An episode appeared twice a month
in The Michigan Farmer magazine.
Whitepaw Has a Narrow Escape
Jerry kept his word to Uncle Joe. He hurried me along so that we reached
the tower by nine o'clock.
"What happened to Whitepaw?" Jerry asked breathlessly as
soon as we were inside the tower."
"You must have stayed awake all night to get here so early,"
Uncle Joe chuckled. "Now I guess it's up to me to tell you all
about Whitepaw's fall from the top of the big elm tree."
We found comfortable chairs and waited for the story. Uncle Joe finally
pushed his chair back from the desk, satisfied that there were no fires
in his section of the forest.
"When Whitepaw felt himself falling, I guess he thought he was
done for," Uncle Joe began. Turning to Jerry he asked, "Have
you ever fallen any distance?"
Jerry nodded. "I fell off the top of a rail fence once."
"Then," continued Uncle Joe, "you have some idea of
how Whitepaw must have felt, only he was falling from a place many times
higher than rail fence.
"I was scared myself when the little fellow began to fall. Over
and over he turned, hitting first one branch and then another. And then
with a thump, Whitepaw came to a sudden stop."
"Had he hit the ground?" Jerry asked, scarcely breathing.
Uncle Joe shook his head. "He had fallen right into the crotch
of the big elm tree; a crotch with limbs about as large around as my
arm and strong enough to hold him."
"At first it seemed as if Whitepaw had been injured. He lay there
with his legs and head limp. I guess the fall just knocked the breath
out of him, for soon he was squirming and wiggling as much as a bear
cub could do in a position like that.
"A funny thing happened while Whitepaw did his wiggling and squirming.
The more he wiggled the tighter he fitted into the crotch and the tighter
he fitted into the crotch the more he tried to wiggle."
"Don't you think he must have been pretty badly frightened?"
Jerry asked. "And wasn't it pretty bad for him to be caught way
up there in the tree?"
"One at a time," Uncle Joe laughed. "To answer your
first question, he must have been pretty much frightened. To answer
your second question, it might have been pretty serious business."
Jerry wrinkled his eyebrows. "What do you mean, Uncle Joe, when
you say it might have been?"
"Well," Uncle Joe continued, "all the time this was
happening the mother bear was nearing the cave. When she arrived, she
must have heard Whitepaw up in the tree and guessed there was something
wrong by the way Whitepaw acted.
"She was a practical mother, that mother bear. She took in the
situation with one glance. She walked right over to the tree, climbed
right up to where Whitepaw was, pulled him right up out of the crotch,
and made him climb down to the ground. And once safely on the ground
she proceeded to box his ears and spank him soundly with her big paw."
Jerry breathed deeply, "And so do the cubs have any more adventures?"
he asked.
"No, not for a while," Uncle Joe replied. "Whitepaw
was pretty badly frightened for a few days but soon forgot all about
his fall when the mother bear started the cubs in school."
"Do bears have school?" Jerry asked.
Uncle Joe held up a warning finger. "Tomorrow," he said.
Click HERE to read "Whitepaw
and Blackpaw Start School"
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© 2004 Leo VanMeer
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