The Adventures of Becky Bear

I Becky Bear Goes Fishing

Becky Bear yawned as she lay on her comfortable bed of leaves and watched the first early morning sunbeams creeping through the Green Forest to chase out the Black Shadows. Once more she yawned, and slowly got to her feet and shook herself. Then she walked over to a big pine‑tree, stood up on her hind legs, reached as high up on the trunk of the tree as she could, and scratched the bark with her great claws. After that she yawned until it seemed as if her jaws would crack, and then sat down to think what she wanted for breakfast.

While she sat there, trying to make up her mind what would taste best, she was listening to the sounds that told of the waking of all the little people who live in the Green Forest. She heard Sammy Jay way off in the distance screaming, “Thief! Thief!” and grinned. “I wonder,” thought Becky, “if someone has stolen Sammy’s breakfast, or if she has stolen the breakfast of someone else. Probably she is the thief herself.”

She heard Chatterer the Red Squirrel scolding as fast as he could make his tongue go and working himself into a terrible rage. “Must be that Chatterer got out of bed the wrong way this morning,” thought she.

She heard Blacky the Crow cawing at the top of his lungs, and she knew by the sound that Blacky was getting into mischief of some kind. She heard the sweet voices of happy little singers, and they were good to hear. But most of all she listened to a merry, low, silvery laugh that never stopped but went on and on, until she just felt as if she must laugh too. It was the voice of the Laughing Brook. And as Becky listened it suddenly came to her just what she wanted for breakfast.

“I’m going fishing,” said she in her deep grumbly‑rumbly voice to no one in particular. “Yes, Sir, I’m going fishing. I want some fat trout for my breakfast.”

She shuffled along over to the Laughing Brook, and straight to a little pool of which she knew, and as she drew near she took the greatest care not to make the teeniest, weeniest bit of noise. Now it just happened that even though she was early, someone was there before Becky Bear. When she came in sight of the little pool, who should she see but another fisherman there, who had already caught a fine fat trout. Who was it? Why, Little Joann Otter to be sure. She was just climbing up the bank with the fat trout in her mouth. Becky Bear’s own mouth watered as she saw it. Little Joann sat down on the bank and prepared to enjoy her breakfast. She hadn’t seen Becky Bear, and she didn’t know that she or anyone else was anywhere near.

Becky Bear tiptoed up very softly until she was right behind Little Joann Otter. “Woof, woof!” said she in her deepest, most grumbly‑rumbly voice. “That’s a very fine looking trout. I wouldn’t mind if I had it myself.”

Little Joann Otter gave a frightened squeal and without even turning to see who was speaking dropped her fish and dived headfirst into the Laughing Brook. Becky Bear sprang forward and with one of her big paws caught the fat trout just as it was slipping back into the water.

“Here’s your trout, Mrs. Otter,” said she, as Little Joann put her head out of water to see who had frightened her so. “Come and get it.”

But Little Joann wouldn’t. The fact is, she was afraid to. She snarled at Becky Bear and called her a thief and everything bad she could think of. Becky didn’t seem to mind. She chuckled as if she thought it all a great joke and repeated her invitation to Little Joann to come and get her fish. But Little Joann just turned her back and went off down the Laughing Brook in a great rage.

“It’s too bad to waste such a fine fish,” said Becky thoughtfully. “I wonder what I’d better do with it.” And while she was wondering, she ate it all up. Then she started down the Laughing Brook to try to catch some for herself.

II Little Joann Otter Gets Even with Becky Bear

Little Joann Otter was in a terrible rage. It was a bad beginning for a beautiful day and Little Joann knew it. But who wouldn’t be in a rage if her breakfast was taken from her just as she was about to eat it? Anyway, that is what Little Joann told Billy Mink. Perhaps she didn’t tell it quite exactly as it was, but you know she was very badly frightened at the time.

“I was sitting on the bank of the Laughing Brook beside one of the little pools,” she told Billy Mink, “and was just going to eat a fat trout I had caught, when who should come along but that great big bully, Becky Bear. She took that fat trout away from me and ate it just as if it belonged to her! I hate her! If I live long enough I’m going to get even with her!”

Of course that wasn’t nice talk and anything but a nice spirit, but Little Joann Otter’s temper is sometimes pretty short, especially when she is hungry, and this time she had had no breakfast, you know.

Becky Bear hadn’t actually taken the fish away from Little Joann. But looking at the matter as Little Joann did, it amounted to the same thing. You see, Becky knew perfectly well when she invited Little Joann to come back and get it that Little Joann wouldn’t dare do anything of the kind.

“Where is she now?” asked Billy Mink.

“She’s somewhere up the Laughing Brook. I wish she’d fall in and get drowned!” snapped Little Joann.

Billy Mink just had to laugh. The idea of great big Becky Bear getting drowned in the Laughing Brook was too funny. There wasn’t water enough in it anywhere except down in the Smiling Pool, and that was on the Green Meadows, where Becky had never been known to go. “Let’s go see what she is doing,” said Billy Mink.

At first Little Joann didn’t want to, but at last her curiosity got the better of her fear, and she agreed. So the two little brown‑coated scamps turned down the Laughing Brook, taking the greatest care to keep out of sight themselves. They had gone only a little way when Billy Mink whispered: “Sh‑h! There she is.”

Sure enough, there was Becky Bear sitting close beside a little pool and looking into it very intently.

“What’s she doing?” asked Little Joann Otter, as Becky Bear sat for the longest time without moving.

Just then one of Becky’s big paws went into the water as quick as a flash and scooped out a trout that had ventured too near.

“She’s fishing!” exclaimed Billy Mink.

And that is just what Becky Bear was doing, and it was very plain to see that she was having great fun. When she had eaten the trout she had caught, she moved along to the next little pool.

“They are our fish!” said Little Joann fiercely. “She has no business catching our fish!”

“I don’t see how we are going to stop her,” said Billy Mink.

“I do!” cried Little Joann, into whose head an idea had just popped. “I’m going to drive all the fish out of the little pools and muddy the water all up. Then we’ll see how many fish she will get! Just you watch me get even with Becky Bear.”

Little Joann slipped swiftly into the water and swam straight to the little pool that Becky Bear would try next. She frightened the fish so that they fled in every direction. Then she stirred up the mud until the water was so dirty that Becky couldn’t have seen a fish right under her nose. She did the same thing in the next pool and the next. Becky Bear’s fishing was spoiled for that day.

III Becky Bear Is Greatly Puzzled

Becky Bear hadn’t enjoyed herself so much since she came to the Green Forest to live. Her fun began when she surprised Little Joann Otter on the bank of a little pool in the Laughing Brook and Little Joann was so frightened that she dropped a fat trout she had just caught. It had seemed like a great joke to Becky Bear, and she had chuckled over it all the time she was eating the fat trout. When she had finished it, she started on to do some fishing herself.

Presently she came to another little pool. She stole up to it very, very softly, so as not to frighten the fish. Then she sat down close to the edge of it and didn’t move. Becky learned a long time ago that a fisherman must be patient unless, like Little Joann Otter, she is just as much at home in the water as the fish themselves, and can swim fast enough to catch them by chasing them. So she didn’t move so much as an eyelash. She was so still that she looked almost like the stump of an old tree. Perhaps that is what the fish thought she was, for pretty soon, two or three swam right in close to where she was sitting. Now Becky Bear may be big and clumsy looking, but there isn’t anything that can move much quicker than one of those big paws of hers when she wants it to. One of them moved now, and quicker than a wink had scooped one of those foolish fish out on to the bank.

Becky’s little eyes twinkled, and she smacked her lips as she moved on to the next little pool, for she knew that it was of no use to stay longer at the first one. The fish were so frightened that they wouldn’t come back for a long, long time. At the next little pool the same thing happened. By this time Becky Bear was in fine spirits. It was fun to catch the fish, and it was still more fun to eat them. What finer breakfast could anyone have than fresh‑caught trout? No wonder she felt good! But it takes more than three trout to fill Becky Bear’s stomach, so she kept on to the next little pool.

But this little pool, instead of being beautiful and clear so that Becky could see right to the bottom of it and so tell if there were any fish there, was so muddy that she couldn’t see into it at all. It looked as if someone had just stirred up all the mud at the bottom.

“Huh!” said Becky Bear. “It’s of no use to try to fish here. I would just waste my time. I’ll try the next pool.”

So she went on to the next little pool. She found this just as muddy as the other. Then she went on to another, and this was no better. Becky sat down and scratched her head. It was puzzling. Yes, Sir, it was puzzling. She looked this way and she looked that way suspiciously, but there was no one to be seen. Everything was still save for the laughter of the Laughing Brook. Somehow, it seemed to Becky as if the Brook were laughing at her.

