CHAPTER VII
LITTLE WHITE BEAR AND LITTLE BLACK BEAR
Little White Bear stepped out from behind a great boulder that was black as black could be against the whitest of all white worlds. And my! It was a lonesome world! His mother had left him alone, years and years ago, it seemed to him, to find something to eat. At last he was so lonesome he just had to get out into the sunshine and see if there was any one in all the wide, white world who would play with a little white bear.
"I wonder! I do wonder if there is any one!" he said to himself.
"Chee! Chee!" said a very small voice right close to him. He looked and looked, and at last he spied Little Snow Bunting balancing herself on a salmon-berry bush.
"What does she mean by that?" thought Little White Bear. "Does she want to play with me?" But when he came closer to her, she said "Chee! Chee!" so loudly and saucily he felt almost sure she didn't, and when she spread her snowy wings and flew far, far away, he was quite sure she didn't.
"My! What a world!" said Little White Bear. "I wonder—" But just then he heard a strange sound,—crack—crack—crackety, crackety, crack! What could it be? In just a moment Tdariuk, the reindeer, came trotting around the point, and Little White Bear knew it was Tdariuk's heels he had heard cracking. But Tdariuk didn't give him time to say a word. He just caught one whiff of bear smell, and away he went faster than ever,—crack—crack—crackety, crackety, crackety! Crack! Crack!
Down by the ocean things were no better. When Little Brown Seal saw him coming, he tumbled right into the ocean without so much as saying "How do you do."
Little White Bear knew right away what he had done. Page [52]
Little White Bear looked this way and that, and suddenly he spied some little black things going up and down, up and down, over a little snow hill. Sometimes there were four, sometimes three, sometimes two, and sometimes none at all. "Must be Jim Raven and his crowd," said Little White Bear. "Well, they won't get away from me! I'll just slip up to that little hill and then jump right over it so quick they won't have time to fly away!" He slipped up very quietly, Oh! just as quietly as any little bear could. He crept round this little hill and that little salmon-berry bush until he was right under the snow hill. "Now," he said to himself, "Now's the time!" He couldn't see the black things going up and down, but he knew they were there, so he gave one big, big spring and then, "Oh! Oh! Ow! Wow! E-e-e! Let me go!" he cried, and bounded away as fast as he could. What could have scratched him so? Where had Jim Raven and his crowd gone? Pretty soon he looked around, and right there in the snow where he had jumped was a little bear just about his own size and a great deal like him, but black as black could be!
"What'd you jump on my stomach for?" said the stranger. Then Little White Bear knew right away what he had done. The black things he thought were Jim Raven and his crowd were not those people at all, but they were Little Black Bear's feet sticking up over the hill, as he rolled around on the snow, having a frolic all by himself.
"Well," said Little White Bear, "where did you come from?"
"Oh! My home is just a little way up in the hills," said Little Black Bear politely. "We have a great many cousins in this cold country; there is Little Brown Bear and Big Barren Ground Grizzly Bear, and I don't know how many more, but we seldom get to see any of our white cousins. How are you? I am glad to see you."
"I think I shall be very fine when I get over my scratches," smiled Little White Bear. "You must have very sharp claws."
"They are quite sharp," said Little Black Bear slowly. "I am sorry I scratched you. Let's find something to play, and you will forget all about it."
"All right!" said Little White Bear gleefully, and away they went, looking for some adventure in the great, white world.