life. I eat the leaves off the trees and live out-of-doors, just like horses and zebras and cows. I never had a home. But, I have the longest neck of any animal in the whole world, and if there is anything up in the air you want me to look for, or if there is anything a long way off that you would like to have me see, I think I can look for it for you."

And the little Cub Bear suddenly thought of the hole way back in the back part of the cave where the wind came from, and he said, "I wish you would come in and see if you can put your head through a hole in the back part of the cave. Maybe you will find something."

And the giraffe said, "I will be very glad to try."

And so he wriggled, and twisted, and got into the den, and got away back in the back part, and he found a hole, and it was just large enough for his head and his long neck. He stuck his head farther and farther into the hole, and stayed there so long that the little Cub Bear was afraid something was wrong, so, he and the monkey took hold of the giraffe's tail and pulled just as hard as they could.

The giraffe finally pulled his head out of the hole, and the Cub Bear said, "What did you see?"

And the giraffe said, "I found it very dark, and I had to keep my head in a long time so that my eyes would get used to the darkness, but I could see that there was a large room--a large cave back of this cave. I couldn't see the end of it at all. I think if we could only get into this room, we would have a place large enough for all the animals in the circus, if they wanted to come here to live."

And the little Cub Bear said, "My! Wouldn't that be nice? I wonder, if all the animals would help, if we couldn't break down the rock and get into this room?"

That night, after all the animals had done all they could to get things to eat and to make the cave large enough, the lion and some of the other animals came into the cave. The giraffe was still out trying to get enough leaves to eat, and the elephant was eating the last of the baled hay that had been brought from the train wreck.

"Papa, please tell me another story about the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa'." The Papa Bear sighed a great sigh, because he was very tired, but he wanted to please the little fellow so he told the story of:

THE "CLUB-FOOT-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"--A GREAT SMASH-UP

"After the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' had had his nose split, had lost an ear, had nearly drowned three times, and all of the toes had been cut off of one foot, the Papa Bear thought he had better move away to some place where there were not so many things to hurt little bears. So he moved a long, long way to a place where there was a great coal mine.

"There the men would go down in the ground and dig coal from away under the ground. The coal was to be burned in stoves to keep little boys and girls warm in the winter time, for they do not sleep all winter as little bears do. The coal was used also to cook what the little boys and girls and their papas and their mammas ate--bread, and meat, and pies, and cakes, and everything nice. The coal was used to make the railway monsters go back and forth on the tracks, hauling men, and circus trains, and freight trains. A railway monster could not go, 'T-o-o-t, t-o-o-t!' or 'C-h-u, c-h-u, c--h--u!' move, or do anything without coal or coal-oil.

"The 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' thought that the coal mine was very fine. He liked to watch the men as they went down into the ground in the cages or elevators, and to watch them come up at night with their little coffee-pot-like lamps, hanging in the front of their caps to show them where to go in the dark. (You see that it was always dark way down in the mine.)

"He liked to watch the engine as it went, 'Puff, puff, puff!' but this engine did not move back and forth, like a locomotive. It was called a stationary engine, because it stood in one place, and how do you suppose it moved the men? One part of the engine was called a drum, because it was round like a drum, and on this was a great steel rope, like a thread on a great spool. As the drum or spool turned around and round, the rope would be wound up or unwound, and the rope went up over a great wheel and then hung down in the hole and the cage with the men in it was on the end of the rope, and as the rope unwound, the cage went down into the hole in the ground, and as it wound up the cage came up to the top of the ground. But the man had to be very careful to stop in time, or the men and cage and all would be wound around the drum and smashed and killed.

"Now the Papa Bear was very careful to tell the little bear never, never to touch the engine, or anything about it; but one day the 'Little Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' went into the engine room, when every one else had gone away to dinner. The engineer had just stepped out. It was a cold day, and the little bear enjoyed the warm room. The machinery was all so bright, some looked like gold, and some looked like silver, and some parts were a beautiful bright red, and others were a pretty green. After the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' had been there a while, he saw a sort of handle, and before he stopped to think, he reached up and gave it a strong pull, to see if it would move. And what do you think happened?

"The engine went 'Puff, puff, puff!' The wheels went around and around, and the drums commenced to wind the rope up very, very fast. My! how frightened the little Club-Foot-Bear was. He ran away as fast as he could run, but he was scarcely out of the door before the cage came to the top of the ground. But there was no one to stop the engine, and so the cage went on up to the wheel, and there was a great crash, and down came the wheel and cage. And on and on to the great drum, and then there was the greatest tearing, and smashing, and breaking you ever heard--'Bang! Bang! Smash! Smash! Crack! Crack! Crash! Crash!' and then the noise stopped, for the beautiful engine was broken all to pieces, and the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' ran and ran, and he didn't go home that night, nor the next night, for he was ashamed to meet his papa.

"And all the time he was saying, 'Oh, why didn't I mind my papa? The beautiful engine is all smashed, and the poor little donkeys that haul the coal cars way down in the mine will starve to death because no one can take them anything to eat.' But finally the 'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' went home. He found his papa feeling very sad, because he thought his little cub was killed. The papa kissed him, and gave him a great bear hug, but he felt very sorry, and so did the little cub."

