CHAPTER

TITLES

1

Little Bear Brown

2

A Bear’s Necessities

3

Hungry as a Bear

4

Bear Tracks

5

Song Birds

6

Black Bear

7

He’s Bear Brown!

Chapter 3

Hungry as a Bear

     Bear Brown wandered over the ridge and headed for the western side of the mountain. It was on this side of the mountain where Mum Bear would climb tall pine trees to get cones filled with crunchy nuts and seeds. As Bear Brown approached the tall pine trees a fluttering blue bird caught his attention. The bird collected some twigs in his beak and took off when he saw Bear Brown. The blue bird known as Cool Jay was busy building a nest in one of the nearby trees. Bear Brown followed the flight of the bird and decided to try and climb the same tree where Cool Jay was making his home. It was the first time that Bear Brown ever tried to climb a tree.

     Using his sharp claws and youthful arms and legs, Bear Brown climbed from the base of the pine tree up to the first layer of branches. Looking upward through a smartly woven spider web, Bear Brown could see the cones filled with seeds and nuts. He pushed with his right leg and reached with his left paw to grasp the first branch of the tree. As he continued climbing upward Bear Brown broke the spider web and made it to the second layer of branches. The cones on this layer were not close to the center, but hung on the underside of each tree limb. Instead of climbing out onto the weaker tree limbs, Bear Brown decided to shake the branches as Mum Bear used to do to get the cones to fall to the ground. As the cones fell to the forest floor below, Bear Brown continued climbing upward where he could see more cones that were closer to the center of the tree.

     Meanwhile Spidey the spider sat on a branch in the third layer of the tree. Spidey was up in arms over the fact that Bear Brown had ruined an entire night’s work.

     “Yo, Bear Brown, didn’t you hear me? I told you to watch the fly trap please! But no, you have to just push your big head right through my dinner plate. Oh the webs I weave! Now I’ll have to spin it all over again! Thanks a lot, Bear Brown!!”

     Spidey’s tiny size and little voice were not enough for Bear Brown to notice. As the bear continued shaking branches, the nest that Cool Jay was building tipped and fell bouncing from branch to branch until it landed upside-down on the ground.

     As Bear Brown climbed down from the pine tree Cool Jay returned with more twigs in his beak. “What goes on? Where did my nest go??” chirped the blue bird.

     Spidey screamed “The same Bear Brown that broke my web shook your nest right out of the tree! Don’t look now but it’s about to be squashed!”

     Cool Jay looked down to see Bear Brown lose his grip near the first layer of branches and fall to the ground with a thump! The nest was crushed, although Bear Brown had no idea he was responsible for shaking it to the ground in the first place. Bear Brown was also unaware he pounded Chipper the chipmunk just as the little animal was emerging from his tunnel near the tree.

     Bear Brown got up from his fall and started clawing the cones and munching the nuts and seeds while Cool Jay flew down to inspect the nest and check on Chipper.

     “You okay, Chipper?” said Cool Jay.

     “I have a bad headache! What on earth happened?”

     “Bear Brown fell from the tree and landed right on your head!” Are you okay?” said Cool Jay.

     “Who? What? I have a bad headache!” Chipper moaned.

     “Bear Brown was who landed on you.” Chirped Cool Jay.

     “Who?? Oh boy, I have a bad, bad, headache!” Chipper complained.

     “Bear Brown, that’s who!” said Cool Jay.

      “Bad Bear Brown.” Replied Chipper.

      “That’s right, Bad Bear Brown” whistled Cool Jay.

     Unaware of the conversation between Cool Jay and Chipper, Bear Brown had his fill of nuts and seeds and headed for the sweet blackberry patch in the clearing between the pine trees and the river valley.

     In the distance Cool Jay was singing a three-note tune: “Bad Bear Brown. Bad Bear Brown…”

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