Part 6

The Circus Bear said, "I know who that is. That is Mr. Hippopotamus. In the circus they called him Sam."

Just then the hippopotamus came up to the door of the cave, and the little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Hittopotamus."

You see, it was such a long word he could not pronounce it right.

So Mr. Hippopotamus came into the cave, and as he did so, he gave a great yawn, which frightened the little Cub Bear so that he ran way back to the back part of the cave.

The hippopotamus said, "Don't be afraid, little Cub Bear, because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus, and I wouldn't hurt you for anything."

So the little Cub Bear came back, and he looked the hippopotamus over, and saw that he did not have any hair on his body at all, and that he was about the color of an old slate, and that he had a very fierce looking mouth. After a little while the little Cub Bear plucked up courage, and he said:

"Mr. Hittopotamus, we are going to fix up the cave for all the animals, and we want to know if you can help us?"

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

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

"Well," he said, "I don't know. I can't dig in the dirt, because when I am at home I live in the water. Sometimes I stay all day in the water, with nothing but the end of my nose above the surface, and then I can stay under the water a long while without coming to the surface at all."

The Cub Bear said, "That is just like the whale."

And the hippopotamus said, "Yes, just like the whale; only when I come to the surface, I don't make such a big blowing sound as the whale does."

Well, the little Cub Bear thought a long while, and he couldn't think of anything the hippopotamus could do.

So he said to his papa, "Papa, can you tell me what the hittopotamus can do to help us in building our house?"

And the Papa Bear said, "I don't know. I think if he would go down and live in the lake above the dam that the beaver built, that would be the best place for him, and he could help the beaver to make the dam higher, and then when the beaver went to sleep the hippopotamus could make some kind of a noise to warn us when people were coming."

So the hippopotamus agreed that he would do this, and he went down to the lake. Just before he left he said, "I am very hungry, and I would like something to eat."

The little Cub Bear said, "We have plenty of meat here, if you would like some meat."

The hippopotamus said, "I don't eat meat. I eat grass like a horse, only the grass I eat I get way down under the water."

The little Cub Bear said, "Then you will find plenty to eat down in the lake."

And the hippopotamus went away to the lake, where he got acquainted with the beaver, and planned to live there as long as the animals were living in the forest.

THE MONKEY'S STORY OF HIS MOST NARROW ESCAPE

The next evening the Cub Bear and all the animals were sitting in the cave, just before the little Cub Bear was to go to bed, and the little Cub Bear teased his papa for a story, but his papa said he was too tired to tell a story, for he had hunted all day, trying to find a honey tree, and had not found one. The little Cub Bear kept on teasing for a story, but his papa said he was so tired he could not think of a story to tell.

Then the monkey said, "I will tell you a story, little Cub Bear, if you wish me to."

And the Cub Bear said, "Yes, tell me a story of your most narrow escape from death."

"Well," said the monkey, "I once belonged to a man who owned a drug store, in a large city. He had another monkey, named Jim, and a parrot. The parrot was a large, green bird, and he had learned to talk like a man. He could say, 'Good-by,' 'Good-day,' 'Good-night,' 'Polly wants a cracker,' and 'See what you did.'

"One day Jim and the parrot and I were all down in the cellar, and the druggist forgot and shut the door, so that we had to stay down there. But we had a fine time, running about and jumping over everything that came in the way. We jumped up to the ceiling, and jumped from one beam to another, and then down to the floor. I pulled Jim's tail and ran away. He would run after me and pull mine, and jump away quickly. And once or twice the parrot got hold of us, but he really hurt us with his great bill and his claws, so that we kept out of his way most of the time. In fact, he hurt me so badly once, that I pulled a couple of his tail feathers out, just to show him how it felt.

"Jim and I were scampering across the floor, when we struck a great carboy--a great bottle--larger than a pail, and knocked it over on the cement floor, where it broke. The stuff that was in it ran out on the floor. And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!'

"This big bottle had on it in large letters 'S-u-l-p-h-u-r-i-c A-c-i-d.' We were sorry that we had tipped over the bottle, but we didn't feel very bad until Jim found that he had some of the stuff on the end of his tail, and it was burning him terribly. It burned so much that he tried to run away from the end of his tail. But he was so careless in jumping about, that he struck another big carboy sitting on the floor, and he knocked that over, too, and spilled the stuff that was in it.

"And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!'

"This bottle had on it in big letters, 'N-i-t-r-i-c A-c-i-d.' This stuff ran out all over the floor, and ran into a hole in the center of the floor, that was shaped something like a bowl. I got some of it on my foot, and it didn't feel very good. So I commenced to run around, too, and jump up to the ceiling, and thought I would keep off the floor.

