Read Ebook: The Curlytops touring around; or The missing photograph albums by Garis Howard Roger Greene Julia Illustrator

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Ebook has 391 lines and 13386 words, and 8 pages

Bears are afraid of fire!" stated Ted.

"These don't seem to be," observed Janet. "They're coming right for us!"

"Bless my stars!" cried the father of the Curlytops. "Who would have thought to find bears here? But they must be tame bears!"

"I certainly hope so!" exclaimed his wife.

"They must be!" said her husband again. "Wild bears would run at the sight of us--not come nearer. Some lumberman must have caught these two when they were small, and he's tamed them. They aren't much more yet than two-year-old cubs. I believe they're coming to see if they can find something to eat."

"Oh, if they're tame bears maybe they'll do tricks!" cried Ted.

"Maybe they'll eat peanuts like nellifunts!" added Trouble.

"Well, you aren't going to feed these bears peanuts!" decided his mother, catching the little fellow up in her arms and stepping back toward the auto with him.

"Oh, look! They're eating!" suddenly cried Ted, pointing.

Surely enough, the two bears that had been shuffling along in the peculiar way bears have, had now come to a stop some little distance away from the campfire and began sniffing along the ground.

Suddenly one of them seemed to find some dainty, for he picked it up. And an instant later the other, with a sort of squealing growl, tried to knock whatever it was from the mouth of the first bear.

"They're quarreling, just like two boys! Oh, they must be tame bears!" decided Mrs. Martin, for the shaggy chaps seemed to have no interest except in each other or in what they could find on the ground.

"What is it, Daddy, they're fighting about?" asked Janet, for now the two bears were wrestling, standing up on their hind legs, and each trying to throw the other. Whatever the first bear had found had been knocked from him by the second bear and had fallen to the ground. Now they were struggling to see which should have it.

"It's my snandwich that I dropped," explained Trouble. "I was over by there and I dropped a snandwich and the bears are eating my snandwich."

"I guess that's right!" agreed Mr. Martin.

As the two bears wrestled, more in fun than in anger it seemed, the one who had knocked the sandwich from the one that first found it, dealt his companion such a blow as to send him staggering off against a tree. Then the second bear pounced on Trouble's lost sandwich and soon ate it.

The first bear seemed to take it all good-naturedly and went sniffing for more tidbits that might have been tossed away or dropped by the campers.

"Oh, aren't they cute!" exclaimed Jan, for by this time it was evident that the bears would do no harm. They came to eat--not to run the Curlytops off.

"I'd like to know whose they are," said Teddy.

"And I hope they don't stay here all night," added Mrs. Martin. "I don't want to go to sleep, knowing a bear--no matter how friendly he is--may poke his head in on me at any moment."

"I'll see if I can drive them away," offered Mr. Martin.

"No, don't do that!" begged his wife, clutching him by the arm. "They might turn on you and scratch you."

"I don't believe they will," said her husband. "As you say, we don't want to go to sleep with bears roaming around loose, even if they are tame bears."

"Maybe they'll go away themselves if we give them enough to eat," suggested Janet.

"Huh, that's just the way to make 'em stay around here!" declared Ted. "They'll stay as long as you feed 'em--like a stray dog."

It was evident that something must be done, for the two bears, having picked up all the scraps they could find outside the camp, were now approaching closer. They stood up and sniffed hungrily, moving their snouts about in a peculiar way. Nor did they appear to be afraid of the fire, on which Ted piled more wood.

"I wish their keeper would come and take them away," said Mrs. Martin.

Then, as if in answer to her wish, a man came running out of the forest--a lumberman, he seemed, with big boots on--and in his hands he carried chains that rattled and clanked. At the sound of the rattling chains the bears turned, like boys caught in a jam closet, and, dropping to all fours, would have run into the woods, except that the man shouted:

"No, you don't, Jim! Come back here, Jack, you little rascal! Come here, I say!"

The bears paused, and then, as the man ran toward them and again shouted, they turned about and walked slowly back to him. In an instant he had snapped one end of the chains he carried into collars they wore about their necks.

"Hope my pets didn't scare you folks," said the man, as he playfully pulled the little short ears of his shaggy charges. "Jim and Jack are as gentle as lambs, but you've got to know how to treat 'em. Hope they didn't frighten you."

"They didn't--exactly," said Mr. Martin. "We were a bit surprised, at first, but the bears seemed to be content to pick up scraps about the place."

"That's what they love--picking up scraps of food," said the lumberman.

"Are they your pets?" asked Janet.

"Yes, little girl. I've had 'em ever since they were little bits of cubs. Some one shot the old bear and I found these two, like puppies, whimpering on their dead mother. I brought them to my camp, raised them on a bottle until they were old enough to eat, and I've kept 'em ever since. This evening they got away, as they often do, and wandered off, so I had to take after 'em."

"Are you camping around here?" asked Mr. Martin.

"Yes, in a way," was the answer. "I'm not camping for fun, as you folks are. It's business with me. I'm manager of a lumber camp over in the woods."

"Oh, yours is the camp we have been looking for!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin.

"You've been looking for me?" echoed the man, who gave his name as Pat Teeter.

"We met some lumbermen on a raft going down the river," explained Mr. Martin, telling about the dog who bit the auto tire. "They said you might let us inspect your camp."

"Sure, I will. We'll be glad to have you visit us!" declared Mr. Teeter. "There aren't many men in camp now, and they'll be glad of company. We're over in the woods about three miles from here."

"I'm afraid that's rather too far to go to-night," objected Mrs. Martin. "And we have things all ready here."

"Then come over the first thing in the morning," urged Mr. Teeter. "I'll go back now, with my runaway bears. We'll expect you in the morning."

"Will your bears do tricks?" asked Ted, as the shaggy creatures on the ends of the chains prepared to follow their keeper.

"Oh, yes. I'll show you to-morrow," was the answer. "Come over to breakfast, if you like."

"Thank you, but I think it will be best to come over directly after breakfast," answered Mrs. Martin.

Mr. Teeter disappeared in the woods with his two tame bears, and the Curlytops were quite delighted, talking of the fun they would have in the lumber camp the next day.

"I only hope those bears don't get loose again in the night and poke their noses in our tent as Ted's cow did," said Mrs. Martin, as they made ready for bed.

"I don't believe they will," said her husband. "Mr. Teeter will be sure to chain them up well."

"If a bear comes I would like to ride on his back!" stated Trouble. "Once I did ride on a nellifunt's back. But I would like a bear ride, too."

"Well, maybe you'll get it!" laughed Janet, as she cuddled him in her arms.

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