“It’s very curious,” muttered Becky, “very curious indeed. It looks as if my fishing is spoiled for today. I don’t understand it at all. It’s lucky I caught what I did. It looks as if somebody is trying to—ha!” A sudden thought had popped into her head. Then she began to chuckle and finally to laugh. “I do believe that scamp Joann Otter is trying to get even with me for eating that fat trout!”

And then, because Becky Bear always enjoys a good joke even when it is on herself, she laughed until she had to hold her sides, which is a whole lot better than going off in a rage as Little Joann Otter had done. “You’re pretty smart, Mrs. Otter! You’re pretty smart, but there are other people who are smart too,” said Becky Bear, and still chuckling, she went off to think up a plan to get the best of Little Joann Otter.

IV Little Joann Otter Supplies Becky Bear with a Breakfast

Getting even just for spite
Doesn’t always pay.
Fact is, it is very apt
To work the other way.

That is just how it came about that Little Joann Otter furnished Becky Bear with the best breakfast she had had for a long time. She didn’t mean to do it. Oh, my, no! The truth is, she thought all the time that she was preventing Becky Bear from getting a breakfast. You see she wasn’t well enough acquainted with Becky to know that Becky is quite as smart as she is, and perhaps a little bit smarter. Spite and selfishness were at the bottom of it. You see Little Joann and Billy Mink had had all the fishing in the Laughing Brook to themselves so long that they thought no one else had any right to fish there. To be sure, Bonnie Coon caught a few little fish there, but they didn’t mind Bonnie. Farmer Brown’s girl fished there too, sometimes, and this always made Little Joann and Billy Mink very angry, but they were so afraid of her that they didn’t dare do anything about it. But when they discovered that Becky Bear was a fisherman, they made up their minds that something had got to be done. At least, Little Joann did.

“She’ll try it again tomorrow morning,” said Little Joann. “I’ll keep watch, and as soon as I see her coming, I’ll drive out all the fish, just as I did today. I guess that’ll teach her to let our fish alone.”

So the next morning Little Joann hid before daylight, close by the little pool where Becky Bear had given her such a fright. Sure enough, just as the Jolly Sunbeams began to creep through the Green Forest, she saw Becky Bear coming straight over to the little pool. Little Joann slipped into the water and chased all the fish out of the little pool, and stirred up the mud on the bottom so that the water was so muddy that the bottom couldn’t be seen at all. Then she hurried down to the next little pool and did the same thing.

Now Becky Bear is very smart. You know she had guessed the day before who had spoiled her fishing. So this morning she only went far enough to make sure that if Little Joann were watching for her, as she was sure she would be, she would see her coming. Then, instead of keeping on to the little pool, she hurried to a place way down the Laughing Brook, where the water was very shallow, hardly over her feet, and there she sat chuckling to herself. Things happened just as she had expected. The frightened fish Little Joann chased out of the little pools up above swam down the Laughing Brook, because, you know, Little Joann was behind them, and there was nowhere else for them to go. When they came to the place where Becky was waiting, all she had to do was to scoop them out on to the bank. It was great fun. It didn’t take Becky long to catch all the fish she could eat. Then she saved a nice fat trout and waited.

By and by along came Little Joann Otter, chuckling to think how she had spoiled Becky Bear’s fishing. She was so intent on looking behind her to see if Becky was coming that she didn’t see Becky waiting there until she spoke.

“I’m much obliged for the fine breakfast you have given me,” said Becky in her deepest, most grumbly‑rumbly voice. “I’ve saved a fat trout for you to make up for the one I ate yesterday. I hope we’ll go fishing together often.”

Then she went off laughing fit to kill herself. Little Joann couldn’t find a word to say. She was so surprised and angry that she went off by herself and sulked. And Billy Mink, who had been watching, ate the fat trout.

V Grandfather Frog’s Common Sense

There is nothing quite like common sense to smooth out troubles. People who have plenty of just plain common sense are often thought to be very wise. Their neighbors look up to them and are forever running to them for advice, and they are very much respected. That is the way with Grandfather Frog. He is very old and very wise. Anyway, that is what his neighbors think. The truth is, he simply has a lot of common sense, which after all is the very best kind of wisdom.

Now when Little Joann Otter found that Becky Bear had been too smart for her and that instead of spoiling Becky’s fishing in the Laughing Brook she had really made it easier for Becky to catch all the fish she wanted, Little Joann went off down to the Smiling Pool in a great rage.

Billy Mink stopped long enough to eat the fat fish Becky had left on the bank and then he too went down to the Smiling Pool.

When Little Joann Otter and Billy Mink reached the Smiling Pool, they climbed up on the Big Rock, and there Little Joann sulked and sulked, until finally Grandfather Frog asked what the matter was. Little Joann wouldn’t tell, but Billy Mink told the whole story. When he told how Becky had been too smart for Little Joann, it tickled him so that Billy had to laugh in spite of himself. So did Grandfather Frog. So did Mary Muskrat, who had been listening. Of course this made Little Joann angrier than ever. She said a lot of unkind things about Becky Bear and about Billy Mink and Grandfather Frog and Mary Muskrat, because they had laughed at the smartness of Becky.

“She’s nothing but a great big bully and thief!” declared Little Joann.

“Chug‑a‑rum! She may be a bully, because great big people are very apt to be bullies, and though I haven’t seen her, I guess Becky Bear is big enough from all I have heard, but I don’t see how she is a thief,” said Grandfather Frog.

“Didn’t she catch my fish and eat them?” snapped Little Joann. “Doesn’t that make her a thief?”

“They were no more your fish than mine,” protested Billy Mink.

“Well, our fish, then! She stole our fish, if you like that any better. That makes her just as much a thief, doesn’t it?” growled Little Joann.

Grandfather Frog looked up at jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun and slowly winked one of his great, goggly eyes. “There comes a foolish green fly,” said he. “Who does he belong to?”

“Nobody!” snapped Little Joann. “What have foolish green flies got to do with my—I mean our fish?”

“Nothing, nothing at all,” replied Grandfather Frog mildly. “I was just hoping that he would come near enough for me to snap him up; then he would belong to me. As long as he doesn’t, he doesn’t belong to any one. I suppose that if Becky Bear should happen along and catch him, she would be stealing from me, according to Little Joann.”

“Of course not! What a silly idea! You’re getting foolish in your old age,” retorted Little Joann.

“Can you tell me the difference between the fish that you haven’t caught and the foolish green flies that I haven’t caught?” asked Grandfather Frog.

Little Joann couldn’t find a word to say.

“You take my advice, Little Joann Otter,” continued Grandfather Frog, “and always make friends with those who are bigger and stronger and smarter than you are. You’ll find it pays.”

VI Little Joann Otter Takes Grandfather Frog’s Advice

Who makes an enemy a friend,
To fear and worry puts an end.

Little Joann Otter found that out when she took Grandfather Frog’s advice. She wouldn’t have admitted that she was afraid of Becky Bear. No one ever likes to admit being afraid, least of all Little Joann Otter. And really Little Joann has a great deal of courage. Very few of the little people of the Green Forest or the Green Meadows would willingly quarrel with her, for Little Joann is a great fighter when she has to fight. As for all those who live in or along the Laughing Brook or in the Smiling Pool, they let Little Joann have her own way in everything.

Now having one’s own way too much is a bad thing. It is apt to make one selfish and thoughtless of other people and very hard to get along with. Little Joann Otter had her way too much. Grandfather Frog knew it and shook his head very soberly when Little Joann had been disrespectful to him.

“Too bad. Too bad! Too bad! Chug‑a‑rum! It is too bad that such a fine young friend as Little Joann should spoil a good disposition by such selfish heedlessness. Too bad,” said he.

So, though he didn’t let on that it was so, Grandfather Frog really was delighted when he heard how Becky Bear had been too smart for Little Joann Otter. It tickled him so that he had hard work to keep a straight face. But he did, and was as grave and solemn as you please as he advised Little Joann always to make friends with any one who was bigger and stronger and smarter than she. That was good common sense advice, but Little Joann just sniffed and went off declaring that she would get even with Becky Bear yet. Now Little Joann is good‑natured and full of fun as a rule, and after she had reached home and her temper had cooled off a little, she began to see the joke on herself—how when she had worked so hard to frighten the fish in the little pools of the Laughing Brook so that Becky Bear should not catch any, she had all the time been driving them right into Becky’s paws. By and by she grinned. It was a little sheepish grin at first, but at last it grew into a laugh.

“I believe,” said Little Joann as she wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, “that Grandfather Frog is right, and that the best thing I can do is to make friends with Becky Bear. I’ll try it tomorrow morning.”

So very early the next morning, Little Joann Otter went to the best fishing pool she knew of in the Laughing Brook, and there she caught the biggest trout she could find. It was so big and fat that it made Little Joann’s mouth water, for you know fat trout are her favorite food. But she didn’t take so much as one bite. Instead she carefully laid it on an old log where Becky Bear would be sure to see it if she should come along that way. Then she hid near by, where she could watch. Becky was late that morning. It seemed to Little Joann that she never would come. Once she nearly lost the fish. She had turned her head for just a minute, and when she looked back again, the trout was nowhere to be seen. Becky couldn’t have stolen up and taken it, because such a big friend couldn’t possibly have gotten out of sight again.

