OCR Text |
Show 1 p Daddy's ! Fairy Tale ! JAASY GRAH.AM BONNER j WINTER FOOD "The cold weather will soon be I here," said Billy Bear and the other bears all growled and said : "Ah, the nice cold weather. Our fur feels so warm. We feel so well. Ah, the nice cold weather." "We are going to have some cold weather food, some winter food, too," said Billy Bear. "Are we?" asked the other bears and growled softly. "That's good." "Yes," said Billy Bear, "and here comes the keeper cow with the food. I heard him talking about it. Now he is bringing It." . Along came the keeper and he brought with liim some bread and fish and some nice boiled bones, for twice a week in the cold weather he gave the beavs a good warm dish. They had bran and bread at all i times, but oh, how they did like their I meal of boiled bones. They ate it and growled their thanks to the keeper. "Ah, winter food is delicious," said Eiliy Bear.' "It's fine," growled the other bears. "Zoo life is all right, anyway," said Eiliy Bear. "Yes," said the others, "and we feel much happier when it is cold." "Bears are nice animals anyway," said Billy Bear. "We don't go for grown-ups in self-defense. We're very different from our neighbors, the polar bears." "Of course we're nice," said the other bears, feeling pleased with their meal and pleased with the keeper and pleased with themselves. "There are always some bears who may not be nice, just as there are some people who aren't nice," said Billy, "but as a rule the brown bear is a good-natured creature." And then they all took a nice winter nap, but not for long, for they wer How Nice Winter Food Is! In the zoo and didn't sleep for the winter as they would if they were out of the zoo. "I had a glorious dream about boiled bones," said Billy Bear when he woke up. "Oh, how nice winter food is," said Billy Bear once more, as he licked his pavi;s to be sure he hadn't missed anything. any-thing. "But oh," he added, "it Is so unfair when people will judge a great many animals by one of that kind they may have happened to know. "I have heard people at the zoo saying say-ing : " T don't like brown bears. My i brother went hunting once and he shot i a brown bear in the foot but didn't kill him and do you know that terrible ter-rible bear tried to get him later.' "Well, what bear wouldn't feel he j hid been treated unfairly If he had been injured like that and had suffered suf-fered great pain by someone who wanted to boast of what he had done when hunting? "Or I have heard someone say : " 'My father says you can't trust a jear. He caught a baby bear once and the mother went for him and he just escaped.' "Well, .what mother wouldn't go for anyone who tried to make off with her baby? "Or they will speak of one cross animal ani-mal they have known and think all others are the same. "Maybe one creature has been a pet and bus turned out to be treacherous and they won't trust any others of that kind after that. "One person said she knew a hateful, hate-ful, mean, jealous monkey. So she Judged all monkeys by that one. "Yet people go back on each other and others do not say that no person should be trusted. "People are cross and mean and unfair un-fair but that isn't the way to judge all people just because a few are like that. "No, they should be far more fair to animals than they arc. and realize that it takes lots of different kinds to make up one family of animals Just as it docs with people." |