CHAPTER XVII

MOTHER COMES TO THE RESCUE

In all the world, below, above,

The greatest thing is mother love.

Mother Bear.

The love of a mother is wonderful beyond all things. There is nothing to compare with it. There is nothing it will not attempt to do. There is no danger it will not face. There is no sacrifice it will not make. It is the most beautiful, the most perfect of all things.

Boxer¹ and Woof-Woof had thought that in climbing a tall tree they were making themselves safe. It had not entered their funny little[99] heads that great big Buster Bear would climb that tree. So you can imagine how terribly frightened they were when Buster started up that tree after them. They scrambled² up and up until they were just as high as they could get. There they clung with feet and hands, the worst scared little folks in all the Green Forest.

Now little Bears are much like little boys and girls in very many ways, and one of these is their faith in mother. Another is that when they are frightened or in trouble they cry and yell for mother.

That is just what Boxer and Woof-Woof did now. The instant they saw Buster, they began to whimper and cry softly, and they[100] kept it up as they scrambled up the trunk of that tree. But when they saw Buster Bear climbing up after them, they simply opened their months and bawled³.

“Mamma! Mamma-a-a!” yelled Boxer, at the top of his lungs.

“Oh-o-o, mamma-a-a!” screamed Woof-Woof.

Now fortunately for the twins, Mother Bear was not so far away that she couldn’t hear them. By the sound of their voices she knew that this was no ordinary trouble they were in. Terror was in the sound of those voices. Those twins were in danger. There was no doubt about it. That danger might be danger for her as well, but she didn’t give that a thought.[101] She plunged⁴ straight in the direction from which those cries were coming, and she didn’t stop to pick her way. She crashed straight through brush and branches in her way, jumped over logs, and broke down young trees.

At the sound of the first crash made by Mother Bear as she started for those cubs⁵, Buster Bear stopped climbing. He turned his head and looked anxiously in that direction, his little ears cocked to catch every sound. At the second crash Buster Bear decided⁶ that that was no place for him. He didn’t stop to climb down. He simply let go and dropped. Yes, sir, that is what he did. He let go and dropped.

It was quite a way to the ground[102], but the ground was where Buster Bear wanted to be, and he wanted to be there right away. He wanted to be there before whoever was coming could reach that tree. And the quickest way of getting there was to drop. A few bruises⁷ and a shaking up were nothing to Buster Bear just then.

The grunt⁸ he gave when he hit the ground even the twins heard way up in the top of the tree. It made them stop bawling⁹ for a minute to wonder if Buster had been killed. But Buster hadn’t been killed. Goodness, no! In an instant he was on his feet and running away so fast that even Lightfoot the Deer would have had to do his best to keep up with him.[103] And over his shoulder Buster Bear was throwing frightened glances.

He was not out of sight when Mother Bear burst out from among the trees. She saw him instantly. With a roar of rage, she started after Buster. Buster had seemed to be moving fast, but it was nothing compared to the way he moved when he heard that roar.