Little Joann darted over to the log and looked on the other side. There was the fat trout, and there also was Little Joann’s smallest cousin, Shadow the Weasel, who is a great thief and altogether bad. Little Joann sprang at him angrily, but Shadow was too quick and darted away. Little Joe put the fish back on the log and waited. This time she didn’t take her eyes off it. At last, when she was almost ready to give up, she saw Becky Bear shuffling along towards the Laughing Brook. Suddenly Becky stopped and sniffed. One of the Merry Little Breezes had carried the scent of that fat trout over to her. Then she came straight over to where the fish lay, her nose wrinkling, and her eyes twinkling with pleasure.

“Now I wonder who was so thoughtful as to leave this fine breakfast ready for me,” said she out loud.

“Me,” said Little Joann in a rather faint voice. “I caught it especially for you.”

“Thank you,” replied Becky, and her eyes twinkled more than ever. “I think we are going to be friends.”

“I—I hope so,” replied Little Joann.

VII Farmer Brown’s Girl Has No Luck at All

Farmer Brown’s girl tramped through the Green Forest, whistling merrily. She always whistles when she feels light-hearted, and she always feels light-hearted when she goes fishing. You see, she is just as fond of fishing as is Little Joann Otter or Billy Mink or Becky Bear. And now she was making her way through the Green Forest to the Laughing Brook, sure that by the time she had followed it down to the Smiling Pool she would have a fine lot of trout to take home. She knew every pool in the Laughing Brook where the trout love to hide, did Farmer Brown’s girl, and it was just the kind of a morning when the trout should be hungry. So she whistled as she tramped along, and her whistle was good to hear.

When she reached the first little pool she baited her hook very carefully and then, taking the greatest care to keep out of sight of any trout that might be in the little pool, she began to fish. Now Farmer Brown’s girl learned a long time ago that to be a successful fisherman one must have a great deal of patience, so though she didn’t get a bite right away as she had expected to, she wasn’t the least bit discouraged. She kept very quiet and fished and fished, patiently waiting for a foolish trout to take her hook. But she didn’t get so much as a nibble. “Either the trout have lost their appetite or they have grown very wise,” muttered Farmer Brown’s girl, as after a long time she moved on to the next little pool.

There the same thing happened. She was very patient, very, very patient, but her patience brought no reward, not so much as the faintest kind of a nibble. Farmer Brown’s girl trudged on to the next pool, and there was a puzzled frown on her freckled face. Such a thing never had happened before. She didn’t know what to make of it. All the night before she had dreamed about the delicious dinner of fried trout she would have the next day, and now—well, if she didn’t catch some trout pretty soon, that splendid dinner would never be anything but a dream.

“If I didn’t know that nobody else comes fishing here, I should think that somebody had been here this very morning and caught all the fish or else frightened them so that they are all in hiding,” said she, as she trudged on to the next little pool. “I never had such bad luck in all my life before. Hello! What’s this?”

There, on the bank beside the little pool, were the heads of three trout. Farmer Brown’s girl scowled down at them more puzzled than ever. “Somebody has been fishing here, and they have had better luck than I have,” thought she. She looked up the Laughing Brook and down the Laughing Brook and this way and that way, but no one was to be seen. Then she picked up one of the little heads and looked at it sharply. “It wasn’t cut off with a knife; it was bitten off!” she exclaimed. “I wonder now if Billy Mink is the scamp who has spoiled my fun.”

Thereafter she kept a sharp lookout for signs of Billy Mink, but though she found two or three more trout heads, she saw no other signs and she caught no fish. This puzzled her more than ever. It didn’t seem possible that such a little fellow as Billy Mink could have caught or frightened all the fish or have eaten so many. Besides, she didn’t remember ever having known Billy to leave heads around that way. Billy sometimes catches more fish than he can eat, but then he usually hides them. The farther she went down the Laughing Brook, the more puzzled Farmer Brown’s girl grew. It made her feel very strange. She would have felt still more strange if she had known that all the time two other fishermen who had been before her were watching her and chuckling to themselves. They were Little Joann Otter and Becky Bear.

VIII Farmer Brown’s Girl Feels Her Hair Rise

‘Twas just a sudden odd surprise
Made Farmer Brown’s girl’s hair to rise.

That’s a funny thing for hair to do – rise up all of a sudden – isn’t it? But that is just what the hair on Farmer Brown’s girl’s head did the day she went fishing in the Laughing Brook and had no luck at all. There are just two things that make hair rise — anger and fear. Anger sometimes makes the hair on the back and neck of Bella the Hound and of some other little people bristle and stand up, and you know the hair on the tail of Princess the Cat stands on end until her tail looks twice as big as it really is. Both anger and fear make it do that. But there is only one thing that can make the hair on the head of Farmer Brown’s girl rise, and as it isn’t anger, of course it must be fear.

It never had happened before. You see, there isn’t much of anything that Farmer Brown’s girl is really afraid of. Perhaps she wouldn’t have been afraid this time if it hadn’t been for the surprise of what she found. You see when she had found the heads of those trout on the bank she knew right away that some one else had been fishing, and that was why she couldn’t catch any; but it didn’t seem possible that little Billy Mink could have eaten all those trout, and Farmer Brown’s girl didn’t once think of Little Joann Otter, and so she was very, very much puzzled.

She was turning it all over in her mind and studying what it could mean, when she came to a little muddy place on the bank of the Laughing Brook, and there she saw something that made her eyes look as if they would pop right out of her head, and it was right then that she felt her hair rise. Anyway, that is what she said when she told about it afterward. What was it she saw? What do you think? Why, it was a footprint in the soft mud. Yes, Sir, that’s what it was, and all it was. But it was the biggest footprint Farmer Brown’s girl ever had seen, and it looked as if it had been made only a few minutes before. It was the footprint of Becky Bear.

Now Farmer Brown’s girl didn’t know that Becky Bear had come down to the Green Forest to live. She never had heard of a Bear being in the Green Forest. And so she was so surprised that she had hard work to believe her own eyes, and she had a strange feeling all over — a little chilly feeling, although it was a warm day. Somehow, she didn’t feel like meeting Becky Bear. If she had had her terrible gun with her, it might have been different. But she didn’t, and so she suddenly made up her mind that she didn’t want to fish any more that day. She had a funny feeling, too, that she was being watched, although she couldn’t see any one. She was being watched. Little Joann Otter and Becky Bear were watching her and taking the greatest care to keep out of her sight.

All the way home through the Green Forest, Farmer Brown’s girl kept looking behind her, and she didn’t draw a long breath until she reached the edge of the Green Forest. She hadn’t run, but she had wanted to.

“Huh!” said Becky Bear to Little Joann Otter, “I believe she was afraid!”

And Becky Bear was just exactly right.

IX Little Joann Otter Has Great News to Tell

Little Joann Otter was fairly bursting with excitement. She could hardly contain herself. She felt that she had the greatest news to tell since Peter Rabbit had first found the tracks of Becky Bear in the Green Forest. She couldn’t keep it to herself a minute longer than she had to. So she hurried to the Smiling Pool, where she was sure she would find Billy Mink and Mary Muskrat and Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle, and she hoped that perhaps some of the little people who live in the Green Forest might be there too. Sure enough, Peter Rabbit was there on one side of the Smiling Pool, making faces at Reddy Fox, who was on the other side, which, of course, was not at all nice of Peter. Mr. and Mrs. Redwing were there, and Blacky the Crow was sitting in the Big Hickory tree.

Little Joann Otter swam straight to the Big Rock and climbed up to the very highest part. She looked so excited, and her eyes sparkled so, that every one knew right away that something had happened.

“Hi!” cried Billy Mink. “Look at Little Joann Otter! It must be that for once she has been smarter than Becky Bear.”

Little Joann made a good-natured face at Billy Mink and shook her head. “No, Billy,” said she, “you are wrong, altogether wrong. I don’t believe anybody can be smarter than Becky Bear.”

Reddy Fox rolled his lips back in an unpleasant grin. “Don’t be too sure of that!” he snapped. “I’m not through with her yet.”

“Boaster! Boaster!” cried Peter Rabbit.

Reddy glared across the Smiling Pool at Peter. “I’m not through with you either, Peter Rabbit!” he snarled. “You’ll find it out one of these fine days!”

”Reddy, Reddy, smart and sly,
Couldn’t catch a buzzing fly!”

taunted Peter.

“Chug-a-rum!” said Grandfather Frog in his deepest, gruffest voice. “We know all about that. What we want to know is what Little Joann Otter has got on her mind.”

“It’s news — great news!” cried Little Joann.

