“Scritchy did that,” cried all the mermen but one. “We didn’t do it. Scritchy did that.” The merman who hadn’t spoken, and who was Scritchy, still did not say a word. He looked at the others with his goggle eyes and then he tumbled off into the water and swam away as fast as he could and did not come back any more. All the other mermen looked after him in silence until he had disappeared; then one of them said in an awe-struck voice, “It’s bad for you, Sprawley, ain’t it? Just think what you’ve been doing.” “Pooh,” said Sprawley, pretending he was not frightened, “what do I care? I can fix it all right.” “How?” asked all the mermen together. “Well, listen, and I’ll tell you,” said Sprawley. “To-morrow Father and Mother Bear are going hunting, and all of us little cubs are to go with them. I suppose this strange fairy cub will go with us, and when we stop to rest I’ll get him away from the others and near the edge of the water. You must come under the ice and break off the piece he is standing on, and float him far, far away toward the South until he melts.” “Yes, yes! we’ll do it,” cried all the mermen jumping about and shouting. Then they turned to Sprawley. “Come,” they cried, “let’s have a game in the water before you go back.” “That I will,” said Sprawley, and with that what should he do but strip off his bear-skin just as though it were a coat, and there he was, nothing more nor less than a merman who had been dressed up in an old skin, pretending to be a bear cub. Sprawley and all the other mermen dived off into the water and began splashing and shrieking and pulling at each other and getting farther and farther away. “All the same, I don’t think you’ll float me off,” said Teddy to himself. Very quietly he crept to where the bear-skin lay on the ice, and taking out his knife he cut a long slit up the back of it. Then not waiting for the mermen to come back he hurried home again over the ice to the bears’ cave, and crawling in he laid himself down again between the sleeping cubs. The little bears were beginning to stir themselves and the Mother Bear was yawning and stretching when Sprawley came sneaking into the cave again. “Why! why!” said the Mother Bear, “where have you been?” “I ain’t been anywhere,” said Sprawley. “I just thought I heard a sea-lion roaring and I went out to see.” “Well, there’s no use your going to sleep again,” said the Father Bear, “for we have to go a long ways to-day, and it’s time we were getting ready to start now.” With that he shuffled out of the cave, followed by the Mother Bear, and stood looking about him. Presently the cubs came out, too, still blinking with sleep. “Oh, Mother!” cried Dumpy, “just look at Sprawley’s back!” “Why, what’s the matter with it?” asked the Mother Bear. “There ain’t anything the matter with it,” growled Sprawley, twisting his head round and trying to see. “Yes, there is too!” cried Fatty. “Oh my! Sprawley’s splitting hisself all down the back.”