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[Pg 42] <h2>THE STORY OF THE "LITTLE-SPLIT-NOSED-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA"</h2> "You remember that the little bear that had his nose split by the great circular saw lived with a man who owned a large saw-mill. For a long time after the little bear had his nose sawed in two, he kept away from the mill. "He said to himself, 'I will never go in that mill to be hurt again, and I will mind my papa.' For his papa had told him to keep out of the saw-mill. "But one day the little Split-Nosed Bear was playing with a dog that belonged to the man who owned the saw-mill. They were having a fine time, playing bear hunt. The little Split-Nosed Bear was playing the bear, and the little dog was playing that he was a big bloodhound dog running after the bear. The dog was really a very small dog, white, with brown ears, and a stub tail. You see he lived in a saw-mill, too. The little Split-Nosed Bear would growl, g-r-o-w-l, g-r-o-w-l, and the little dog would run away as if he was terribly frightened. Then the dog would run after the little Split-Nosed-Bear and bark, and he could bark very, very loud for so small a dog. Bow! wow! wow! Bow! wow! wow! Then the little Split-Nosed-Bear[Pg 43] would run away just as if he was terribly frightened. Then the little Split-Nosed-Bear would hide, and it would take the dog a long time to find him. "They were having a splendid time jumping around and running in and out of the dark places, when the little Split-Nosed-Bear ran into the saw-mill, for he was playing so hard that he forgot all about the saw and what his papa had told him. The little dog was so close to the little Split-Nosed-Bear that the little bear ran as fast as he could, and jumped up on to an iron platform that looked just as if it were made on purpose for a little bear to jump up on, and there the little Split-Nosed-Bear stood looking down at the dog and g-r-o-w-l-i-n-g, g-r-o-w-l-i-n-g, at him. The little dog jumped up as far as he could and bit the Split-Nosed-Bear on his heel. Then the little Split-Nosed-Bear whirled around like a flash, and what do you suppose happened? "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! "And such growling and howling and squealing you never heard. The little dog ran away as fast as he could, for he was really frightened this time. 'K-i-yi! K-i-yi! K-i-yi!' he howled, as he ran out of the door. "The Papa Bear heard the noise. He was afraid that the Split-Nosed-Bear was really killed this time, so he ran as fast as he could to the little bear, and—what do you suppose he saw? There was[Pg 44] the little Split-Nosed-Bear rolling about on the floor, and up on the iron platform where he had been playing was a little brown bear's ear. Oh! how sorry the Papa Bear felt to think his poor little bear had lost his ear, just because he had forgotten to do as his papa had told him to do. You see the little Split-Nosed-Bear had been standing on the iron platform of a band saw. What he thought was a strap whirling around two wheels was really a saw. When the Split-Nosed-Bear had turned around quickly, his ear had come against the saw, and it was sawed off quicker than you could think, with a zip-p-p and a buz-z-z. "The Papa Bear licked the stump of the ear and said, 'I am so sorry, dear little Split-Nosed-Bear, that you forgot and did not mind your papa.' "As soon as he could talk the little Split-Nosed-Bear said, 'I'll always mind my papa after this.' "The Papa Bear put him to bed, but his ear hurt so that he wakened several times in the night. After the little Split-Nosed-Bear got well they always called him the little 'One-Eared-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa.' "This is the end of my story about the little Split-Nosed-Bear," said the Papa Bear, as he finished. "Now, little Cub Bear, run to bed in the back of the cave, and go to sleep as quickly as you can." The little Cub Bear ran quickly to bed, and went to sleep in the dark alone, for he wanted to be a[Pg 45] brave little bear. But after he had been sleeping a while, he talked in his sleep and said, "I am always going to mind my papa." Then he felt of his ear and m-o-a-n-e-d. Can you guess what the little Cub Bear was dreaming about? The next morning the little Cub Bear wakened very early, and as soon as he had rubbed his eyes, he wondered if any of the animals would come that day. He listened, the Circus Bear listened, and Susie Bear listened. Pretty soon they heard something coming up the path, and little Cub Bear rushed to the mouth of the den to see what it was, and he said: "I see a very strange animal coming up the path. It has the most beautiful fur I ever saw, ever so much finer than bear's fur, and the animal looks something like Mr. Badger, only its fur is all one color, and it has the funniest tail, almost as big as a shovel, flat and broad." Just then the owl saw the animal and said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o?" But the animal didn't answer at all, except he gave two slaps with his broad flat tail on the ground. And the Circus Bear said, "I know who that is. That is Mr. Beaver. Ask him to come in." Mr. Beaver came to the door, and the little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Beaver." The beaver came in, and the little Cub Bear said, "We are going to try to build a house big enough for all the animals, so if they come to see[Pg 46] us we will have a place for them to stay. Can you help us?" And the beaver said, "I will be very glad to, because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus." The little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?" And the beaver said, "I can build dams across streams so as to make beautiful lakes, such as they have in parks, and I can build a nice, round house in the lake to live in and large enough for a little bear to live in, if he can only get inside without getting wet." And the Cub Bear said, "That would be fine, because we could have a park for the animals to play in, and some of the animals would rather live in the water, anyway, than live in a cave." So the beaver said, "All right; I will make you a dam and a beautiful lake." So they all went down to the stream, and the beaver went up to a tree, and he commenced to bite it. He bit, and he bit, and he bit, and the chips just flew, and he bit, and he bit, and he bit, and the chips just flew, and the first thing they knew, the tree fell over. Then he went to another tree, not a very large tree, only about so thick (three inches). Then he went to another tree, and he bit, and he bit, and bit, and the first thing they knew, that tree fell over. So he kept on until he had cut down a great many trees, and then he took them down[Pg 47] and put them in the stream, and he put in leaves; and then the water began to rise higher and higher, and the beaver kept piling in and piling in leaves and trees, and soon he had a high dam clear across the stream. The next morning when they looked, the water had filled up above the dam and made a beautiful lake. Soon the beaver went to work, and made a house out of mud. He used his fore feet like hands, walking on his hind feet, and he used his flat tail to make a beautiful mud house, big enough to live in himself, and big enough for little Cub Bear to get in, if he could only get in without getting wet. Could you make so nice a mud house? And the little Cub Bear said, "Thank you, Mr. Beaver," very politely. "I am very glad my brother was good to Mr. Beaver in the circus." As soon as they had seen the dam built by the beaver, all of the animals began to work again as hard as they could work to make the cave larger, because it was much too small for the animals that were already there, and the elephant could not get in at all. At night they were all very tired, but as soon as the Papa Bear sat down, the little Cub Bear ran over and got as close as he could to his papa and asked him to tell another story about the "Little-One-Eared-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa." So although he was very tired, the Papa Bear began the story of: <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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