THE THREE BEARS.
The Three Bears take a walk.
In a far-off country there was once a little girl, who was called Silver-Locks, because her curly hair shone so very brightly. But she was not so good as she was pretty, for she was a sad romp, and so restless that she could not be kept quiet at home, and would often run out when she was told not to do so. One day, she started off into a wood, to gather wild flowers and to chase butterflies. She ran here, and ran there, and went so far, at last, that she found herself in quite a lonely place, and there she saw a snug little house, in which three Bears lived; but they were not then at home. The door and the parlour window being open, Silver-Locks peeped in, and soon found the place was empty; so the saucy puss made up her mind to go in boldly, and look all about the place, little thinking what sort of folks lived there.
Little Silverlocks enters the Bears' dwelling.
Now the three Bears had gone out to take a walk, a little while before this. The biggest of them was the Papa Bear, who had a very rough coat, and was named Mr. Bruin. The next Bear in size was his wife, called Mammy Muff, from her smooth skin; and the smallest of the three was their little darling, Tiny. Before going out, Mammy Muff put the nice soup she had made for dinner on a great chest in the parlour to cool; as they were very hungry, they meant to be back in a short time.
Silverlocks finds three jars of soup set for the Bears' dinner.
When Silverlocks went into the house, she soon found by the smell that something nice had been cooked. On going into the parlour, sure enough she saw there three jars smoking away: the first, a very large one, for Mr. Bruin; the next of middling size, for Mammy Muff; and the smallest of all was Tiny's jar; and in each of them was a wooden spoon. The little busy-body now went to work tasting the soup in each jar by turns; but she found that in the smallest jar was the nicest to her taste.