"Oh, you mustn't do that," said Uncle Wiggily, as he leaned on his crutch to rest himself. "There will be time enough to eat bones after you are home. Trot along now, Peetie."
"Well, I'll just bury this bone here, where Jackie and I can get it later," said Peetie. So he dug a hole for the bone and carefully covered it with earth, where it would keep just as good as if it was in a refrigerator or an ice-box.
Well, the rabbit and the grasshopper and the puppy dog looked in all the places they could think of, and around corners and up and down the middle and on both sides, for a sight of the house of Peetie's grandpa, but they couldn't seem to find it.
And then, all of a sudden, and so quickly that it happened before you could roll a popcorn ball on top of the piano, there was a growling in the bushes, and a shaking of the leaves, and out popped a big, black bear. My! Oh, my! But he was a big, savage bear, and as soon as he saw Uncle Wiggily he cried out:
"Now I have you, my fine rabbit friend! And a puppy dog also, to say nothing of a grasshopper, with which to finish off. Oh, this is a lucky day for me!"
"You--you don't mean to say that you are going to eat us, do you?" asked Uncle Wiggily, turning pale around the ears.
"That's exactly what I do mean," said the bear in a grillery-growlery voice. "And how very lucky! It's just my dinner time," and he looked at his watch to make sure, and then shut the cover with a bang.
"Well, you can't eat me!" cried the grasshopper and with that he gave a spring and landed inside of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit growing on top of a high rock, and he pulled the cover of the plant over him so the bear couldn't see him.
"Well, the grasshopper got away," said the bear in a disappointed voice, "but I have you two yet, anyhow," and with that he made a jump, and grabbed Uncle Wiggily in one paw and Peetie Bow-Wow in the other paw. Then he hugged them tight, just like a little girl hugs, her two dollies, and the bear looked down at them, first at Uncle Wiggily and then at Peetie. And that bear showed his ugly teeth, and said in his grillery-growlery voice:
"Let me see; which one of you shall I eat first?"