THE RAGGED BOY
Daddy Brown was used to being suddenly aroused in the night by either
Bunny or Sue. At home the children often awakened, and called out.
Sometimes they would be dreaming, or perhaps they would want a drink of
water. So Daddy Brown and Mrs. Brown Were used to answering when they
heard the children call out.
But it was something new to hear Bunny calling about a big, black bear.
He had never done that before, though one time, when he ate too much
bread and jam for supper, he screamed that there was an elephant in his
room, and there wasn't at all. He had only dreamed it.
But this time Daddy Brown had plainly heard his little boy say:
"Oh, it's a bear! It's a bear!"
Mr. Brown awakened, and sat up in his cot. He looked over toward Bunny's
bed, but could see nothing of the little fellow, for as I have told you,
Bunny was covered up under the blankets and quilt. Even his head was
covered.
Then Mr. Brown looked toward the entrance, or front door of the tent.
And, to his surprise, he saw just what Bunny had seen, a big, shaggy,
hairy animal, standing on its hind legs, with its black nose up in the
air, sniffing and snuffing.
"Why--why!" exclaimed Mr. Brown, rubbing his eyes to make sure that he
was wide awake, and that he was not dreaming, as he thought Bunny might
have been. "Why--why! It _is_ a bear!"
"Sniff! Snuff!" went the big, shaggy creature.
"Daddy--Daddy!" cried Bunny, his voice sounding faint and far off,
because his head was under the covers. "Daddy, is--is he gone?"
"No, not yet," answered Mr. Brown.
"What is it? What's the matter?" called Mrs. Brown, from behind the
curtain, where she slept.
"Why," said Mr. Brown slowly. "It--it seems to be a----"
Then he stopped. He did not want to scare his wife or Sue, by telling
them there was a bear in the tent, and yet there was.
"Oh, what is it?" cried Mrs. Brown again. "I heard Bunny crying! Is
anything the matter with him?"
"No, he's all right," answered Bunny's papa. That was true enough. There
was really nothing the matter with the little boy. He was just a bit
frightened, that was all.
"But _something_ is the matter," said Mrs. Brown, "I know there is! Why
don't you tell me what it is?"
Daddy Brown did not know just what to do. He sat up in bed, thinking and
looking first at the bear and then at Bunny. All Mr. Brown could see of
Bunny was a heap under the bedclothes. But the bear was in plain sight,
standing in the doorway of the tent, sniffing and snuffing near the
lighted lantern.
Mr. Brown did not want to speak about the bear. He thought the big,
shaggy creature looked quite gentle, and perhaps it would go away if no
one harmed it. Perhaps it was just looking for something to eat, and as
it couldn't find anything in the bedroom tent it might go to the one
where the cooking was done.
Bunker Blue was still sound asleep, and so was Uncle Tad. Nor had Sue,
sleeping next to her mother, in the other part of the tent, been
awakened. Just Bunny Brown, and his father and mother were wide awake.
Oh, yes, of course the bear was not asleep. I forgot about that. His
little black eyes blinked, and opened and shut, and he wrinkled up his
rubber-like nose as he sniffed the air.
"Well, aren't you going to tell me what it is? What's the matter in
there? What happened?" asked Mother Brown. "If you don't tell me----"
By this time Bunny Brown made up his mind that he would be brave. He
uncovered one eye and peered out from beneath the bed clothes. His first
sight was of the bear, who was still there.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Bunny. "It _is_ a bear! It's a big, black bear! I didn't
dream it! It's real! a real, big, black bear!"
Mrs. Brown heard what her little boy said.
"Oh, Walter!" she cried to her husband. "Throw something at it. Here's
my shoe--throw that. I've got two shoes, but I can only find one. Throw
that at the bear and make him go away!"
Mrs. Brown threw over the curtain, that divided the tent into two parts,
one of her shoes.
She really had two shoes, but when she felt under her cot in the dark,
she could only find one. You know how it is when you try to find
anything in the dark, even if it's a drink of water in the chair at the
head of our bed. You move your hand all over, and you think some one
must have come in and taken the water away. And when you get a light you
find that, all the while, your hand was about an inch away from the
glass. It was that way with Mrs. Brown's other shoe.
But she threw one over the curtain, calling out again:
"Hit him with that, Walter! Hit the bear with my shoe!"
But there was no need for Mr. Brown to do anything. The shoe thrown by
Bunny's mother sailed through the tent. Straight at the bear it went,
and before the shaggy creature could get out of the way, the shoe hit
him on the end of the nose.
"Bunk!" went the shoe.
"Wuff!" grunted the bear.
