“Stop splashing, Little Bear!” Mother Bear said crossly. “I brought you to the river to teach you how to catch fish. You are not trying to catch fish. You are playing and splashing.”
“But it is fun to splash in the water,” Little Bear said.
“Stop splashing and watch me. You must learn to catch fish for yourself.”
But Little Bear went on playing.
Suddenly Mother Bear grabbed Little Bear and carried him away from the water. She put him down firmly high up on the bank.
“You were frightening the fish. I came to the river to catch a fish, and I am going to catch a fish. Stay here, Little Bear,” Mother Bear said.
Little Bear sat quietly on the riverbank.
“I hope she catches a big fish,” he thought. “I am hungry.”
Mother Bear did catch a big fish.
Little Bear scrambled down the bank to share the big fish.
“Go away,” Mother Bear said firmly. “If you want to eat fish, you will have to catch a fish for yourself.”
Mother Bear ate the whole fish. Then she went off for a nap.
Little Bear was very hungry.
“Oh, well,” he thought, “I will find a dinner for myself. I will go to the berry patch and get some berries.”
But there were no berries in the berry patch. The time for berries had passed.
Little Bear became hungrier and hungrier.
“Maybe there are some apples on the trees down by the old brown house,” Little Bear thought.
He was tired by the time he reached the apple trees. There were no apples left. Someone had picked them all.
By this time Little Bear was very hungry and tired. Then he saw a big log lying on the ground.
“Sometimes Mother rolls big logs like that,” he remembered. “There are good things to eat under logs.”
So Little Bear tried to roll the log. But he had not watched his mother. He did not know how to roll a log.
He hurt his head and his paws, but he could not roll the log.
Now Little Bear was very tired and hungry, and he wanted his mother.
So he went back to the river.
Mother Bear was happy to see him.
“It is late, Little Bear,” she said. “It is time to go to bed.”
Little Bear cuddled close to Mother.
“I am sorry that you are hungry,” Mother Bear said. “You are not a baby anymore. You are almost a big bear. You must learn how to find food for yourself.”
“Yes, Mother,” Little Bear said sleepily.
Early the next morning Mother Bear started to fish.
Little Bear watched closely.
Mother Bear stood in the water. She was ready. Suddenly she hit a big slippery fish with her paw.
She did not eat the fish. She laid it on the bank.
Mother Bear watched Little Bear. Little Bear stood in the water. He was ready. Once he almost had a fish. But it got away. He tried again and again. And then at last Little Bear caught a fish!
It was not big, but it was a fish.
Little Bear laid his fish beside Mother Bear’s big fish.
“Now it is time to eat,” Mother said.
Little Bear ate all of his little fish and most of Mother Bear’s big fish.
He was happy.
Mother Bear was happy, too.
