“No,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “I can’t come, but Father Bear will take good care of you.” So Teddy stepped onto the shore, and the fairy pushed the block of ice out into the water, and waving her hand to him she drifted away across the open sea.
The Father Bear stood watching her until she was out of sight, and then he turned to Teddy. “Now, you Fairy,” he said, “you may climb up onto my back, and I’ll carry you to my wife; she’ll take good care of you for as long as the Counterpane Fairy chooses to leave you here.”
The three little bears cubs had disappeared, but as soon as the Father Bear carried Teddy around the hill of ice he saw what had become of them. They were sitting with the Mother Bear at the door of a cave. One of them was sucking its paws, and the other two were talking as fast as they could. The Mother Bear looked worried and anxious.
“What’s all this Dumpy and Sprawley are telling me?” she said. “And what’s that you have on your back?”
“It’s an ice-fairy,” growled old Father Bear, “and the Counterpane Fairy wants us to take care of it for a while. You don’t mind, my dear, do you?”
“Oh dear, dear!” said the Mother Bear, “I suppose not, but what shall we give it to eat, and how shall we keep it?”
“Oh, it will do just the other cubs do, I suppose,” said the Father Bear. Then turning to Teddy he said, “You eat meat, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Teddy, timidly.
“Then that’s all right,” said the Father Bear. “Here, you children, take this fairy off and let him play with you.”
Two of the little bears, Fatty (who was the one who had been sucking his paws) and Dumpy, were delighted to have a new playmate, and they told him he might come over and slide down their hill, but the third one, Sprawley, scowled and grumbled. “Another one to be eating up our meat,” he said. “Just as if there weren’t enough of us without.”