"What is the trouble with Son Bear?" inquired Father Bear, when Mother Bear led the little fellow downstairs.
"I am hungry!" wailed Little Bear.
"Have you no bread?" asked Father Bear.
"I cannot eat just bread," answered Little Bear, "not when I smell fish. Besides, I am lonesome. I will weed the blackberry patch and the whole garden, and I'll hoe the corn, and I'll work like Sally Beaver, if you'll just let me have fish for my supper, and blackberries, and honey, and milk."
"Very well, Son Bear," agreed Father Bear. "You shall sit down to supper, and weed the blackberry patch before dark."
Little Bear passed his plate, and Father Bear filled it with trout, and mashed potatoes, and currant jelly. Mother Bear passed him the johnnycake, and gave him a big dish of blackberries and a brown mug full of milk.
Little Bear was so hungry that he ate two whole speckled trout, and five pieces of johnnycake, and three heaping dishes of blackberries, and drank two mugfuls
[Illustration:"I am hungry!" wailed Little Bear]
of milk before he went out and weeded the blackberry patch. He was tired when he went to bed that night, and on many other nights afterward, but he said nothing about it, nor did he ever stop his work in the garden until he had done it all as well as he could. For he soon found out that when he had worked hard, even bread and water tasted good, but that when he had not worked, there was no taste in fish, or honey, or milk, or in a heaping dish of blackberries.
Last summer Little Bear went on a long journey with his father and mother. The Three Bears had a beautiful time traveling through the big forest until they reached the banks of a deep, swift river. Then there was trouble, for Little Bear could not swim, nor did he wish to learn how to swim. He said he was afraid of the water.