“I don’t care if I never see him again,” she grumbled. “I don’t care what happens to him. Whatever happens will serve him right. I wish Mother Bear would remember that my legs are not as long as hers. I’m tired. I want to rest. I want to rest, I do. I want to rest. Ouch! My feet are getting sore.”
Now such news as Jimmy Skunk’s punishment of Boxer travels fast through the Green Forest, and it wasn’t long before the story of it reached Mrs. Bear’s ears. She growled dreadful threats of what she would do if she met Jimmy Skunk, though she knew very well that she would politely step aside if she did meet him, and then she started for the place where Boxer had been given his lessons in politeness by Jimmy Skunk.
There was no doubt about the place when they reached it. “Phew!” cried Woof-Woof, holding her nose.
Mother Bear merely grunted and started off faster than before. Woof-Woof had to run to keep up with her. Mother Bear had that smell to guide her now. She knew that all she had to do now to find her runaway son was to follow up that smell.
So it was that just as the Black Shadows were beginning to creep through the Green Forest, and poor little Boxer, a very lonely, miserable and frightened little Bear, was beginning to dread another night, he heard a crashing in the brush, and out came Mother Bear and Woof-Woof. With a glad squeal of joy, Boxer started to run toward them. But a growl, such an ugly growl, from Mother Bear stopped him.
“Don’t you come near us,” said she. “You can follow us, but don’t you dare come a step nearer than you are now. It would serve you right if we had nothing more to do with you, but after all, you are rather small to be wandering about alone. Besides, there is no knowing what more disgrace you would get us into. Now come along.”
Boxer looked at Woof-Woof for some sign of sympathy. But Woof-Woof held her head very high and turned up her nose at him. “Phew!” said she.