When the Papa Bear had finished telling the story to his little cub, the little bear said very sweetly, "Good night, papa dear; I am always going to do just what you tell me to do." And the Papa Bear said, "I hope so, little cub."

That night the little Cub Bear got up in his sleep and ran as fast as he could, but he soon ran against his papa, who was sleeping there in the cave. The Papa Bear saw that he had been running in his sleep, so he took him and put him back in his bed. He must have been dreaming. Can you guess what he was dreaming about?

The next morning, after the animals had their breakfast, the little Cub Bear told them that the giraffe had said that there was a fine cave back of the one where the bears lived. So the animals all agreed that they would do the best they could, and all work together, to see if they could not succeed in making a hole large enough for all the animals to get through into the next cave, for you remember that the hole was only large enough for the long-necked giraffe to get his head through.

They went to work to make the hole larger. The mule kicked down rocks; the goat butted down more rocks; the monkey, the bears, the Mamma Bear, the Papa Bear, Susie Bear, the Circus Bear, and the little Cub Bear all carried the rocks out of the cave. The elephant helped as well as he could with his trunk, but the mouth of the cave was so small that he could not get in to work. They all worked until they were tired, but they could not get through into the cave although the hole was made much larger.

That night, before they went to sleep, the little Cub Bear teased his papa for a story about the "Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," but the Papa Bear was so tired, that he asked if some of the animals would not be willing to tell the little Cub Bear a story. The parrot said that she had heard the story told by the lion about his most narrow escape, and that she would be willing to tell the story of her most narrow escape, if little Cub Bear would promise not to ask his papa for another story that night. Of course, the little Cub Bear promised, and so the parrot told the story of her most narrow escape from death.

THE PARROT'S MOST NARROW ESCAPE

"Well," said the parrot, "I lived in South America, where there were many beautiful trees and many strange animals, and some of the largest snakes in the whole world. The very largest snake that lives there is called the boa constrictor. He is so large that he can swallow a deer whole, and, of course, a poor little parrot, or a chicken, or a rabbit, would not make a meal for him. It would hardly make a dessert.

"One day I was seated on the end of a long limb, nearly asleep, when suddenly I looked up and saw a man pointing a gun at me, and all ready to shoot me. I was so frightened that I could not move, and I expected him to shoot any minute, but I thought that before I was killed, I would take one last look at the blue sky that I was never to see again--and what do you think I saw? A great snake, a boa constrictor, coiled around the limb above me, and looking at me as though he wanted to eat me. I was more frightened than ever. It seemed that his look made me weak, sick and dizzy. Before I could move, the snake darted at me like a flash, seized me and began to swallow me. In a moment I was just like poor Jonah, only I was inside a snake instead of a whale. Everything was dark and I could not think, except that I knew I would die in a minute.

"Suddenly I heard a great 'Bang! Bang!' and the old snake began to squirm and twist. Then in a moment I felt something cut through the snake, and I was out in the bright sunshine, and the sun almost blinded my eyes. You see, the man had shot the snake instead of shooting me, as he had intended. He took me out and put me in a bag that he had with him.

"Then he sent me to the circus, and I was there until the wreck of the train. There I learned to talk like the men. I could say, 'Polly wants a cracker,' 'Come right in, ladies and gentlemen,' and many other things. I learned to sneeze like a man, 'Ker-chou-ou-ou, ker-chou-ou-ou,' and to snore like a man, 'Aw-hu, aw-h--u, a--w-h--u,' and to cough, 'H-u-h, h-u-h,' and to whistle so that I could call a dog, '---- --------,' and to cluck so that I could make the horses go, and I learned to ride on a dog's back without sticking my claws in so that it hurt him. But that is all my story."

"My," said the little Cub Bear, "what a narrow escape. We should never lose hope. I'm glad that you escaped."

After the parrot had finished the story, the little Cub Bear went to sleep. When he was sound asleep he suddenly began to breathe hard, as though he could not get enough air, and he twisted around and seemed to be smothering. Soon, though, he breathed a great, deep breath, and then he was still and quiet. I think that he must have been dreaming? Can you guess what he was dreaming about?

The little Cub Bear slept very late next morning, and when he got up all of the animals were up, and were talking about the cave and wondering whether any more of the animals would come that day.

While the animals were talking they heard two great noises, "Bang! bang!" and they knew that the beaver was telling them that some animal was coming.

The Cub Bear rushed to the mouth of the cave to see who it was, and he said:

"I see two rats coming up the path. They are perfectly white. With the two rats is a rat that is bigger than both of them. It has beautiful fur."

Just then the Cub Bear looked up at the owl, to see why the owl did not say "Who-o-o? who-o-o-o?" and just as he looked, he saw the old owl start from his perch, with a great fluttering of wings, and pounce like a flash down on the rats, and he caught one of the white rats in his claws and flew back to his perch, and there he began to eat this poor little white rat. But the other white rat and the muskrat came into the cave.

The little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Rat."

But the little white rat was trembling so that he couldn't say a thing.

And the Cub Bear said, "I am very glad I am not a little rat, to be eaten up by a wicked old owl."