"There we found a great big can filled with glycerine. Do you know what glycerine is? It tastes sweet, like honey. I dipped my foot in the glycerine, to see if it would stop the smarting, and Jim put the end of his tail in it, too. But we were so excited, that the first thing we knew, we tipped over the entire can of glycerine on the floor, and that went into the same hole where the other stuff was.

"And the parrot said, 'See what you did! See what you did!!'

"After we tipped over the glycerine, we noticed a horrible smell, so Jim and I and the parrot all went back in the corner, as far away as we could get, and stayed there about two hours. But after a while, Jim's tail hurt him so badly, and the smell was so awful, that he commenced to run around in the most reckless way. He jumped all over the cellar, and finally, just as he was over this hole, where all the stuff had been spilled, he knocked down a great stone jug, and that dropped right into the stuff, and there was the most awful explosion that you can imagine. The drug store and everything in it was blown away up into the air, and poor Jim flew up so high that we never saw him again.

"The parrot was terribly frightened, but when he looked up and saw Jim go up out of sight in the air, he said, 'Good-by, good-by.' And then he looked over at me, and saw that nearly all of my hair was burned off, and he looked at himself, and saw that his feathers were nearly all gone. He said: 'See what you did! See what you did! See what you did!'"

When the monkey had finished his story, the little Cub Bear said:

"Well, what was it that made such a terrible explosion?"

The monkey said, "I don't know; but afterward I saw some men walking around the ruins of the drug store, and they saw a broken carboy and an empty can of glycerine, and they said the stuff must have become mixed, and made nitro-glycerine."

Then the little Cub Bear said, "That stuff must be a good deal like the stuff we found in the box that opened the way into the beautiful cave for us."

And the monkey said, "Yes, I heard one man say that nitro-glycerine and dynamite were the same; that dynamite was just nitro-glycerine mixed with a kind of clay."

The next night, just before bedtime, little Cub Bear said he wanted to hear the story the little bird had promised to tell them. All of the animals said they wanted to hear it, too, so the little bird began:

THE STORY OF THE LITTLE BIRD'S ESCAPE FROM THE ALLIGATOR

"You see, I am a very small bird, and I live in a very peculiar way. Almost all day I spend my time in the open mouth of the great alligators as they lie on the shore of the river, basking in the sun. You see, they keep their mouths open for me, so that I can pick up the little flies and bugs that torment them very much. These I eat, and so both the alligator and I are pleased. The alligator is very careful not to hurt me, for, you see, if he should close that great mouth it would kill me.

"Well, one day the alligator went to sleep as I was hopping about on his great tongue, and he dreamed that he was in the water swimming after a big fish. In his dream he thought he was near the fish and just going to catch it, and 'Snap!' down came his great upper jaw right on top of the poor little bird in his mouth. I expect you wonder why I was not killed. Well, the alligator had a hole in the roof of his mouth just large enough for me to get through, and it happened that I was right under it, when his mouth closed, so I got out through the hole."

"How did he happen to have such a hole in his mouth? Do all alligators have such holes in the roof of their mouths?" said the little Cub Bear.

"No," replied the bird, "but a man once tried to catch this alligator. He took a stick that was sharp at both ends, and nearly as big around and as long as his forearm, and when the great alligator swam after him to catch and eat him up, the man turned around and thrust his arm with the pointed stick into the alligator's mouth. As the alligator's jaws came together with a snap, the stick went clear through his upper jaw, and although the alligator got away, and got the stick out, the hole was always there, and that hole saved my life."

"Well," said the Cub Bear, "I think I'd rather live in a safer place than an alligator's mouth."

That night the little Cub Bear slept very soundly, and was out early next morning, wondering whether any more animals would come. Soon he heard a noise, as if some kind of an animal was coming up the path, but he could not see what it was.

Suddenly he said, "I see the strangest thing; it looks like a bird's head on a long pole. The eyes are as big as large marbles; the long pole-like neck seems to have hair on it. The bill is much bigger than a goose's bill."

Just then its body came into sight.

"It has a beautiful tail of black and white feathers, and small wings with beautiful feathers. Its neck is as long as a yard stick, and its legs are covered with great scales, and are as long as its neck."

Just then this strange bird or animal saw an ear of corn lying in the path, and lowered its queer head to the ground, and began to swallow it. The ear of corn was larger around than the animal's neck, but it swallowed the ear whole without chewing it. The little Cub Bear was too much surprised to say anything, so he watched and could see the ear of corn going down the throat of this queer animal. The skin of the neck stretched so that the ear of corn could go down. It started down in the front of the neck, and then twisted around to the back of the neck and disappeared into the top of its body.

The owl called out, "Who-o-o-o? who-o-o-o?" but this strange animal did not reply. The little Cub Bear told the Circus Bear about the corn, and he said:

"Oh, I know who that is; that is the ostrich."

