Cubs

“ But the thicket parted and an angry and suspicious black she-bear lumbered toward them with two curious, tumbling black cubs at her heels. It was no time to dispute for the possession of their weapons. It was not the time to pause for a drink of cocoanut milk, and so, with a pretense at nonchalance, as though they had seen nothing and had no concern in the two rollicking cubs, Laughing Boy and Web Toe glided toward the thicket. They knew that females of every species are eager to contest the right of all ways when accompanied by their young. And their courage lay with their stone weapons. ”

“ Keen eyes saw every moving thing, from the bees in the bluebells to the slow fishing-boats far out at sea; sharp ears that were cocked like a collie's heard every chirp and trill and rustle, and a nose that understood everything was holding up every vagrant breeze and searching it for its message. For the cubs were coming out for the first time to play in the big world, and no wild mother ever lets that happen without first taking infinite precautions that her little ones be not molested nor made afraid. ”

“ The almost continual play of the cubs is a never-ending source of interest. They race, they wrestle, [Pg 36] they box, and they play hide and seek with utmost enthusiasm. They climb upon mother’s back, they swat and pummel her and maul her. She will endure this by the hour with absolute indifference. Mother sometimes plays with the cubs but more often lets them play with her, or, unconcerned, simply watches them in their scrambles.
Playing cubs are strikingly boylike in their ways. They tumble and roll about with lively energy. Their boxing is a ludicrously earnest show. ”

“ From grasshoppers the cubs took to hunting the wood-mice that nested in the dry moss and swarmed on the edges of every thicket. This was keener hunting; for the wood-mouse moves like a ray of light, and always makes at least one false start to mislead any that may be watching for him. The cubs soon learned that when Tookhees appeared and dodged back again, as if frightened, it was not because he had seen them, but just because he always appears that way. ”

“ I’ve been told that young cubs are as rough as a bramble bush, and that they don’t look like anything at all till the old bear has licked them into shape. Is that true?”
“No, no—it’s all gammon, Nick. Young cubs are the prettiest little things you ever saw. They are as soft and playful as young puppies; and they seem by nature to have a true Christian spirit. It’s as the creature grows old that he grows wicked and savage—and I believe it’s the same with men as with bears.
“I remember that once, when I was a young fellow, I was out with a hunting party in search of sables. ”

“ Night after night, the cubs, sometimes under the protection of both their parents, and sometimes under the protection of only the dam, roamed through the by-ways of the countryside. From each expedition they gleaned something of new and unexpected interest, till they grew wise in the ways of Nature's folk that haunt the gloom—the strong, for ever seeking opportunities of attack; the weak, for ever dreading even a chance shadow on the moonlit trail. ”

“ To break the monotony of the hover, the cubs, as their limbs grew stronger, would, in the intervals of sleep, clamber to the wide parapet of the nest and take note of the things that moved within their narrow field: of trembling grasses, of the bramble spray that moved to and fro in the current, of the reeds that nodded in the wind, and, above all, of the creatures that visited the stream to feed or quench their thirst. They watched every step taken by the snipe, every thrust of his long bill; they regarded with wonder the gay kingfisher that perched on their ledge and fished in their pool ”

“ Saul Dobbs, who had been interrupted as he clipped the wings of a blue-breasted pheasant, trod angrily toward the Cubs.
In his gnarled hands he still held the beautiful bird, whose handsome red neck feathers shaded off into a long silver white tail.
“What’s the big idea?” ”

“ At first I used to give cubs diluted milk, but they seem to thrive on new milk quite as well. When very young, the body covering of a cub is mouse-colour, but even at this tender age the tiny tail—hardly to be called a brush—often shows a white tip. Very young cubs must be kept warm, otherwise they are apt to chill and die suddenly. As they grow older, artificial heat may be dispensed with. Cubs open their eyes fully when about three weeks old, and at first their eyes are bluish-grey in colour. ”

“ The most fascinating play is when two cubs climb a tree on opposite sides, a tree so big that they are hidden one from the other. The one in your sight goes humping aloft, clasping the tree with his paws and hurling himself upward by digs of his hind claws, till he thinks he is well above his rival. In the excitement, what with flying chips and the loud scratching of bark, he hears nothing but the sound of his own going. Then he peeks cautiously around the tree, and very likely finds a black nose coming to meet him. ”

“ One of the cubs, born with the instinct of caution, kept far away from the dangerous brink without having more than half realized that there was 158 any danger there whatever. The other cub was one of those blundering fellows, to be found among the wild kindreds no less than among the kindreds of men, who only get caution hammered into them by experience. He saw a narrow break, indeed, between the berry patch and the bare steep above,––but what was a little crevice in a position like this, where it could not amount to anything? ”

