BOXER STARTS OUT TO GET EVEN
Wait a minute; count the cost.
Wasted time is time that’s lost.
_Mother Bear._
Boxer lay curled up in a corner of the bedroom under the great
windfall, and there he sulked and sulked and sulked and tried to make
himself believe he was the worst treated little Bear in all the Great
World. But sulking all alone isn’t any fun at all. No one can truly
enjoy being sulky, with no one to see it. So in spite of himself Boxer
was soon wondering what Woof-Woof and Mother Bear were doing. He had
seen them start off toward the Laughing Brook and though he wouldn’t
own up to it, even to himself, he wished that he was with them. He
dearly loved to play along the Laughing Brook.
When he could stand it no longer, Boxer stole out to the entrance
and poked his head out from under the great windfall. There he stood
for the longest time looking, listening, smelling. Everything looked
just as usual. There were no strange sounds. The Merry Little Breezes
brought him no new smells. There were no signs of Mother Bear and
Woof-Woof. He didn’t know whether they had gone up the Laughing Brook
or down the Laughing Brook. He tried to pretend that he didn’t care
where they were or what they were doing.
But he didn’t succeed. You know it isn’t often you can really and
truly fool yourself. You may fool other people, but not yourself. So
after a while Boxer gave up trying to pretend he didn’t care. And then
sulkiness gave way to temper, bad temper.
“I-I-I’ll go way, way off in the Great World and never come back. Then
I guess Mother Bear and Woof-Woof will be sorry and wish they had been
good to me,” muttered Boxer.
He stood up for an instant to look and listen. Then that silly little
Bear scampered off as fast as he could go, without paying any
attention at all to his direction. His one thought was to get as far
as possible from the great windfall before Mother Bear should return.
He would show Mother Bear that he was too big to be spanked and sent
to bed. He would show Woof-Woof that he could take care of himself and
didn’t need to tag along after Mother Bear.
So Boxer ran and ran until his little legs grew tired. The only use he
made of his eyes was to keep looking behind him to see if Mother Bear
was after him. Not once did he use them to take note of the way in
which he was going. So it was that when at last he stopped, because his
legs ached and he was out of breath, Boxer was as completely lost as
a little Bear could be. He didn’t know it then, but he was. He was to
find it out later.
“Now,” said Boxer, talking to himself as he rested, “I guess Mother
Bear will be sorry she spanked me. And I guess Woof-Woof will wish she
hadn’t laughed at me and made fun of me. Maybe they’ll be so sorry
they’ll cry. If they come to look for me, I’ll hide where they won’t
ever find me. Then they’ll be sorrier than ever and I’ll be even with
them. I won’t go home until I am as big as my father, Buster Bear. Then
I guess they’ll treat me nice.”
So Boxer rested and planned the wonderful things he would do out in the
Great World and was glad he had run away from home. You see, it was
very pleasant there in the Green Forest, and after all, if he really
wanted to, he could go back home. That is what he thought, anyway. You
see, he hadn’t the least idea yet that he was lost.