“We can tell better how great it is when we hear what it is,” replied Grandfather Frog testily. “What is it?”

Little Joann Otter looked around at all the eager faces watching her, and then in the slowest, most provoking way, she drawled: “Farmer Brown’s girl is afraid of Becky Bear.”

For a minute no one said a word. Then Blacky the Crow leaned down from his perch in the Big Hickory tree and looked very hard at Little Joann as he said:

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe a word of it. Farmer Brown’s girl isn’t afraid of anyone who lives in the Green Forest or on the Green Meadows or in the Smiling Pool, and you know it. We are all afraid of her.”

Little Joann glared back at Blacky. “I don’t care whether you believe it or not; it’s true,” she retorted. Then she told how early that very morning she and Becky Bear had been fishing together in the Laughing Brook, and how Farmer Brown’s girl had been fishing there too, and hadn’t caught a single trout because they had all been caught or frightened before she got there. Then she told how Farmer Brown’s girl had found a footprint of Becky Bear in the soft mud, and how she had stopped fishing right away and started for home, looking behind her with fear in her eyes all the way.

“Now tell me that she isn’t afraid!” concluded Little Joann. “For once she knows just how we feel when she comes prowling around where we are. Isn’t that great news? Now we’ll get even with her!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it for myself!” snapped Blacky the Crow.

X Becky Bear Becomes a Hero

The news that Little Joann Otter told at the Smiling Pool — how Farmer Brown’s girl had run away from Becky Bear without even seeing her — soon spread all over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest, until everyone who lives there knew about it. Of course, Peter Rabbit helped spread it. Trust Peter for that! But everybody else helped too. You see, they had all been afraid of Farmer Brown’s girl for so long that they were tickled almost to pieces at the very thought of having some one in the Green Forest who could make Farmer Brown’s girl feel fear as they had felt it. And so it was that Becky Bear became a hero right away to most of them.

A few doubted Little Joann’s story. One of them was Blacky the Crow. Another was Reddy Fox. Blacky doubted because he knew Farmer Brown’s girl so well that he couldn’t imagine her afraid. Reddy doubted because he didn’t want to believe. You see, he was jealous of Becky Bear, and at the same time he was afraid of her. So Reddy pretended not to believe a word of what Little Joann Otter had said, and he agreed with Blacky that only by seeing Farmer Brown’s girl afraid could he ever be made to believe it. But nearly everybody else believed it, and there was great rejoicing. Most of them were afraid of Becky, very much afraid of her, because she was so big and strong. But they were still more afraid of Farmer Brown’s girl, because they didn’t know her or understand her, and because in the past she had tried to catch some of them in traps and had hunted some of them with her terrible gun.

So now they were very proud to think that one of their own number actually had frightened her, and they began to look on Becky Bear as a real hero. They tried in ever so many ways to show her how friendly they felt and went quite out of their way to do her favors. Whenever they met one another, all they could talk about was the smartness and the greatness of Becky Bear.

“Now I guess Farmer Brown’s girl will keep away from the Green Forest, and we won’t have to be all the time watching out for her,” said Bonnie Coon, as she washed her dinner in the Laughing Brook, for you know she is very neat and particular.

“And she won’t dare set any more traps for me,” gloated Billy Mink.

“I wish Sister Bear would go up to Farmer Brown’s henhouse and scare Farmer Brown’s girl so that she would keep away from there. It would be a favor to me, which I certainly would appreciate,” said Uncle Billy Possum when he heard the news.

“Let’s all go together and tell Becky Bear how much obliged we are for what she has done,” proposed Mary Muskrat.

“That’s a splendid idea!” cried Little Joann Otter. “We’ll do it right away.”

“Caw, caw caw!” broke in Blacky the Crow. “I say, let’s wait and see for ourselves if it is all true.”

“Of course it’s true!” snapped Little Joann Otter. “Don’t you believe I’m telling the truth?”

“Certainly, certainly. Of course no one doubts your word,” replied Blacky, with the utmost politeness. “But you say yourself that Farmer Brown’s girl didn’t see Becky Bear, but only her footprint. Perhaps she didn’t know whose it was, and if she had she wouldn’t have been afraid. Now I’ve got a plan by which we can see for ourselves if she really is afraid of Becky Bear.”

“What is it?” asked Sammy Jay eagerly.

Blacky the Crow shook his head and winked. “That’s telling,” said he. “I want to think it over. If you meet me at the Big Hickory tree at sun-up tomorrow morning, and get everybody else to come that you can, perhaps I will tell you.”

XI Blacky the Crow Tells His Plan

Blacky is a dreamer!
Blacky is a schemer!
His voice is strong;
When things go wrong
Blacky is a screamer!

It’s a fact. Blacky the Crow is forever dreaming and scheming and almost always it is of mischief. He is one of the smartest and cleverest of all the little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, and all the others know it. Blacky likes excitement. He wants something going on. The more exciting it is, the better he likes it. Then he has a chance to use that harsh voice of his, and how he does use it!

So now, as he sat in the top of the Big Hickory tree beside the Smiling Pool and looked down on all the little people gathered there, he was very happy. In the first place he felt very important, and you know Blacky dearly loves to feel important. They had all come at his invitation to listen to a plan for seeing for themselves if it were really true that Farmer Brown’s girl was afraid of Becky Bear.

On the Big Rock in the Smiling Pool sat Little Joann Otter, Billy Mink, and Mary Muskrat. On his big, green lily-pad sat Grandfather Frog. On another lily-pad sat Spotty the Turtle. On the bank on one side of the Smiling Pool were Peter Rabbit, Jumper the Hare, Dani Meadow Mouse, Johnny Chuck, Jenny Skunk, Uncle Billy Possum, Striped Chipmunk and Old Mrs. Toad. On the other side of the Smiling Pool were Reddy Fox, Digger the Badger, and Bonnie Coon. In the Big Hickory tree were Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Happy Jill the Gray Squirrel, and Sammy Jay.

Blacky waited until he was sure that no one else was coming. Then he cleared his throat very loudly and began to speak. “Friends,” said he.

Everybody grinned, for Blacky has played so many sharp tricks that no one is really his friend unless it is that other mischief-maker, Sammy Jay, who, you know, is Blacky’s cousin. But no one said anything, and Blacky went on.

“Little Joann Otter has told us how she saw Farmer Brown’s girl hurry home when she found the footprint of Becky Bear on the edge of the Laughing Brook, and how all the way she kept looking behind her, as if she were afraid. Perhaps she was, and then again perhaps she wasn’t. Perhaps she had something else on her mind. You have made a hero of Becky Bear, because you believe Little Joann’s story. Now I don’t say that I don’t believe it, but I do say that I will be a lot more sure that Farmer Brown’s girl is afraid of Becky when I see her run away myself. Now here is my plan:

“Tomorrow morning, very early, Sammy Jay and I will make a great fuss near the edge of the Green Forest. Farmer Brown’s girl has a lot of curiosity, and she will be sure to come over to see what it is all about. Then we will lead her to where Becky Bear is. If she runs away, I will be the first to admit that Becky Bear is as great a hero as some of you seem to think she is. It is a very simple plan, and if you will all hide where you can watch, you will be able to see for yourselves if Little Joann Otter is right. Now what do you say?”

Right away everybody began to talk at the same time. It was such a simple plan that everybody agreed to it. And it promised to be so exciting that everybody promised to be there, that is, everybody but Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle, who didn’t care to go so far away from the Smiling Pool. So it was agreed that Blacky should try his plan the very next morning.

XII Farmer Brown’s Girl and Becky Bear Grow Curious

Ever since it was light enough to see at all, Blacky the Crow had been sitting in the top of the tallest tree on the edge of the Green Forest nearest to Farmer Brown’s house, and never for an instant had he taken his eyes from Farmer Brown’s back door. What was he watching for? Why, for Farmer Brown’s girl to come out on her way to milk the cows. Meanwhile, Sammy Jay was slipping silently through the Green Forest, looking for Becky Bear, so that when the time came she could let her cousin, Blacky the Crow, know just where Becky was.

By and by the back door of Farmer Brown’s house opened, and out stepped Farmer Brown’s girl. In each hand she carried a milk pail. Right away Blacky began to scream at the top of his lungs. “Caw, caw, caw!” shouted Blacky. “Caw, caw, caw!” And all the time he flew about among the trees near the edge of the Green Forest as if so excited that he couldn’t keep still. Farmer Brown’s girl looked over there as if she wondered what all that fuss was about, as indeed she did, but she didn’t start to go over and see. No, Sir, she started straight for the barn.

Blacky didn’t know what to make of it. You see, smart as he is and shrewd as he is, Blacky doesn’t know anything about the meaning of duty, for he never has to work excepting to get enough to eat. So, when Farmer Brown’s girl started for the barn instead of for the Green Forest, Blacky didn’t know what to make of it. He screamed harder and louder than ever, until his voice grew so hoarse he couldn’t scream any more, but Farmer Brown’s girl kept right on to the barn.

