XLIX. In the Face of a Common Peril 149
L. While There is Life, There is Hope 153
LI. The Boy from the Valley Farm 156
LII. Twinkly’s Fellow Refugees 160
LIII. A Way for the Squirrel Family 163
LIV. What Happened to Fleet Foot 166
LV. Twinkly Eyes Goes House-Hunting 169
LVI. At the Sugar Camp 173
LVII. A Feast and a Fast 176
LVIII. The First Snow 179
LIX. Twinkly Eyes Goes to Bed 182
THE ADVENTURES OF
Twinkly Eyes
THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR
I
TWINKLY GETS A DUCKING
Two such roly-poly babies you never did see!
Mother Black Bear had named them Woof and Twinkly Eyes.—And you never in
all your life met two such rollicking black balls of mischief as those
two cubs!
Small wonder that Mother Black Bear needed such long black claws, long
white teeth, and such a terrifying growl, with two such treasures to
protect.
Why, she wouldn’t even let Father Black Bear come near them when they
were so young, for fear some time they would plague him too far and make
him lose his temper!
As the warm days of July ripened the blueberries along the slopes she
used to lead the cubs down Mt. Olaf into the lowlands on berrying
expeditions. And my! How they did enjoy these trips! How they stuffed
themselves on the luscious fruit, snatching up great pawfuls of it,
leaves and all, till their fuzzy sides rounded out like puff balls!
Then, too, there were often the most delicious sour-tasting ants under
the logs and boulders that Mother Black Bear turned over for them! Life
was one feast, what with the abundant food provided by Mother Black Bear
herself and that found everywhere in the woods about them! Those cubs
hadn’t a complaint to make!
True, they climbed right over one another in their eagerness to get the
best of everything, and they growled little baby growls in imitation of
their mother and squealed little piggish squeals of delight. But that
was all a part of the game.
When there was nothing to eat in sight—or rather when they were too full
to hold any more—they began to yawn and stretch and curl themselves up
together like so many sleepy kittens.
Then when they had slept enough there were wrestling matches and boxing
bouts and playing pranks on mother,—pulling her ears and clambering over
her till she was forced to box their ears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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