The Wishing-Stone StoriesBurgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Science
The Wishing-Stone Stories
Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy fiction; Wishes -- Juvenile fiction
But it was only once in a while that Tommy played the hunter. Somehow,
since he had learned so many things about the lives of the little
feathered and furred people about him, he cared less and less about
hunting them. So most often, when the Green Forest became the Great
Woods, he was Buster Bear. That was more fun than being a hunter, much
more fun. There was only one drawback--he didn’t know as much about
Buster Bear and his ways as he wished he did.
So now, as he trudged along towards the pasture to drive home the cows
for the evening milking, his thoughts were straying to the Great Woods
and Buster Bear. As he came to the old wishing-stone he glanced up at
the sun. There was no need to hurry. He would have plenty of time to
sit down there a while. So down he sat on the big gray rock and his
thoughts went straying, straying deep into the Great Woods far from
cows and milking and the woodpile just beyond the kitchen door. Bears
never had to chop wood.
“I wish,” said Tommy dreamily, “that I were a bear.”
That was all, just a little spoken wish, but Tommy was no longer a
dreamy boy with evening chores yet to be done. He was a little black
furry animal, not unlike an overgrown puppy, following at the heels of
a great gaunt black bear. In short, Tommy was a bear himself. All about
him was the beautiful wilderness, the Great Woods of his boyish dreams.
Just behind him was another little bear, his twin sister, and the big
bear was their mother.
Presently they came to an opening where there were no trees, but a
tangle of brush. Years before, fire had swept through there, though
Tommy knew nothing about that. In fact, Tommy knew little about
anything as yet save that it was good, oh, so good, to be alive. On
the edge of this opening Mother Bear paused and sat up on her haunches
while she sniffed the air. The two little bears did the same thing.
They didn’t know why, but they did it because Mother Bear did. Then
she dropped to all fours and told them to remain right where they were
until she called them. They watched her disappear in the brush and
waited impatiently. It seemed to them a very long time before they
heard her call and saw her head above the bushes as she sat up, but
really it was only a few minutes. Then they scampered to join her, each
trying to be first.
When they reached her, such a glad sight as greeted them! All about
were little bushes loaded with berries that seemed to have stolen their
color from the sky. They were blueberries. With funny little squeals
and grunts they stripped the berries from the bushes and ate and ate
until they could eat no more. Then they wrestled with each other, and
stood up on their hind legs and boxed until they were out of breath
and glad to lie down for a rest while Mother Bear continued to stuff
herself with berries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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