So the little Cub Bear said to him very politely, "Come in, Mr. Ostrich. We have a beautiful cave, and we would like to have you live with us."

But the ostrich said that he would stay a while, but that he liked to lie out-of-doors, and that if any one came to capture him he would hide his head behind a bush, or in the sand, and he would be all right.

"But," said the little Cub Bear, "they could see your great body, and so could capture you."

But the ostrich said, "Never mind; that's my way."

So the ostrich stayed many days. There was not corn enough for him to eat, but the bears found that he could eat apples, or oranges, or hay, or grass; in fact, one day the little Cub Bear found the ostrich at the scene of the train wreck, picking up all sorts of things to eat, and, strange to say, eating broken window glass and pieces of iron and stone.

What a strange dinner that was!

When the little Cub Bear returned to the cave that night, he noticed the striped tail of the raccoon, and at once asked the raccoon to tell how he was caught and put into the circus. So the raccoon stopped washing his face long enough to tell the true story of:

HOW THE RACCOON WAS CAUGHT

"Well," said the raccoon, "I don't remember when I lived in the forest, or any time before I was caught. When I opened my eyes, I found that I was living in a house where there were a man and woman, several little girls, and a boy named Ray; and the only thing I know about the way I was caught is what I heard the boy say.

"The boy said that one time he was hunting through the woods, and he saw a nest, way up on the top of a tree. He climbed up the tree, and there he found two little coons, myself and my little brother. We had just been born, and neither of us had opened our eyes yet. He carried us home to his house; and we were crying for something to eat. We cried and cried and cried. And the little boy didn't know what to do with us or how to feed us. But, finally, he left us with an old cat that had just had some little kittens. Very soon we found that the old cat was willing to give us something to eat, and she nursed us, just as she did her own little baby kittens. The first thing I saw, when I opened my eyes, was this dear old cat who had been a mother to me and to my little brother. But we grew so fast that we were soon nearly as big as the cat.

"I remember one time my brother ran after the old cat for his breakfast, and she didn't want him to have any, but he was so big and strong that he rolled her over and thought he was surely going to get his breakfast. The old cat began to spit and scratch and bite at him, and my brother ran away as fast as he could.

"After that neither one of us ever got another meal from that old cat, because when we came near her, she would box our ears, and if we tried to get anything to eat, she would scratch and bite us. After that we got very hungry, but finally the boy bought a rubber nipple at the store and put it on an old bottle he found in the house; then he filled the bottle with milk and gave it to my brother; and you would have laughed to see that little coon sit up, just like a little boy, and hold the bottle up to his mouth and suck, and suck, and suck, until all the milk in the bottle was gone. And then when the bottle was empty, the boy Ray filled it again and gave it to me, and I did the same thing. After that, two or three times every day, this boy would give us a bottle of milk, just as he would feed a little baby. And we ate and ate and grew and grew, until the first thing we knew, we were full grown, almost as large as a dog.

"One day, my brother and I saw some chickens out in the back yard. We never had eaten anything in our lives but milk, but the first thing we knew, we found ourselves running after a chicken, and we caught it and killed it, and ate it all up, and the boy came out and found us all covered with feathers. He scolded us like everything. He said that that was his little pet chicken that he wanted to keep always--a beautiful white bantam. And after that, he put us in a cage until he got a chain, and ever since that time, we have either been in a cage or had a chain around us, to keep us from killing chickens, or doing things that people did not want us to do.

"Finally, a man came along and saw us and said he wanted to put us in the circus. And the boy sold us to the man, and that is how we got acquainted with all the other animals. We have been very happy and contented all our lives, because men have always given us all we wanted to eat, and taken good care of us, and while we are glad now that we can climb trees and run around in the woods, still we remember that the men were very kind to us."

As the little Cub Bear went off to bed he said, "Well, I guess that is the best way, to be caught before you are big enough to know anything about the woods and the mountains and the hills;" and the coon said, "That is true."

The next day the monkey was telling the little Cub Bear about the chariot races they had in the circus--how the men would hitch up four beautiful snow-white horses to one chariot, and four coal-black horses to another chariot, and then race around and around the track in the circus; and how everybody in the circus would be as excited as could be.

The little Cub Bear said, "Why can't we have a race? You know the four beautiful black horses are down at the foot of the mountain, in a little valley, and the four snow-white horses are down at the foot of the mountain, in another valley. Perhaps we can get them up here and run a race. I will drive one chariot."

And then the monkey said, "You never learned how to drive horses. I learned how in the circus."

But the little Cub Bear was a very brave little bear, and he said he would try anyway.

So the next morning, they went down to see if they could get the horses to come up and run the chariot race. Jumbo saw them, and asked where they were going. The monkey told him, and Jumbo said that was fine. He would be very glad to act as judge of the race, and that he would go half way down the mountain and draw a line, and that the first one to get over the line would win the race.

