LITTLE WHITE BEAR AND LITTLE BLACK BEAR
Little White Bear stepped out from behind a great boulder that was black
as black could be against the whitest of all white worlds. And my! It
was a lonesome world! His mother had left him alone, years and years
ago, it seemed to him, to find something to eat. At last he was so
lonesome he just had to get out into the sunshine and see if there was
any one in all the wide, white world who would play with a little white
bear.
"I wonder! I do wonder if there is any one!" he said to himself.
"Chee! Chee!" said a very small voice right close to him. He looked and
looked, and at last he spied Little Snow Bunting balancing herself on a
salmon-berry bush.
"What does she mean by that?" thought Little White Bear. "Does she want
to play with me?" But when he came closer to her, she said "Chee! Chee!"
so loudly and saucily he felt almost sure she didn't, and when she
spread her snowy wings and flew far, far away, he was quite sure she
didn't.
"My! What a world!" said Little White Bear. "I wonder--" But just then
he heard a strange sound,--crack--crack--crackety, crackety, crack! What
could it be? In just a moment Tdariuk, the reindeer, came trotting
around the point, and Little White Bear knew it was Tdariuk's heels he
had heard cracking. But Tdariuk didn't give him time to say a word. He
just caught one whiff of bear smell, and away he went faster than
ever,--crack--crack--crackety, crackety, crackety! Crack! Crack!
Down by the ocean things were no better. When Little Brown Seal saw him
coming, he tumbled right into the ocean without so much as saying "How
do you do."
Little White Bear looked this way and that, and suddenly he spied some
little black things going up and down, up and down, over a little snow
hill. Sometimes there were four, sometimes three, sometimes two, and
sometimes none at all. "Must be Jim Raven and his crowd," said Little
White Bear. "Well, _they_ won't get away from me! I'll just slip up to
that little hill and then jump right over it so quick they won't have
time to fly away!" He slipped up very quietly, Oh! just as quietly as
any little bear could. He crept round this little hill and that little
salmon-berry bush until he was right under the snow hill. "Now," he said
to himself, "Now's the time!" He couldn't see the black things going up
and down, but he knew they were there, so he gave one big, big spring
and then, "Oh! Oh! Ow! Wow! E-e-e! Let me go!" he cried, and bounded
away as fast as he could. What could have scratched him so? Where had
Jim Raven and his crowd gone? Pretty soon he looked around, and right
there in the snow where he had jumped was a little bear just about his
own size and a great deal like him, but black as black could be!
"What'd you jump on my stomach for?" said the stranger. Then Little
White Bear knew right away what he had done. The black things he thought
were Jim Raven and his crowd were not those people at all, but they were
Little Black Bear's feet sticking up over the hill, as he rolled around
on the snow, having a frolic all by himself.
"Well," said Little White Bear, "where did you come from?"
"Oh! My home is just a little way up in the hills," said Little Black
Bear politely. "We have a great many cousins in this cold country; there
is Little Brown Bear and Big Barren Ground Grizzly Bear, and I don't
know how many more, but we seldom get to see any of our white cousins.
How are you? I am glad to see you."
[Illustration: Little White Bear knew right away what he had done.
_Page 52_]
"I think I shall be very fine when I get over my scratches," smiled
Little White Bear. "You must have very sharp claws."
"They are quite sharp," said Little Black Bear slowly. "I am sorry I
scratched you. Let's find something to play, and you will forget all
about it."
"All right!" said Little White Bear gleefully, and away they went,
looking for some adventure in the great, white world.