"Hello, Jack! Hello, Joe!" called the boys' father very early one
morning. "Wake up! Wake up and give the bears their breakfast."
"Oh, dear! Where are we?" cried Joe. "I'm so sleepy! Where are the
bears? I don't see any."
"I know where we are," said Jack. "We are in the city of Bern, where
the bear cave is."
"Good! We are in Switzerland at last," cried Joe, running to the
window. "But where is the snow? I thought the mountains in Switzerland
were _all_ covered with snow! These mountains are covered with green
trees."
"These are not the _real_ mountains, Joe," said Jack. "The great
snow-covered mountains are farther away. I guess we shall see them
before long. I heard some one say that, on a clear day, the view of
the snow-covered Alps from this city is one of the finest in all
Switzerland, and that the sunsets here are wonderful. But let's have
our breakfast now."
"All right," said Joe. "Then let's be off to hunt for the bears. But
why do the people keep bears right in the middle of their city?"
"Father says it is because a bear was killed on this spot just before
the city was built," said Jack. "So the people named the city Bern.
They have kept a few bears in a large pit here ever since, and that is
more than four hundred years."
"Do let's hurry and find their cave!" cried Joe.
So the Overall Boys were soon hurrying through the busy streets of the
Bear City. In the middle of many of the streets they saw fine, large
fountains. Above the center of some of the fountains were the figures
of famous men, while plants and flowers were growing in others.
In a few of the beautiful fountains women were doing their washing.
They placed the soiled clothes on boards by the edge of the clear
water. Then they soaped the clothes well, and pounded them with flat
stones, and rinsed them up and down until they were quite clean.
[Illustration: _An odd way to do the family washing_]
It was certainly an odd way to do a family washing; at least, so the
Overall Boys thought.
There was one fountain which interested the boys more than any of the
others. Above the center of this fountain stood the stone figure of a
strange looking man, who was holding a stone baby in his hands. He was
about to bite the baby's head right off. Other babies were hanging from
the ugly man's belt and peeping from his pockets.
It is called the fountain of the Child-eater, and naughty children
never like to pass very near it. But the Overall Boys knew that the
stone Child-eater could not hurt them, so they laughed at the old
fellow and hurried on.
[Illustration: _The Child-eater_]
It was not long before the boys were racing across a great stone bridge
leading to the deep hole in the ground where the bears lived. Joe
reached the pit first.
"Hurrah! I see three of them," he cried, leaning over the high rail
above the pit. "See that baby bear beg for something to eat! Go to the
fruit stand, Jack, and buy some carrots to feed him. Father says bears
like carrots."
[Illustration: _The boys threw the carrots, one at a time, over the
wall into the pit_]
So Jack ran to the fruit stand near by and bought a big bunch of
carrots. The boys threw the carrots, one at a time, over the wall into
the pit, and how they shouted and laughed to see the bears catch and
eat them, just like big, brown boys.
Sometimes one bear would catch more than his share of the carrots. Then
the other bears would chase him about until they made him climb up a
tall tree in the middle of the pit. He did not dare to come down until
his bear friends had eaten all they wanted. If he tried to do so, they
chased him quickly back again.
"Look!" cried Joe. "I have found an orange in my pocket. I am going to
throw it down to the bear that is waving his paw at me. Watch him catch
it."
"Watch him!" shouted Jack. "He didn't catch it. The bear near him
knocked him over as quick as a wink, and caught the orange himself."
"See, he is climbing up the tree with it! Isn't he a selfish old bear!"
"Look at the bear in the little pond of water," cried Jack. "He is
playing ball with the other bear. Now the other bear has jumped into
the pond, too. See them box each other's ears! And see them roll over
and over in the water! Oh, I never, never saw anything so funny!"
"I believe they are real boys dressed up in bear skins," said Joe. "I
never thought bears could act so much like boys."
"Mother says she never thought boys could act so much like bears," said
Jack.
The boys watched the bears nearly all the forenoon. Joe said he hadn't
laughed so much since his last football game in America. He wished that
he could live in Bern always, and feed the bears every morning.
"I'm getting hungry myself," said Jack at last. "Let's buy some
gingerbread bears to eat. There is a window full of them over in that
store."
Then away the boys ran and bought gingerbread bears of all
sizes--father bears and mother bears and little baby bears and dancing
bears and stiff soldier bears.
Jack and Joe were sure they had never eaten anything in all their lives
so good as those gingerbread bears.
"Come on, now!" cried Jack. "Father has some more fun for us. He wants
us to go down the street with him to see a queer old clock tower."
"I know what it is," said Joe. "He told us about it the other day. We
can hear the cock crow and see the bears parade, if we are there on
time."
[Illustration: _"Then let's run!" said Jack. So the boys raced around
corners and under arches_]
"Then let's run!" said Jack. "It is almost twelve o'clock now."
So the boys raced back over the great stone bridge. They raced around
corners and under arches and along covered sidewalks, until they came
to a low tower which arched right over the sidewalk.
[Illustration: _The boys reached the tower just as the large clock near
the top said five minutes before twelve_]
The large round clock near the top of the tower said five minutes
before twelve. On the wall below the clock sat a queer little bronze
man holding an hourglass in his hand.
At the left of the man stood a bronze cock and at his right a bronze
dragon. Suddenly the Overall Boys saw the cock flap his wings and wag
his head and cry, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
A moment later two bronze giants up in the top of the tower struck the
great bell with their hammers twelve times. The cock wagged his head
and flapped his wings and again crowed, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" Then a
small clown rang a tiny bell and a procession of bears began marching
just below the old man.
Some of the bears carried little guns and swords, and one bear rode on
a tiny horse.
When the clock in the top of the tower stopped striking, the procession
stopped marching, and the old man turned his hourglass upside down. The
dragon wagged his head, and the cock crowed, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" Then
all was still. Yes, it was very still. The Overall Boys were thinking.
At last Joe said, "I wish I could take that clock back to America. I
should like to show it to the Sunbonnet Babies. I am sure they didn't
see anything half as strange as that in Holland."
"Well, they will have to come to Bern if they want to see it," said
Jack. "You can't pack that great tower in your trunk."
"Father is calling us," said Joe. "He says we shall have just time to
eat dinner before we must take the train. Where do you suppose we are
going next?"
[Illustration]
[Illustration: ABOVE THE CLOUDS.]
[Illustration]