So the monkey went down and told the black horses and the white horses what they wanted, and they all agreed that it would be great fun to come up and run a race, just as they used to in the circus. So they all came up to the den; and they were the most beautiful horses you ever saw. It took the monkey a long while to hitch up the horses. The bears helped him all they could.

All four of the white horses were hitched to one of the red and gold chariots, and the four black horses were hitched to the other red and gold chariot; and the monkey chose the white horses, and the little bear chose the black horses. The monkey got into his chariot and took the reins, and little Cub Bear climbed into his chariot and took the reins, and looked over to see how the monkey held them, and he tried to hold them the same way.

Then the monkey said, "How are we going to know how to start, so we can both start together?"

And the Circus Bear said, "I will tell you what to do. We will get the beaver to slap his tail on the water, and that will be just as good as firing a pistol. When you hear the noise, you both start at the same time."

So the muskrat ran down and told the beaver what to do. And little Cub Bear and the monkey waited, all ready to start the moment they heard the noise.

Soon there was a sharp "Bang!" and the horses all started, just as though they had been shot out of a gun. The Cub Bear let go the reins the very first thing, and just hung on to the chariot for dear life. The monkey looked over and laughed. The black horses were getting ahead of the white ones, for they were running down hill at a terrible rate. Papa Bear came out of the cave just then, and he was dreadfully frightened, because he felt that his little Cub Bear would surely be killed. But the horses had run so many times that they were not afraid at all. They were going like the wind. First the white horses would be a little ahead, and then the black horses would be a little ahead.

The little Cub Bear hung on as tight as he could, and he looked straight ahead of him. Suddenly he saw a stump right in the way ahead. The horses saw it at the same time, and two of the horses went on one side of the stump and two on the other, and the chariot ran right into the stump with a terrible smash and crash, and broke the chariot all to pieces. One wheel rolled down hill one way, and the other wheel rolled down the hill the other way, and two of the black horses went in one direction and two of the black horses went in the other direction, and the bear went right up in the air.

When his papa looked to see what had happened, he saw him come down just like a rubber ball, all rolled up; and he rolled on down the hill.

And just when the monkey thought he surely would win the race, he saw a great stone ahead of him, and two white horses went on one side of the stone and two white horses on the other, and the chariot ran "Smash!" right into the stone, and two white horses ran in one direction and two white horses ran in the other direction, and one chariot wheel rolled down the mountain one way and the other chariot wheel rolled down the mountain the other way, and the monkey went right up in the air, just as though he had been shot out of a gun.

The elephant was standing at the line, and just as the monkey flew past him in the air, he reached out and caught hold of the monkey's tail with the thumb and finger on the end of his trunk, and swung him on top of his back. And just as he caught the monkey by the tail, the bear rolled across the line like a great big rubber ball. And that was the end of the race. The elephant never could make up his mind which won the race, the monkey or the bear. Which one do you think won the race?

THE ANIMALS PLAN HOW THEY WILL DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST THE CIRCUS MEN

One night the animals were all seated around in the beautiful cave, wondering why the men had not come to take them back to the circus. And they all said that if the men came they never would go. And the lion said that if a man came to get him, he would just hit him one terrible blow with his paw, and if that didn't kill him, he would just take the man's head in his mouth and bite as hard as he could, and that would be the end of the man. And then the tiger said that he would hide in the old dead tree where the owl sat, and when the man came, he would jump on him, and bite him, and scratch him until there was nothing left of him. And then the leopard said that if the man came, he would hide in another tree farther down, and he would wait and wait, and when the man got right under the limb, he would jump on him and bite him, and scratch him until nothing was left of him.

Then the kangaroo spoke up and said, "If the man gets after me, I will run as fast as I can, and if he is on horseback, and gets near to me, I will take my little kangaroo by the tail and throw him away out in the weeds, where they can't find him at all. And then I will go faster and faster."

The little Cub Bear said, "Suppose he should catch you in a corner, where you couldn't get away, what would you do?"

The kangaroo said, "I would stand on my hind legs, and I would wait until he came right up close, and when he got close to me, I would just strike out with my sharp three-cornered claws, and if he got too near they would cut him just like a knife, and I guess that man would think that he didn't want any more kangaroo."

Then the rhinoceros said that if he saw a man coming, and couldn't run away, he would get right up close to him and stamp on him and bite him, and that he might use that long horn on the end of his nose to toss him up in the air.

Old Jumbo said, "I would just take that man by one leg and throw him up in the air so high that when he came down there wouldn't be anything left of him; and if there was anything left, I would step on him and run my tusks into him, and I guess he wouldn't want any more elephant."