The Bear Family at Home, and How the Circus Came to Visit Them

by Curtis Dwight Wilbur

Then the muskrat said, "I should be very glad to help you if I can, because your brother was very good to me when we were in the circus."

And the little Cub Bear said, "What can you do?"

And the muskrat said, "I can climb through this round hole here and see what there is in there."

So he scampered through the hole where the giraffe had looked, and was gone a long, long while, and they all waited and wondered why he didn't come back. Finally the muskrat did come back, but he was all wet, and all the animals wondered why.

The little Cub Bear said, "What did you find?"

The muskrat said: "I found the most beautiful cave in the whole world. It has a level, smooth floor, and is nice and clean, and there are beautiful columns that come down from the roof to the floor of the cave, just like the pillars in a great palace, and away back in the back part of the cave there is a beautiful stream of clear, cold water. I had a fine swim in it. This cave is large enough for all the animals in the circus. There is one place back in the cave that is big enough for all the circus tents of the circus we used to be in."

And the Circus Bear said, "My! That is grand," because he knew how large the tents were.

And the little Cub Bear said, "My! That is grand," because his brother had said the same thing, and he knew it must be so.

Then the animals began to plan how they could get into this cave. Finally they all agreed that if they could make the opening of the den large enough for the elephant to get in, and if the rhinoceros should come with his great horn, and some more of the animals would come, that they surely could get into this cave.