"In the winter, at the start of the new year," said daddy, "when Mother Bear was sleeping and dozing and dreaming in her home back in the hole of a big rock, the little bears arrived. She taught them about the berries they must eat and about the things which would make them feel well and strong. She also told them of the bad things they must not touch - the things which would make their little tummies feel very miserable indeed and which would make them quite, quite sick.
''And when, at last, they went out of the cave, and saw the real world, the trees and the forest paths, they wanted to start off at once for adventures, for the world looked so mysterious and wondrous.
" 'Do you want to leave your old mother?' the black bear asked.
" 'We love you, mother, but we want to see the world,' they said.
" 'Bang,' suddenly went a gun and Mother Bear received a slight wound.
''The baby bears were around her in a flash, but mother bear was safe, for the man with the gun had hurriedly gone when he had seen how near the old bear was. And he had seen her teeth and had almost
been able to feel them!
''And the babies knew their teeth would never have done. They, too, had had a glimpse of their mother's anger and their mother's strength.
''And as they licked the wound they said,
" 'We won't leave you, Mother Bear. We don't know the world as yet.'
''And Mother Black Bear groaned with the hurt from the slight wound in her shoulder, but still more she grunted with pleasure, for her babies had seen that they still needed their mother.''
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