While Father Deer nibbled the new wheat, Little Bear stayed near the nest where he could see the Bob White children eat their breakfast.
"What would you do if a man should come out here and carry off your babies?" asked Little Bear, who longed to take one of the babies in his own big paw and give it a weenty squeeze.
"Come, children," said Mrs. Bob White, "let us show Little Bear what would happen if a man should try to carry you off. Come on, we will play hide and seek with him."
Mrs. Bob White knew that Little Bear wouldn't take one of her children in his big paw and give it a weenty squeeze. "Come, children, run and hide. When you find one of my children, Little Bear, you say 'I spy!' Ready, children! One, two, three, hide!"
In a twinkling there was not a baby quail in sight. They scattered so quickly the minute their mother said "Hide!" that Little Bear was astonished. He searched and searched through the grass, but not a baby quail could he find. Then he noticed that Mrs. Bob White seemed to have broken her wing.
"How did it happen, Mrs. Bob White! Oh, how did it happen!" exclaimed Little Bear in distress, as he ran after her.
Immediately Mrs. Bob White straightened her wings and laughed. "Come, children," she called, and up rose eighteen baby quail from the grass where they had been playing hide-and-seek in plain sight.
"But didn't you get hurt?" inquired Little Bear.
"Not a bit of it!" replied Mrs. Bob White. "That is a trick of ours to give the babies a chance to hide. If a man should come out here to get my babies he would follow me just as you did, because he would believe, as you did, that I had broken my wing."