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 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:
"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:
THE "LITTLE-CLUB-FOOT-BEAR-THAT-WOULD-NOT-MIND-HIS-PAPA" AND THE
DYNAMITE
"You know that little cub bears like to eat," said
the Papa Bear to his little Cub Bear. "But the
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' once found a
tallow candle, and he ate it all up, and it tasted as good to him as a
stick of candy does to a little boy, and so always after that he was
looking for tallow candles.
"Not far from where the little bear lived, there was a mine, where
miners were digging in the rock to see if they couldn't get out
some gold; and the miners had candles to use, so that when they
were away in the mine, where it was dark, they could light a
candle and see to work. One time the little Club-Foot-Bear found
a whole box of candles, and he took eight or ten candles out, and
carried them home and ate them. And when his papa found it out, he
told him not to go there any more, because he might get hurt. The
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' stayed away from
the mine for a long time.
"But one day, after he had eaten all the candles up, he thought he
would like to go back again and see if he could not find some more.
So he went and he found another box of candles, as he thought. They
looked almost like the other candles, but they were not so white; they
were yellow and covered with paper. If the little Club-Foot-Bear could
have read as little boys can, he would have seen these letters on the
box: 'D-y-n-a-m-i-t-e.' Just as he got his arms full of these candles,
as he thought, he heard the men coming, and he ran over to a tree and
climbed the tree as fast as he could, with his arms full of these
yellow candles. He got nearly to the top of the tree on a big limb, and
there he sat and waited. The men came out, but they went back into the
mine. The little Club-Foot-Bear took a big bite, but the very first
chew he took, he found that it did not taste right at all. So he spit
it out, and then he thought he would throw the rest down, because he
did not like them, and wanted to get home as fast as he could. So he
threw the whole armful of yellow sticks right down on to a rock. And
when it struck the rock, what do you suppose happened?
"'Bang!'
"A bigger noise than all the firecrackers in the world put together
would make, and the rocks began to fly through the air, and the tree
jumped right out of the ground and began to fall down, down, down, the
side of the mountain. The bear hugged the tree as tightly as he could,
but it kept falling. And finally it fell 'kersplash!' right into the
river.
"The little bear was terribly frightened, and was nearly drowned, but
he scrambled out on to the tree as fast as he could and you never saw
a little bear run so fast in your life. He could not have run faster,
if all the dogs you ever saw had been running after him. And when he
got home to his den, he ran to the very darkest part, and there he
covered his eyes and his ears with his paws, but all the time he could
hear a great ringing in his ears, and the terrible, 'Bang! bang! bang!'
That night, after the little Club-Foot-Bear finally went to sleep,
he suddenly made a great jump, and jumped clear over his Papa Bear,
and pretty nearly out of the den. After that you never could get that
'Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa' to eat candles."
After the Papa Bear had finished the story of the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa," he said, "Little
Cub Bear, what do you think of that story?" And the little Cub Bear
scratched his head and said, "I am glad the little bear wasn't killed."
And the little Cub Bear ran off and went to sleep.
During the night he dreamed, and several times he gave a jump, just
as though he were going to jump out of bed. Can you guess what he was
dreaming about?
The next morning the little Cub Bear said to his papa that he
had noticed a box marked just like the box from which the
"Little-Club-Foot-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa" had eaten the
things that looked like candles. The box had been left by some
miners away back in the woods, and had in big letters on it the word
"D-y-n-a-m-i-t-e."
When the Papa Bear heard this, he began to think and to scratch his
head. He was thinking that if the stuff in the box had knocked the big
tree down, perhaps it would help them to knock the rocks down, so that
they could get into the beautiful cave. The Papa Bear was wondering
about it, when he saw the old owl looking so solemn and wise. Then
he said to himself, "I will ask the wise old owl. He can't help much
digging into the cave, but as he is the wisest bird in the world, maybe
he can tell me what to do with this stuff that knocks great trees down."
So the Papa Bear said to little Susie Bear, "Run and tell the old owl
that I want to ask him a question."
So Susie Bear ran out as fast as she could and said to the owl, "Papa
wants you to come into the cave, so that he can ask a question of you."