“I’d like to know what you’re making such a fuss about, Mr. Crow, but I’ve got to feed the cows and milk them first,” said she.

Now all this time the other little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows had been hiding where they could see all that went on. When Farmer Brown’s girl disappeared in the barn, Chatterer the Red Squirrel snickered right out loud. “Ha, ha, ha! This is a great plan of yours, Blacky! Ha, ha, ha!” he shouted. Blacky couldn’t find a word to say. He just hung his head, which is something Blacky seldom does.

“Perhaps if we wait until she comes out again, she will come over here,” said Sammy Jay, who had joined Blacky. So it was decided to wait. It seemed as if Farmer Brown’s girl never would come out, but at last she did. Blacky and Sammy Jay at once began to scream and make all the fuss they could. Farmer Brown’s girl took the two pails of milk into the house, then out she came and started straight for the Green Forest. She was so curious to know what it all meant that she couldn’t wait another minute.

Now there was some one else with a great deal of curiosity also. She had heard the screaming of Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay, and she had listened until she couldn’t stand it another minute. She just had to know what it was all about. So at the same time Farmer Brown’s girl started for the Green Forest, this other listener started towards the place where Blacky and Sammy were making such a racket. She walked very softly so as not to make a sound. It was Becky Bear.

XIII Farmer Brown’s Girl and Becky Bear Meet

“If you should meet with Becky Bear
While walking through the wood,
What would you do? Now tell me true,
I’d run the best I could.”

That is what Farmer Brown’s girl did when she met Becky Bear, and a lot of the little people of the Green Forest and some from the Green Meadows saw her. When Farmer Brown’s girl came hurrying home from the Laughing Brook without any fish one day and told about the great footprint she had seen in a muddy place on the bank deep in the Green Forest, and had said she was sure that it was the footprint of a Bear, she had been laughed at. Farmer Brown had laughed and laughed.

“Why,” said he, “there hasn’t been a Bear in the Green Forest for years and years and years, not since my own grandfather was a little boy, and that, you know, was a long, long, long time ago. If you want to find Mrs. Bear, you will have to go to the Great Woods. I don’t know who made that footprint, but it certainly couldn’t have been a Bear. I think you must have imagined it.”

Then he had laughed some more, all of which goes to show how easy it is to be mistaken, and how foolish it is to laugh at things you really don’t know about. Becky Bear had come to live in the Green Forest, and Farmer Brown’s girl had seen her footprint. But Farmer Brown laughed so much and made fun of her so much, that at last his girl began to think that she must have been mistaken after all. So when she heard Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay making a great fuss near the edge of the Green Forest, she never once thought of Becky Bear, as she started over to see what was going on.

When Blacky and Sammy saw her coming, they moved a little farther into the Green Forest, still screaming in the most excited way. They felt sure that Farmer Brown’s girl would follow them, and they meant to lead her to where Sammy had seen Becky Bear that morning. Then they would find out for sure if what Little Joann Otter had said was true—that Farmer Brown’s girl really was afraid of Becky Bear.

Now all around, behind trees and stumps, and under thick branches, and even in tree tops, were other little people watching with round, wide-open eyes to see what would happen. It was very exciting, the most exciting thing they could remember. You see, they had come to believe that Farmer Brown’s girl wasn’t afraid of anybody or anything, and as most of them were very much afraid of her, they had hard work to believe that she would really be afraid of even such a great, big, strong friend as Becky Bear. Everyone was so busy watching Farmer Brown’s girl that no one saw Becky coming from the other direction.

You see, Becky walked very softly. Big as she is, she can walk without making the teeniest, weeniest sound. And that is how it happened that no one saw her or heard her until just as Farmer Brown’s girl stepped out from behind one side of a thick little hemlock tree, Becky Bear stepped out from behind the other side of that same little tree, and there they were face to face! Then everybody held their breath, even Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay. For just a little minute it was so still there in the Green Forest that not the least little sound could be heard. What was going to happen?

XIV A Surprising Thing Happens

Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay, looking down from the top of a tall tree, held their breath. Happy Jill the Gray Squirrel and her cousin, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, looking down from another tree, held their breath. Uncle Billy Possum, sticking his head out from a hollow tree, held his breath. Bonnie Coon, looking through a hole in a hollow stump in which she was hiding, held her breath. Reddy Fox, lying flat down behind a heap of brush, held his breath. Peter Rabbit, sitting bolt upright under a thick hemlock branch, with eyes and ears wide open, held his breath. And all the other little people who happened to be where they could see did the same thing.

You see, it was the most exciting moment that ever was in the Green Forest. Farmer Brown’s girl had just stepped out from behind one side of a little hemlock tree and Becky Bear had just stepped out from behind the opposite side of the little hemlock tree and neither had known that the other was anywhere near. For a whole minute they stood there face to face, gazing into each other’s eyes, while everybody watched and waited, and it seemed as if the whole Green Forest was holding its breath.

Then something happened. Yes, Sir, something happened. Farmer Brown’s girl opened her mouth and yelled! It was such a sudden yell and such a loud yell that it startled Chatterer so that he nearly fell from his place in the tree, and it made Reddy Fox jump to his feet ready to run. And that yell was a yell of fright. There was no doubt about it, for with the yell Farmer Brown’s girl turned and ran for home, as no one ever had seen her run before. She ran just as Peter Rabbit runs when he has got to reach the dear Old Briar patch before Reddy Fox can catch him, which, you know, is as fast as he can run. Once she stumbled and fell, but she scrambled to her feet in a twinkling, and away she went without once turning her head to see if Becky Bear was after her. There wasn’t any doubt that she was afraid, very much afraid.

Everybody leaned forward to watch her. “What did I tell you? Didn’t I say that she was afraid of Becky Bear?” cried Little Joann Otter, dancing about with excitement.

“You were right, Little Joann! I’m sorry that I doubted it. See her go! Caw, caw, caw!” shrieked Blacky the Crow.

For a minute or two everybody forgot about Becky Bear. Then there was a great crash which made everybody turn to look the other way. What do you think they saw? Why, Becky Bear was running away too, and she was running twice as fast as Farmer Brown’s girl! She bumped into trees and crashed through bushes and jumped over logs, and in almost no time at all she was out of sight. Altogether it was the most surprising thing that the little people of the Green Forest ever had seen.

Sammy Jay looked at Blacky the Crow, and Blacky looked at Chatterer, and Chatterer looked at Happy Jill, and Happy Jill looked at Peter Rabbit, and Peter looked at Uncle Billy Possum, and Uncle Billy looked at Bonnie Coon, and Bonnie looked at Johnny Chuck, and Johnny looked at Reddy Fox, and Reddy looked at Jenny Skunk, and Jenny looked at Billy Mink, and Billy looked at Little Joann Otter, and for a minute nobody could say a word. Then Little Joann gave a funny little gasp.

“Why, why-e-e!” said she, “I believe Becky Bear is afraid too!” Uncle Billy Possum chuckled. “I believe you are right again, sister Otter,” said he. “It certainly does look so. If sister Bear isn’t scared, she must have remembered something important and has gone to attend to it in a powerful hurry.”

Then everybody began to laugh.

XV Becky Bear Is a Fallen Hero

A fallen hero is someone to whom everyone has looked up as very brave and then proves to be less brave than she was supposed to be. That was the way with Becky Bear. When Little Joann Otter had told how Farmer Brown’s girl had been afraid at the mere sight of one of Becky Bear’s big footprints, they had at once made a hero of Becky. At least some of them had. As this was the first time, the very first time, that they had ever known anyone who lives in the Green Forest to make Farmer Brown’s girl run away, they looked on Becky Bear with a great deal of respect and were very proud of her.

But now they had seen Becky Bear and Farmer Brown’s girl meet face to face; and while it was true that Farmer Brown’s girl had run away as fast as ever she could, it was also true that Becky Bear had done the same thing. She had run even faster than Farmer Brown’s girl, and had hidden in the most lonely place she could find in the very deepest part of the Green Forest. It was hard to believe, but it was true. And right away everybody lost a great deal of the respect for Becky which they had felt. It is always that way. They began to say unkind things about her. They said them among themselves, and some of them even said them to Becky when they met her, or said them so that she would hear them.

Of course Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay, who, because they can fly, have nothing to fear from Becky, and who always delight in making other people uncomfortable, never let a chance go by to tell Becky and everybody else within hearing what they thought of her. They delighted in flying about through the Green Forest until they had found Becky Bear and then from the safety of the tree tops screaming at her.

”Becky Bear is big and strong;
Her teeth are big; her claws are long;
In spite of these she runs away
And hides herself the livelong day!”

