"Look at that big bear!"
"Where?" asked Jumpo, getting close to his red brother.
"There," whispered Jacko again, and he pointed toward the stump. Surely enough, there was a bear, wearing a blue cap and a pink coat. And, oh, what a big fellow he was!
"He hasn't seen us," said Jumpo, in a low voice. "Perhaps we can get softly away before he does see us, and then we can tell the others to hurry out of the woods. Move very softly, Jacko."
"I will," whispered the red monkey, and he tried to, but all at once some hickory nuts fell out of his pocket and they made quite a noise as they hit a flat stone.
"Ha! Who's there?" asked the bear quickly, and he looked up, straight at the two monkeys. Then they could see that he had been reading a big book. "Who's there?" cried the bear again, in a sort of savage voice.
"If—if you please, we are here," said Jacko. There was no use in saying they weren't there, for the bear could see them perfectly plain.
"All right; I am coming over to you," went on the shaggy creature, closing his book.
"Oh, oh, please don't come!" begged Jacko. "We can see you very well from here."
"Oh! If he comes, he'll eat us, and then he'll hear the others shouting, and he'll go over and eat them and our teacher also," whispered Jumpo. "Oh, if we could only send them some word to warn them to run away!"