MOTHER COMES TO THE RESCUE
In all the world, below, above,
The greatest thing is mother love.
_Mother Bear._
The love of a mother is wonderful beyond all things. There is nothing
to compare with it. There is nothing it will not attempt to do. There
is no danger it will not face. There is no sacrifice it will not make.
It is the most beautiful, the most perfect of all things.
Boxer and Woof-Woof had thought that in climbing a tall tree they were
making themselves safe. It had not entered their funny little heads
that great big Buster Bear would climb that tree. So you can imagine
how terribly frightened they were when Buster started up that tree
after them. They scrambled up and up until they were just as high as
they could get. There they clung with feet and hands, the worst scared
little folks in all the Green Forest.
Now little Bears are much like little boys and girls in very many ways,
and one of these is their faith in mother. Another is that when they
are frightened or in trouble they cry and yell for mother.
That is just what Boxer and Woof-Woof did now. The instant they saw
Buster, they began to whimper and cry softly, and they kept it up as
they scrambled up the trunk of that tree. But when they saw Buster Bear
climbing up after them, they simply opened their months and bawled.
“Mamma! Mamma-a-a!” yelled Boxer, at the top of his lungs.
“Oh-o-o, mamma-a-a!” screamed Woof-Woof.
Now fortunately for the twins, Mother Bear was not so far away that she
couldn’t hear them. By the sound of their voices she knew that this
was no ordinary trouble they were in. Terror was in the sound of those
voices. Those twins were in danger. There was no doubt about it. That
danger might be danger for her as well, but she didn’t give that a
thought. She plunged straight in the direction from which those cries
were coming, and she didn’t stop to pick her way. She crashed straight
through brush and branches in her way, jumped over logs, and broke down
young trees.
At the sound of the first crash made by Mother Bear as she started for
those cubs, Buster Bear stopped climbing. He turned his head and looked
anxiously in that direction, his little ears cocked to catch every
sound. At the second crash Buster Bear decided that that was no place
for him. He didn’t stop to climb down. He simply let go and dropped.
Yes, sir, that is what he did. He let go and dropped.
It was quite a way to the ground, but the ground was where Buster Bear
wanted to be, and he wanted to be there right away. He wanted to be
there before whoever was coming could reach that tree. And the quickest
way of getting there was to drop. A few bruises and a shaking up were
nothing to Buster Bear just then.
The grunt he gave when he hit the ground even the twins heard way up in
the top of the tree. It made them stop bawling for a minute to wonder
if Buster had been killed. But Buster hadn’t been killed. Goodness, no!
In an instant he was on his feet and running away so fast that even
Lightfoot the Deer would have had to do his best to keep up with him.
And over his shoulder Buster Bear was throwing frightened glances.
He was not out of sight when Mother Bear burst out from among the
trees. She saw him instantly. With a roar of rage, she started after
Buster. Buster had seemed to be moving fast, but it was nothing
compared to the way he moved when he heard that roar.