A dozen times a day Becky would hear them screaming this. She would grind her teeth and glare up at them, but that was all she could do. She couldn’t get at them. She just had to stand it and do nothing. But when impudent little Chatterer the Red Squirrel shouted the same thing from a place just out of reach in a big pine-tree, Becky could stand it no longer. She gave a deep, angry growl that made little shivers run over Chatterer, and then suddenly she started up that tree after Chatterer. With a frightened little shriek Chatterer scampered to the top of the tree. He hadn’t known that Becky could climb. But Becky is a splendid climber, especially when the tree is big and stout as this one was, and now she went up after Chatterer, growling angrily.

How Chatterer did wish that he had kept his tongue still! He ran to the very top of the tree, so frightened that his teeth chattered, and when he looked down and saw Becky’s great mouth coming nearer and nearer, he nearly tumbled down with terror. The worst of it was there wasn’t another tree near enough for him to jump to. He was in trouble this time, was Chatterer, sure enough! And there was no one to help him.

XVI Chatterer the Red Squirrel Jumps for His Life

It isn’t very often that Chatterer the Red Squirrel knows fear. That is one reason that he is so often impudent and saucy. But once in a while a great fear takes possession of him, as when he knows that Shadow the Weasel is looking for him. You see, he knows that Shadow can go wherever he can go. There are very few of the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows who do not know fear at some time or other, but it comes to Chatterer as seldom as to any one, because he is very sure of himself and his ability to hide or run away from danger.

But now as he clung to a little branch near the top of a tall pine-tree in the Green Forest and looked down at the big sharp teeth of Becky Bear drawing nearer and nearer, and listened to the deep, angry growls that made his hair stand on end, Chatterer was too frightened to think. If only he had kept his tongue still instead of saying hateful things to Becky Bear! If only he had known that Becky could climb a tree! If only he had chosen a tree near enough to other trees for him to jump across! But he had said hateful things, he had chosen to sit in a tree which stood quite by itself, and Becky Bear could climb! Chatterer was in the worst kind of trouble, and there was no one to blame but himself. That is usually the case with those who get into trouble.

Nearer and nearer came Becky Bear, and deeper and angrier sounded her voice. Chatterer gave a little frightened gasp and looked this way and looked that way. What should he do? What could he do! The ground seemed a terrible distance below. If only he had wings like Sammy Jay! But he hadn’t.

“Gr-r-r-r!” growled Becky Bear. “I’ll teach you manners! I’ll teach you to treat your betters with respect! I’ll swallow you whole, that’s what I’ll do. Gr-r-r-r!”

“Oh!” cried Chatterer.

“Gr-r-r-r! I’ll eat you all up to the last hair on your tail!” growled Becky, scrambling a little nearer.

“Oh! Oh!” cried Chatterer, and ran out to the very tip of the little branch to which he had been clinging. Now if Chatterer had only known it, Becky Bear couldn’t reach him way up there, because the tree was too small at the top for such a big friend as Becky. But Chatterer didn’t think of that. He gave one more frightened look down at those big teeth, then he shut his eyes and jumped—jumped straight out for the far-away ground.

It was a long, long, long way down to the ground, and it certainly looked as if such a little friend as Chatterer must be killed. But Chatterer had learned from Old Mother Nature that she had given him certain things to help him at just such times, and one of them is the power to spread himself very flat. He did it now. He spread his arms and legs out just as far as he could, and that kept him from falling as fast and as hard as he otherwise would have done, because being spread out so flat that way, the air held him up a little. And then there was his tail, that funny little tail he is so fond of jerking when he scolds. This helped him too. It helped him keep his balance and keep from turning over and over.

Down, down, down he sailed and landed on his feet. Of course, he hit the ground pretty hard, and for just a second he quite lost his breath. But it was only for a second, and then he was scurrying off as fast as a frightened squirrel could. Becky Bear watched him and grinned.

“I didn’t catch him that time,” she growled, “but I guess I gave him a good fright and taught him a lesson.”

XVII Becky Bear Goes Berrying

Becky Bear is a great hand to talk to herself when she thinks no one is around to overhear. It’s a habit. However, it isn’t a bad habit unless it is carried too far. Any habit becomes bad if it is carried too far. Suppose you had a secret, a real secret, something that nobody else knew and that you didn’t want anybody else to know. And suppose you had the habit of talking to yourself. You might, without thinking, you know, tell that secret out loud to yourself, and some one might, just might happen to overhear! Then there wouldn’t be any secret. That is the way that a habit which isn’t bad in itself can become bad when it is carried too far.

Now Becky Bear had lived by herself in the Great Woods so long that this habit of talking to herself had grown and grown. She did it just to keep from being lonesome. Of course, when she came down to the Green Forest to live, she brought all her habits with her. That is one thing about habits — you always take them with you wherever you go. So Becky brought this habit of talking to herself down to the Green Forest, where she had many more neighbors than she had in the Great Woods.

“Let me see, let me see, what is there to tempt my appetite?” said Becky in her deep, grumbly-rumbly voice. “I find my appetite isn’t what it ought to be. I need a change. Yes, Sir, I need a change. There is something I ought to have at this time of year, and I haven’t got it.

There is something that I used to have and don’t have now. Ha! I know! I need some fresh fruit. That’s it — fresh fruit! It must be about berry time now, and I’d forgotten all about it. My, my, my, how good some berries would taste! Now if I were back up there in the Great Woods I could have all I could eat. Um-m-m-m! Makes my mouth water just to think of it. There ought to be some up in the Old Pasture. There ought to be a lot of ’em up there. If I wasn’t afraid that some one would see me, I’d go up there.”

Becky sighed. Then she sighed again. The more she thought about those berries she felt sure were growing in the Old Pasture, the more she wanted some. It seemed to her that never in all her life had she wanted berries as she did now. She wandered about uneasily. She was hungry — hungry for berries and nothing else. By and by she began talking to herself again.

“If I wasn’t afraid of being seen, I’d go up to the Old Pasture this very minute. Seems as if I could taste those berries.” She licked her lips hungrily as she spoke. Then her face brightened. “I know what I’ll do! I’ll go up there at the very first peep of day tomorrow. I can eat all I want and get back to the Green Forest before there is any danger that Farmer Brown’s girl or any one else I’m afraid of will see me.

That’s just what I’ll do. My, I wish tomorrow morning would hurry up and come.”

Now though Becky didn’t know it, someone had been listening, and that someone was none other than Sammy Jay. When at last Becky lay down for a nap, Sammy flew away, chuckling to herself. “I believe I’ll visit the Old Pasture tomorrow morning myself,” thought she. “I have an idea that something interesting may happen if Becky doesn’t change her mind.”

Sammy was on the lookout very early the next morning. The first Jolly Little Sunbeams had only reached the Green Meadows and had not started to creep into the Green Forest, when she saw a big, dark form steal out of the Green Forest where it joins the Old Pasture. It moved very swiftly and silently, as if in a great hurry. Sammy knew who it was: it was Becky Bear, and she was going berrying. Sammy waited a little until she could see better. Then she too started for the Old Pasture.

XVIII Somebody Else Goes Berrying

Isn’t it funny how two people will often think of the same thing at the same time, and neither one know that the other is thinking of it? That is just what happened the day that Becky Bear first thought of going berrying. While she was walking around in the Green Forest, talking to herself about how hungry she was for some berries and how sure she was that there must be some up in the Old Pasture, some one else was thinking about berries and about the Old Pasture too.

”Will you make me a berry pie if I will get the berries tomorrow?” asked Farmer Brown’s girl of her mother.

Of course Mrs. Brown promised that she would, and so that night Farmer Brown’s girl went to bed very early that she might get up early in the morning, and all night long she dreamed of berries and berry pies. She was awake even before jolly, round, red Mr. Sun thought it was time to get up, and she was all ready to start for the Old Pasture when the first Jolly Little Sunbeams came dancing across the Green Meadows. She carried a big tin pail, and in the bottom of it, wrapped up in a piece of paper, was a lunch, for she meant to stay until she filled that pail, if it took all day.

Now the Old Pasture is very large. It lies at the foot of the Big Mountain, and even extends a little way up on the Big Mountain. There is room in it for many people to pick berries all day without even seeing each other, unless they roam about a great deal. You see, the bushes grow very thick there, and you cannot see very far in any direction. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had climbed a little way up in the sky by the time Farmer Brown’s girl reached the Old Pasture, and was smiling down on all the Great World, and all the Great World seemed to be smiling back.

Farmer Brown’s girl started to whistle, and then she stopped.

“If I whistle,” thought she, “everybody will know just where I am, and will keep out of sight, and I never can get acquainted with folks if they keep out of sight.”

You see, Farmer Brown’s girl was just beginning to understand something that Peter Rabbit and the other little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest learned almost as soon as they learned to walk — that if you don’t want to be seen, you mustn’t be heard. So she didn’t whistle as she felt like doing, and she tried not to make a bit of noise as she followed an old cow-path towards a place where she knew the berries grew thick and oh, so big, and all the time she kept her eyes wide open, and she kept her ears open too.

