CHAPTER XXVI

ALONE AND LOST IN THE GREAT WORLD

He truly brave is who can be

No whit² less brave with none to see.

Mother Bear.

Somehow it is easier to be brave when there are others about to see how brave you are. It is a great deal easier. To be brave when you are all alone is quite another matter. That is real bravery. And to be alone and lost and brave is the greatest bravery.

When Chatterer the Red Squirrel raced away through the tree tops, leaving Boxer³ alone to recover his breath and rest his weary little legs, he left a little Bear as completely[154] lost as ever a little Bear had been since the beginning of the Great World. Boxer didn’t know it then. He was too busy getting his breath and thinking how good it was to rest to think of anything else.

But after awhile Boxer felt quite himself again, and once more his anger at Chatterer the Red Squirrel began to rise. Boxer looked all about for Chatterer. There was no sign of him. Boxer swelled⁴ up with a feeling of importance.

“That fellow must be hiding. I guess I’ve given him a scare he won’t forget in a hurry,” boasted Boxer. How that would have tickled⁵ Chatterer had he heard it.

[155]Now that Chatterer had disappeared, Boxer began to wonder what he should do next. It suddenly came to him that he was in a strange place. None of the trees or stumps⁶ about there was familiar. There wasn’t a single familiar thing to be seen anywhere. A queer feeling of uneasiness crept over Boxer. He couldn’t sit still. No, Sir, he couldn’t sit still. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t. So Boxer started on aimlessly. He had nothing in particular to do and nowhere in particular to go.

Presently he noticed the first of the Black Shadows creeping through the Green Forest. Somehow those Black Shadows made him think of home. Probably[156] Mother Bear and Woof-Woof were back there by this time. He wondered if they had missed him and would start looking for him. If he didn’t see them, how would he ever know whether or not they looked for him? How would he ever know if he really did get even with them by making them anxious? Why not go back near the great windfall and watch?

“Of course I won’t go home,” muttered Boxer to himself, as he shuffled⁷ along. “I’ve left home for good. I’ll just go back and hide near there where I can watch and see all that happens. It will be great fun to watch Mother Bear and Woof-Woof hunt for me. I guess I’ll hurry a little,” he added,[157] as he noticed how the creeping Black Shadows had increased. So Boxer began to run.

“I didn’t think home was so far,” he panted at last, looking fearfully over his shoulder at the Black Shadows. “Ha, there is the great windfall!” he added joyously⁸, as he spied a pile of fallen trees in the distance.

He approached it carefully, stopping often to look and listen, for you know he didn’t want to be seen by Mother Bear or Woof-Woof. At least, he thought he didn’t want to be seen by them, though way down inside that was just what he did want.

He heard no one and saw no one. Presently he was close to that[158] windfall. A great longing⁹ for home swept over him. He no longer wanted to get even with anybody. All he wanted was home and mother. Perhaps Mother Bear and Woof-Woof hadn’t returned yet and he could slip in. Then they would never know. Boxer slipped around the old windfall to where he thought the entrance was. There wasn’t any! It wasn’t the right windfall! Boxer knew right then and there that he was lost, that he was a lone¹, lost little Bear out in the Great World. He sat down and began to cry.