THE TWINS HAVE TO GO HOME
Obedience is good to see,
Especially when up a tree.
_Mother Bear._
Boxer and Woof-Woof were having the best time of their short lives.
Climbing was great fun. Although this was the first time they had
climbed a tree, they already felt quite at home up there where the
branches grew. It was fun just to climb from branch to branch. It was
still greater fun to chase that red-coated little rascal who had tried
to scare them out of that tree. You see, this was the first time the
twins had found any one afraid of them, and it made them feel quite
important. It made them feel big. They felt twice as big as when they
had whimperingly started to climb that tree. So the twins were having a
wonderful time.
But Chatterer the Red Squirrel was having anything but a wonderful
time. He was wishing with all his might that he had kept his saucy
tongue still; that he had not jumped over into that tree to try to
scare those cubs; that he had not followed them in the first place;
that they would become dizzy and afraid. He even wished that they would
fall. The fact is, Chatterer was so badly frightened that he was
capable of wishing almost anything dreadful if it would only give him a
chance to escape.
Now if Chatterer had not been so badly frightened, he would have seen
that Boxer, the twin who was in the lead, was already hesitating. He
had reached a point where the branches were so small that they bent
dangerously when he stepped on them. He had climbed as high as it was
safe for him to climb, and he knew it. But having set out to catch that
red mischief-maker, he couldn’t bear to give up. That is, he felt that
if he did give up, Chatterer would boast that he had been too smart for
the cubs and would make fun of them. And this is just what Chatterer
would have done.
So while Chatterer was wishing with all his might that something would
happen to those twins, the twins were wishing for some good excuse for
stopping the chase without losing the respect they knew Chatterer now
had for them.
Just then a deep, grumbly-rumbly voice came up to them from the foot
of the tree. “Come down at once,” said the voice. It was the voice of
Mother Bear.
“Yes’m,” replied Woof-Woof meekly, beginning to climb down.
“I want to catch this fellow who tried to scare us,” whined Boxer,
pretending that he didn’t want to come down.
“You heard what I said,” replied Mother Bear, and her voice was more
grumbly-rumbly than before. “It is time to go home. Come down this
instant.”
“Yes’m,” replied Boxer, and this time he said it quite as meekly as had
his sister Woof-Woof. There was something in the sound of Mother Bear’s
voice that warned Boxer that it would be unwise to disobey.
So, with a warning to Chatterer that next time he would not get off
so easily, Boxer began to climb down after Woof-Woof. When the cubs
reached the lowest branches and had only the straight trunk to which
to cling, they were once more afraid, and all the way down they
whimpered. Somehow it was harder to climb down than up. It often is.
But at last they were on the ground. Mother Bear’s eyes twinkled with
pride, but she took care that the cubs should not see this.
“Obedience,” said she, “is the first great lesson in life. It saved you
a spanking this time.” Then she led the way home.
And as Boxer and Woof-Woof followed, doing exactly as she did, they
heard the jeering voice of Chatterer the Red Squirrel.
“Couldn’t catch me! Couldn’t catch me!” jeered Chatterer.