That is how she happened to hear a little cry, a very faint little cry. If she had been whistling, she wouldn’t have heard it at all. She stopped to listen. She never had heard a cry just like it before. At first she couldn’t make out just what it was or where it came from. But one thing she was sure of, and that was that it was a cry of fright. She stood perfectly still and listened with all her might. There it was again — “Help! Help! Help” — and it was very faint and sounded terribly frightened. She waited a minute or two, but heard nothing more. Then she put down her pail and began a hurried look here, there, and everywhere.

She was sure that it had come from somewhere on the ground, so she peered behind bushes and peeped behind logs and stones, and then just as she had about given up hope of finding where it came from, she went around a little turn in the old cow-path, and there right in front of her was little Mr. Gartersnake, and what do you think he was doing? Well, I don’t like to tell you, but he was trying to swallow one of the children of Stickytoes the Tree Toad. Of course Farmer Brown’s girl didn’t let him. She made little Mr. Gartersnake set Miss Stickytoes free and held Mr. Gartersnake until Miss Stickytoes was safely out of reach.

XIX Becky Bear Has a Fine Time

Becky Bear was having the finest time she had had since she came down from the Great Woods to live in the Green Forest. To be sure, she wasn’t in the Green Forest now, but she wasn’t far from it. She was in the Old Pasture, one edge of which touches one edge of the Green Forest. And where do you think she was, in the Old Pasture? Why, right in the middle of the biggest patch of the biggest blueberries she ever had seen in all her life! Now if there is any one thing that Becky Bear had rather have above another, it is all the berries she can eat, unless it be honey.

Nothing can quite equal honey in Becky’s mind. But next to honey give her berries. She isn’t particular what kind of berries. Raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries, any kind, will make her perfectly happy.

“Um-m-m, my, my, but these are good!” she mumbled in her deep grumbly-rumbly voice, as she sat on her haunches stripping off the berries greedily. Her little eyes twinkled with enjoyment, and she didn’t mind at all if now and then she got leaves, and some green berries in her mouth with the big ripe berries. She didn’t try to get them out. Oh, my, no! She just chomped them all up together and patted her stomach from sheer delight. Now Becky had reached the Old Pasture just as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had crept out of bed, and she had fully made up her mind that she would be back in the Green Forest before Mr. Sun had climbed very far up in the blue, blue sky. You see, big as she is and strong as she is, Becky Bear is very shy and bashful, and she has no desire to meet Farmer Brown, or Farmer Brown’s girl, or any other of those two-legged creatures called people. It seems funny but she actually is afraid of them. And she had a feeling that she was a great deal more likely to meet one of them in the Old Pasture than deep in the Green Forest.

So when she started to look for berries, she made up her mind that she would eat what she could in a great hurry and get back to the Green Forest before Farmer Brown’s girl was more than out of bed. But when she found those berries she was so hungry that she forgot her fears and everything else. They tasted so good that she just had to eat and eat and eat. Now you know that Becky is a very big friend, and it takes a lot to fill her up. She kept eating and eating and eating, and the more she ate the more she wanted. You know how it is. So she wandered from one patch of berries to another in the Old Pasture, and never once thought of the time. Somehow, time is the hardest thing in the world to remember, when you are having a good time.

Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun climbed higher and higher in the blue, blue sky. He looked down on all the Great World and saw all that was going on. He saw Becky Bear in the Old Pasture, and smiled as he saw what a perfectly glorious time Becky was having. And he saw something else in the Old Pasture that made his smile still broader. He saw Farmer Brown’s girl filling a great tin pail with blueberries, and he knew that Farmer Brown’s girl didn’t know that Becky Bear was anywhere about, and he knew that Becky Bear didn’t know that Farmer Brown’s girl was anywhere about, and somehow he felt very sure that he would see something funny happen if they should chance to meet.

“Um-m-m, um-m-m,” mumbled Becky Bear with her mouth full, as she moved along to another patch of berries. And then she gave a little gasp of surprise and delight. Right in front of her was a shiny thing just full of the finest, biggest, bluest berries! There were no leaves or green ones there. Becky blinked her greedy little eyes rapidly and looked again. No, she wasn’t dreaming. They were real berries, and all she had to do was to help herself. Becky looked sharply at the shiny thing that held the berries. It seemed perfectly harmless. She reached out a big paw and pushed it gently. It tipped over and spilled out a lot of the berries. Yes, it was perfectly harmless. Becky gave a little sigh of pure happiness. She would eat those berries to the last one, and then she would go home to the Green Forest.

XX Becky Bear Carries off the Pail of Farmer Brown’s Girl

The question is, did Becky Bear steal Farmer Brown’s girl’s pail? To steal is to take something which belongs to someone else. There is no doubt that she stole the berries that were in the pail when she found it, for she deliberately ate them. She knew well enough that some one must have picked them—for whoever heard of blueberries growing in tin pails?

So there is no doubt that when Becky took them, she stole them. But with the pail it was different. She took the pail, but she didn’t mean to take it. In fact, she didn’t want that pail at all.

You see it was this way: When Becky found that big tin pail brimming full of delicious berries in the shade of that big bush in the Old Pasture, she didn’t stop to think whether or not she had a right to them. Becky is so fond of berries that from the very second that her greedy little eyes saw that pailful, she forgot everything but the feast that was waiting for her right under her very nose. She didn’t think anything about the right or wrong of helping herself. There before her were more berries than she had ever seen together at one time in all her life, and all she had to do was to eat and eat and eat. And that is just what she did do. Of course she upset the pail, but she didn’t mind a little thing like that. When she had gobbled up all the berries that rolled out, she thrust her nose into the pail to get all that were left in it. Just then she heard a little noise, as if some one were coming. She threw up her head to listen, and somehow, she never did know just how, the handle of the pail slipped back over her ears and caught there.

This was bad enough, but to make matters worse, just at that very minute she heard a shrill, angry voice shout, “Hi, there! Get out of there!” She didn’t need to be told whose voice that was. It was the voice of Farmer Brown’s girl. Right then and there Becky Bear nearly had a fit. There was that awful pail fast over her head so that she couldn’t see a thing. Of course, that meant that she couldn’t run away, which was the thing of all things she most wanted to do, for big as she is and strong as she is, Becky is very shy and bashful when human beings are around. She growled and whined and squealed. She tried to back out of the pail and couldn’t. She tried to shake it off and couldn’t. She tried to pull it off, but somehow she couldn’t get hold of it. Then there was another yell. If Becky hadn’t been so frightened herself, she might have recognized that second yell as one of fright, for that is what it was. You see Farmer Brown’s girl had just discovered Becky Bear. When she had yelled the first time, she had supposed that it was one of the young cattle who live in the Old Pasture all summer, but when she saw Becky, she was just as badly frightened as Becky herself. In fact, she was too surprised and frightened even to run. After that second yell she just stood still and stared.

Becky clawed at that awful thing on her head more frantically than ever. Suddenly it slipped off, so that she could see. She gave one frightened look at Farmer Brown’s girl, and then with a mighty “Woof!” she started for the Green Forest as fast as her legs could take her, and this was very fast indeed, let me tell you. She didn’t stop to pick out a path, but just crashed through the bushes as if they were nothing at all, just nothing at all. But the funniest thing of all is this—she took that pail with her! Yes, Sir, Becky Bear ran away with the big tin pail of Farmer Brown’s girl! You see when it slipped off her head, the handle was still around her neck, and there she was running away with a pail hanging from her neck! She didn’t want it. She would have given anything to get rid of it. But she took it because she couldn’t help it. And that brings us back to the question, did Becky steal Farmer Brown’s girl’s pail? What do you think?

XXI Sammy Jay Makes Things Worse for Becky Bear

“Thief, thief, thief! Thief, thief, thief!” Sammy Jay was screaming at the top of her lungs, as she followed Becky Bear across the Old Pasture towards the Green Forest. Never had she screamed so loud, and never had her voice sounded so excited. The little people of the Green Forest, the Green Meadows, and the Smiling Pool are so used to hearing Sammy cry thief that usually they think very little about it. But every blessed one who heard Sammy this morning stopped whatever she was doing and pricked up her ears to listen.

Sammy’s cousin, Blacky the Crow, just happened to be flying along the edge of the Old Pasture, and the minute he heard Sammy’s voice, he turned and flew over to see what it was all about. Just as soon as he caught sight of Becky Bear running for the Green Forest as hard as ever she could, he understood what had excited Sammy so. He was so surprised that he almost forgot to keep his wings moving. Becky Bear had what looked to Blacky very much like a tin pail hanging from her neck! No wonder Sammy was excited. Blacky beat his wings fiercely and started after Sammy.

