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[Pg 73] <h2>THE PARROT'S MOST NARROW ESCAPE</h2> "Well," said the parrot, "I lived in South America, where there were many beautiful trees and many strange animals, and some of the largest snakes in the whole world. The very largest snake that lives there is called the boa constrictor. He is so large that he can swallow a deer whole, and, of course, a poor little parrot, or a chicken, or a rabbit, would not make a meal for him. It would hardly make a dessert. "One day I was seated on the end of a long limb, nearly asleep, when suddenly I looked up and saw a man pointing a gun at me, and all ready to shoot me. I was so frightened that I could not move, and I expected him to shoot any minute, but I thought that before I was killed, I would take one last look at the blue sky that I was never to see again—and what do you think I saw? A great snake, a boa constrictor, coiled around the limb above me, and looking at me as though he wanted to eat me. I was more frightened than ever. It seemed that his look made me weak, sick and dizzy. Before I could move, the snake darted at me like a flash, seized me and began to swallow me. In a moment I was just like poor Jonah, only I was inside a snake instead of a whale. Everything was dark[Pg 74] and I could not think, except that I knew I would die in a minute. "Suddenly I heard a great 'Bang! Bang!' and the old snake began to squirm and twist. Then in a moment I felt something cut through the snake, and I was out in the bright sunshine, and the sun almost blinded my eyes. You see, the man had shot the snake instead of shooting me, as he had intended. He took me out and put me in a bag that he had with him. "Then he sent me to the circus, and I was there until the wreck of the train. There I learned to talk like the men. I could say, 'Polly wants a cracker,' 'Come right in, ladies and gentlemen,' and many other things. I learned to sneeze like a man, 'Ker-chou-ou-ou, ker-chou-ou-ou,' and to snore like a man, 'Aw-hu, aw-h—u, a—w-h—u,' and to cough, 'H-u-h, h-u-h,' and to whistle so that I could call a dog, '—— ————,' and to cluck so that I could make the horses go, and I learned to ride on a dog's back without sticking my claws in so that it hurt him. But that is all my story." "My," said the little Cub Bear, "what a narrow escape. We should never lose hope. I'm glad that you escaped." After the parrot had finished the story, the little Cub Bear went to sleep. When he was sound asleep he suddenly began to breathe hard, as though he could not get enough air, and he twisted around[Pg 75] and seemed to be smothering. Soon, though, he breathed a great, deep breath, and then he was still and quiet. I think that he must have been dreaming? Can you guess what he was dreaming about? The little Cub Bear slept very late next morning, and when he got up all of the animals were up, and were talking about the cave and wondering whether any more of the animals would come that day. While the animals were talking they heard two great noises, "Bang! bang!" and they knew that the beaver was telling them that some animal was coming. The Cub Bear rushed to the mouth of the cave to see who it was, and he said: "I see two rats coming up the path. They are perfectly white. With the two rats is a rat that is bigger than both of them. It has beautiful fur." Just then the Cub Bear looked up at the owl, to see why the owl did not say "Who-o-o? who-o-o-o?" and just as he looked, he saw the old owl start from his perch, with a great fluttering of wings, and pounce like a flash down on the rats, and he caught one of the white rats in his claws and flew back to his perch, and there he began to eat this poor little white rat. But the other white rat and the muskrat came into the cave. The little Cub Bear said very politely, "Come in, Mr. Rat." [Pg 76] But the little white rat was trembling so that he couldn't say a thing. And the Cub Bear said, "I am very glad I am not a little rat, to be eaten up by a wicked old owl." But the Circus Bear said, "You know that owls eat rats, and mice, and little birds, and things of that kind; but this owl is a very good, kind owl, and I am surprised that he would harm one of the white rats from the circus; but I guess he is very hungry, because he has been sitting up there a long while with nothing to eat." Then the Cub Bear said, "We are going to try to build a house big enough for all the animals, so if they come to see us, we will have a place for them to stay. We think there is a large cave, large enough for us all, back of this cave, but we don't know. Can you help us?" Then the muskrat said, "I should 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?" And the muskrat said, "I can climb through this round hole here and see what there is in there." So he scampered through the hole where the giraffe had looked, and was gone a long, long while, and they all waited and wondered why he didn't come back. Finally the muskrat did come back, but he was all wet, and all the animals wondered why. The little Cub Bear said, "What did you find?" [Pg 77] The muskrat said: "I found the most beautiful cave in the whole world. It has a level, smooth floor, and is nice and clean, and there are beautiful columns that come down from the roof to the floor of the cave, just like the pillars in a great palace, and away back in the back part of the cave there is a beautiful stream of clear, cold water. I had a fine swim in it. This cave is large enough for all the animals in the circus. There is one place back in the cave that is big enough for all the circus tents of the circus we used to be in." And the Circus Bear said, "My! That is grand," because he knew how large the tents were. And the little Cub Bear said, "My! That is grand," because his brother had said the same thing, and he knew it must be so. Then the animals began to plan how they could get into this cave. Finally they all agreed that if they could make the opening of the den large enough for the elephant to get in, and if the rhinoceros should come with his great horn, and some more of the animals would come, that they surely could get into this cave. So that night the elephant worked as hard as he could with his tusks and his trunk, and all the bears worked carrying out rock and stones, and digging out roots with their claws; and the monkey scampered around and carried out small rocks, and pulled out small roots, and helped some; but he[Pg 78] kept pulling the elephant's tail every once in a while, and was more bother than he was help; just like some boys that you know. But finally they got the mouth of the den large enough so the elephant could come in. He came in and sat down, and then there was hardly room enough for any other animal. The poor little Cub Bear and the Circus Bear were squeezed up tight against the wall, and Papa and Mamma Bear had to get way back, in the back part of the cave; and the monkey had to hang to a root way up on the top of the cave. But by turning around slowly, the elephant found that he could use his tusks and trunk to move some of the rocks. They all worked hard until they were tired, and were nearly through into the cave, and had made the room so much larger, that they all had room to sit down and talk. The next morning early the little Cub Bear heard the "Bang, bang!" of the beaver's tail, and rushed to the mouth of the cave, and there he saw a very large animal, with two horns on the end of his nose, and a funny looking skin, hard and horny. He knew at once that the animal was the rhinoceros the lion had told about the night before. The owl said, "Who-o-o? who-o-o-o?" and the animal answered with a terrible snort and r-o-a-r. Then the rhinoceros came to the mouth of the cave, and the little bear said: [Pg 79] "I am very glad that you came, because we are trying to build a house that will be large enough to hold all of the animals that used to live in the circus, and the giraffe tells us that there is a large cave back of this cave, and if we can only break through, we will have a house that will be big enough for us all." Then the rhinoceros said, "What can I do? For I would like to help. Your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus, and I would be very glad to do anything that I can." The little Cub Bear said, "I think that with that great horn of yours you could help to tear out some of the dirt and rocks, and the monkeys and the bears could then carry them out. Perhaps the elephant could be hitched to the chariot, and we could carry out some of the dirt and rocks in it." The rhinoceros said that he would be very glad to do this. That night, after the animals were through with their work, the little Cub Bear, who was the greatest fellow for stories that you ever saw, began to tease his papa for another story about the "Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa." Finally, the Papa Bear said that he would tell a story, if the little Cub Bear would promise to go right to bed as soon as he was through with the story. Of course the little Cub Bear said that he would, so Papa Bear told him the story of: <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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