Now you know a bear's nose is his most tender part. You could hit him on
his head, or on his back, or on his paw--that is if you were brave
enough to hit a bear at all--but you would not hurt him, hardly any,
unless you hit him right on the end of his soft and tender nose. That's
the best place to hit a bear if you want to drive him away, out of your
tent, or anything like that. Hit him on the nose.
"Whack!" went Mrs. Brown's shoe on the end of the bear's nose.
"Wuff!" grunted the bear, and down he dropped on all four paws.
Now Mrs. Brown really did not mean to hit the bear. She was just
tossing her shoe over the curtain so her husband might have something to
throw at the bear, and, as it happened, she hit the bear by accident.
Of course it might have been better if one of Mr. Brown's shoes had hit
the bear. I mean it would have been better for the Brown family, but
worse for the bear. Because Mr. Brown's shoes were larger and heavier
than his wife's. But then, it turned out all right anyhow.
For, no sooner did the bear feel Mrs. Brown's shoe hit him on the nose,
than he cried out:
"Wuff!"
Then he turned quickly around, and ran out of the tent.
"Did you throw my shoe at him? Did you make him go away?" asked Mrs.
Brown. "Because if you didn't, Walter, I've found my other shoe now, and
I'll throw that to you."
"You won't need to, my dear," said Mr. Brown with a laugh. "One shoe was
enough. You hit the bear yourself!"
"I did?"
"Yes, and he's gone. It's all right, Bunny. You can put your head out
now. The bear is gone."
Bunny peeped with one eye, and when he saw that the big, shaggy creature
was no longer there, he put his whole head out. Then, with a bound he
jumped out of bed, and ran toward the back part of the tent, where his
mother and sister were sleeping.
"Where you going, Bunny?" asked his father. "There's no more danger; the
bear has gone."
"I--I'm just going in here to get my pop gun, so if the bear comes
back----" Bunny said, "My pop gun is in here."
"Oh," said Mr. Brown, "I thought you were going to crawl in bed with
your mother."
"Oh, no--no!" Bunny quickly answered, shaking his head. "I--I just want
my pop gun. But," he went on, "if mother _wants_ me to get in bed with
her, and keep the bear away, why I will. Don't be afraid. I'll get in
bed with you, Mother!"
"Oh, I guess the bear won't come back," said Mr. Brown with a laugh.
"Well, I'll get in bed with mother anyhow," said Bunny. "I'll have my
pop gun all ready."
By this time Uncle Tad, Bunker Blue and Sue had been awakened by the
talk. Outside the tent Splash could be heard barking, and there was a
noise among the trees and bushes that told that the bear was running
away.
"I--I hope he doesn't bite our dog," said Bunny.
"Oh, I guess Splash will know enough to keep away from the bear,"
replied Mr. Brown. "Besides, I think the bear was only a tame one,
anyhow."
"A tame bear?" asked Uncle Tad, as he was told all that had happened.
"Yes. He didn't act at all like a wild one. Besides, there aren't any
wild bears in this part of the country. This was a tame one all right."
"Where did it come from?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, I think it got away from some man who goes about the country making
the bear do tricks. Probably in the morning we'll see the man looking
for his bear," answered her husband.
And that is just what happened. There was no more trouble that night.
Everyone went to sleep again, Bunny in the cot with his mother; though
when he was asleep and slumbering soundly, she carried him back to his
own little bed near his father.
Soon after breakfast the next morning, when they were talking about the
bear scare in the night, along came a man, who looked like an Italian
organ-grinder. He said he had a pet, tame bear, who had broken away from
where he was tied, in the night.
And it was this bear who had wandered into the tent where Bunny was
sleeping. Where the bear was now no one knew, but the Italian said he
would walk off through the woods, and see if he could not find his pet,
which he had trained to do many tricks.
Two or three days later, Mr. Brown heard that the bear was safely found,
so there was no more need to worry about his coming into the tent at
night.
That day Daddy Brown, with the help of Uncle Tad and Bunker Blue
printed a big cloth sign which they hung up between two trees. The sign
read:
CAMP REST-A-WHILE
"There," said Daddy Brown, "now the postman will know where to find us
when he comes with letters."
"Oh, do they have mail up here?" asked Sue.
"No, daddy is only joking," said her mother. "I guess we'll have to go
to the post office for letters."
One day, when they had been in camp about a week, Bunny and Sue, with
the others, returned from a walk in the woods. As they came near the
"dining-room tent," as they called it, they saw a ragged boy spring up
from the table with some pieces of bread and meat, and dash into the
bushes.
"Hold on there! Who are you? What do you want?" cried Daddy Brown. But
the ragged boy did not stop running. He wanted to hide in the bushes.