And so they reached the edge of the Green Forest, Becky Bear running as hard as ever she could, Sammy Jay flying just behind her and screaming, “Thief, thief, thief!” at the top of her lungs, and behind her Blacky the Crow, trying to catch up and yelling as loud as he could, “Caw, caw, caw! Come on, everybody! Come on! Come on!”

Poor Becky! It was bad enough to be frightened almost to death as she had been up in the Old Pasture when the pail had caught over her head just as Farmer Brown’s girl had yelled at her. Then to have the handle of the pail slip down around her neck so that she couldn’t get rid of the pail but had to take it with her as she ran, was making a bad matter worse. Now to have all her neighbors of the Green Forest see her in such a fix and make fun of her, was more than she could stand. She felt humiliated. That is just another way of saying shamed. Yes, Sir, Becky felt that she was shamed in the eyes of her neighbors, and she wanted nothing so much as to get away by herself, where no one could see her, and try to get rid of that dreadful pail. But Becky is so big that it is not easy for her to find a hiding place. So, when she reached the Green Forest, she kept right on to the deepest, darkest, most lonesome part and crept under the thickest hemlock-tree she could find.

But it was of no use. The sharp eyes of Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow saw her. They actually flew into the very tree under which she was hiding, and how they did scream! Pretty soon Old Buzzard came dropping down out of the blue, blue sky and took a seat on a convenient dead tree, where he could see all that went on. Old Buzzard began to grin as soon as he saw that tin pail on Becky’s neck. Then came others—Redtail the Hawk, Scrapper the Kingbird, Redwing the Blackbird, Drummer the Woodpecker, Welcome Robin, Charlotte Chickadee, Jeremy Wren, Redeye the Vireo, and ever so many more. They came from the Old Orchard, the Green Meadows, and even down by the Smiling Pool, for the voices of Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow carried far, and at the sound of them everybody hurried over, sure that something exciting was going on.

Presently Becky heard light footsteps, and peeping out, she saw Billy Mink and Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare and Prickly Porky and Reddy Fox and Jenny Skunk. Even timid little Whitefoot the Wood Mouse was where he could peer out and see without being seen. Of course, Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Happy Jill the Gray Squirrel were there. There they all sat in a great circle around her, each where she felt safe, but where she could see, and every one of them laughing and making fun of Becky.

“Thief, thief, thief!” screamed Sammy until her throat was sore. The worst of it was Becky knew that everybody knew that it was true. That awful pail was proof of it.

“I wish I never had thought of berries,” growled Becky to herself.

XXII Becky Bear Has a Fit of Temper

A temper is a bad, bad thing
When once it gets away.
There’s nothing quite at all like it
To spoil a pleasant day.

Becky Bear was in a terrible temper. Yes, Sir, Becky Bear was having the worst fit of temper ever seen in the Green Forest. And the worst part of it all was that all her neighbors of the Green Forest and a whole lot from the Green Meadows and the Smiling Pool were also there to see it. It is bad enough to give way to temper when you are all alone, and there is no one to watch you, but when you let temper get the best of you right where others see you, oh, dear, dear, it certainly is a sorry sight.

Now ordinarily Becky is one of the most good-natured persons in the world. It takes a great deal to rouse her temper. She isn’t one tenth so quick tempered as Chatterer the Red Squirrel, or Sammy Jay, or Reddy Fox. But when her temper is aroused and gets away from her, then watch out! It seemed to Becky that she had had all that she could stand that day and a little more. First had come the fright back there in the Old Pasture. Then the pail had slipped down behind her ears and held fast, so she had run all the way to the Green Forest with it hanging about her neck. This was bad enough, for she knew just how funny she must look, and besides, it was very uncomfortable. But to have Sammy Jay call everybody within hearing to come and see her was more than she could stand. It seemed to Becky as if everybody who lives in the Green Forest, on the Green Meadows, or around the Smiling Pool, was sitting around her hiding place, laughing and making fun of her. It was more than any self-respecting Bear could stand.

With a roar of anger Becky Bear charged out of her hiding place. She rushed this way and that way! She roared with all her might! She was very terrible to see. Those who could fly, flew. Those who could climb, climbed. And those who were swift of foot, ran. A few who could neither fly nor climb nor run fast, hid and lay shaking and trembling for fear that Becky would find them. In less time than it takes to tell about it, Becky was alone. At least, she couldn’t see any one.

Then she vented her temper on the tin pail. She cuffed at it and pulled at it, all the time growling angrily. She lay down and clawed at it with her hind feet. At last the handle broke, and she was free! She shook herself. Then she jumped on the helpless pail. With a blow of a big paw she sent it clattering against a tree. She tried to bite it. Then she once more fell to knocking it this way and that way, until it was pounded flat, and no one would ever have guessed that it had once been a pail.

Then, and not till then, did Becky recover her usual good nature. Little by little, as she thought it all over, a look of shame crept into her face. “I—I guess it wasn’t the fault of that thing. I ought to have known enough to keep my head out of it,” she said slowly and thoughtfully.

“You got no more than you deserve for stealing Farmer Brown’s girl’s berries,” said Sammy Jay, who had come back and was looking on from the top of a tree. “You ought to know by this time that no good comes of stealing.”

Becky Bear looked up and grinned, and there was a twinkle in her eyes. “You ought to know, Sammy Jay,” said she. “I hope you’ll always remember it.”

“Thief, thief, thief!” screamed Sammy, and flew away.

XXIII Farmer Brown’s Girl Lunches on Berries

When things go wrong in spite of you
To smile’s the best thing you can do—
To smile and say, “I’m mighty glad
They are no worse; they’re not so bad!”

That is what Farmer Brown’s girl said when she found that Becky Bear had stolen the berries she had worked so hard to pick and then had run off with the pail. You see, Farmer Brown’s girl is learning to be something of a philosopher, one of those people who accept bad things cheerfully and right away see how they are better than they might have been. When she had first heard someone in the bushes where she had hidden her pail of berries, she had been very sure that it was one of the cows or young cattle who live in the Old Pasture during the summer. She had been afraid that they might stupidly kick over the pail and spill the berries, and she had hurried to drive whoever it was away. It hadn’t entered her head that it could be anybody who would eat those berries.

When she had yelled and Becky Bear had suddenly appeared, struggling to get off the pail which had caught over her head, Farmer Brown’s girl had been too frightened to even move. Then she had seen Becky tear away through the brush even more frightened than she was, and right away her courage had begun to come back.

“If she is so afraid of me, I guess I needn’t be afraid of her,” said she. “I’ve lost my berries, but it is worth it to find out that she is afraid of me. There are plenty more on the bushes, and all I’ve got to do is to pick them. It might be worse.”

She walked over to the place where the pail had been, and then she remembered that when Becky ran away she had carried the pail with her, hanging about her neck. She whistled. It was a comical little whistle of chagrin as she realized that she had nothing in which to put more berries, even if she picked them. “It’s worse than I thought,” cried she. “That bear has cheated me out of that berry pie my mother promised me.” Then she began to laugh, as she thought of how funny Becky Bear had looked with the pail about her neck, and then because, you know she is learning to be a philosopher, she once more repeated, “It might have been worse. Yes, indeed, it might have been worse. That bear might have tried to eat me instead of the berries. I guess I’ll go eat that lunch I left back by the spring, and then I’ll go home. I can pick berries some other day.”

Chuckling happily over Becky Bear’s great fright, Farmer Brown’s girl tramped back to the spring where she had left two thick sandwiches on a flat stone when she started to save her pail of berries. “My, but those sandwiches will taste good,” thought she. “I’m glad they are big and thick. I never was hungrier in my life. Hello!” This she exclaimed right out loud, for she had just come in sight of the flat stone where the sandwiches should have been, and they were not there. No, Sir, there wasn’t so much as a crumb left of those two thick sandwiches. You see, Old Man Coyote had found them and gobbled them up while Farmer Brown’s girl was away.

But Farmer Brown’s girl didn’t know anything about Old Man Coyote. She rubbed her eyes and stared everywhere, even up in the trees, as if she thought those sandwiches might be hanging up there. They had disappeared as completely as if they never had been, and Old Man Coyote had taken care to leave no trace of his visit. Farmer Brown’s girl gaped foolishly this way and that way. Then, instead of growing angry, a slow smile stole over her freckled face. “I guess someone else was hungry too,” she muttered. “Wonder who it was? Guess this Old Pasture is no place for me today. I’ll fill up on berries and then I’ll go home.”

So Farmer Brown’s girl made her lunch on blueberries and then rather sheepishly she started for home to tell of all the strange things that had happened to her in the Old Pasture. Two or three times, as she trudged along, she stopped to scratch her head thoughtfully. “I guess,” said she at last, “that I’m not so smart as I thought I was, and I’ve got a lot to learn yet.”

This is the end of the adventures of Becky Bear in this book because—guess why. Because Old Mrs. Toad insists that I must write a book about her adventures, and Old Mrs. Toad is such a good friend of all of us that I am going to do it.