“ All the other cubs in the wood can run about as they please, and why should we be kept in this poky old cave? Suppose we try to get away the big log before the door?' for this was what Grumpy-growly put up to keep them at home.
"'Good! I go in for that!' cried Bushyball, Titehugge, and Stubtail, the other cubs. ”

“ But the cubs were alive. For their sakes she would take no risks with the man.
When he had passed on, she followed at a safe distance. The strange procession crossed the ridge. It neared the clearing and the cabin. At this point the panther heard, some little way back from the trail, the tonk-tonk of a cow-bell. There was no need of following the man so very closely for the moment. She swerved aside, ran straight, like a cat going for milk, through the thickets, and, with a burst of intolerable fury, sprang upon the cow’s neck. ”

“ In their eagerness to reach the fishing-ground they increased their pace across the three enclosures that separated them from it; but at the sight of the smooth, broad creek the cubs stood and gazed, till a call from their mother reminded them there was no time to be lost. So they made down the bank and over the beach to join her on the rocky foreland, round which the current was eddying. Together they dived and scoured the sandy bed in search of prey. ”

“ The cubs, like puppies, come into the world with their eyes closed; the mother suckles them for some weeks, and soon learns them to eat flesh, which she prepares for them by chewing it; some time after she brings them field mice, leverets, partridges, and birds yet alive; the young wolves begin by playing with, and end by killing them, when the dam strips them of their feathers, skins them, tears them in pieces, and gives to each of her young a share. ”

“ These long words bored the Cubs.
“Tell us a story!” said the twins, and Nipper suddenly smothered the tramp with an enormous armful of hay.
“No, no,” he said, “I must get back to work. Perhaps this evening I will tell you a story—when work’s done.”
And so haymaking started again, and the Cubs learnt that doing your best can be very hot work, especially when you have a tyrant of a Scout to shout, “Dyb, dyb, dyb!” every time you happen to feel like having a rest or a hayfight.
After tea the Cubs knocked off work and went down to the circus. ”

“ The cubs tumbled over each other in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight to be sure that he had not been overlooked. ”

“ Most wonderful, most interesting of all was the little gray hut on the shore, almost under their feet, where little Noel and the Indian children played with the tide like fiddler crabs, or pushed bravely out to meet the fishermen in a bobbing nutshell. For wolf cubs are like collies in this, that they seem to have a natural interest, perhaps a natural kinship with man, and next to their own kind nothing arouses their interest like a group of children playing. ”

“ She made a neat job of it while the cubs wrestled in the sunshine nearby.
Bear cubs are about the most merry hearted youngsters I know of. I think they are even more playful than monkeys and far more charming to look at.
An Alaskan Indian guide presented me with two little black bear cubs he had captured while hunting. They were about three months old and as fat as butter balls. They were as grey as mice but as they grew older these grey coats grew darker and darker until they were jet black like their parents. The little fellows were contented and grew very rapidly. ”

“ That audible communication comes later, when the cubs begin to hunt for themselves; and then you will often hear the mother’s querulous squall or the cubs’ impatient crying when they are separated in the dark woods. While the den is their home (they seldom enter it after they once roam abroad) silence is the rule, and that silence is most eloquent. For hours at a stretch the cubs romp lustily in the afternoon sunshine, some stalking imaginary mice or grasshoppers, others challenging their mates to mock fights or mock hunting ”

“ Coming upon the scrapbook which Dan had made, he fingered through it.
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“You did a bang-up job recording the history of the Cubs,” he praised. “But why all the blank pages at the end?”
“They represent the future,” Dan laughed, stepping out of his armor. “And boy! Judging from the past, what a future we’ll have. How about it, fellows?”
“We’ll do our best to make ’er glow!” shouted Chips.
The other Cubs, gathering up their belongings, signified agreement, by giving a long and lusty wolf wail. ”

“ I suspect that a male might look for a second marriage following the termination of the first. One large crippled male was successfully consorting with two females at the same time, neither female objecting to the presence of the other—in fact, both probably preferred it that way.
The cubs are born in the hibernating den in midwinter, are 8 or 9 inches long, and weigh less than 2 pounds at birth. The number of cubs in a litter ordinarily varies from one to three, two being the most frequent. ”

“ In the bunk above Dan’s, Brad Wilber, the Den Chief, rolled restlessly. By contrast, Chips Davis, half his lean body protruding from a blanket, slept peaceful as a babe. The other Cubs, Midge Holloway, Red Suell, Fred Hatfield and Mack Tibbets, were equally dead to the world. ”

“ In come rushing the ravenous Cubs, and each squats down where the cooks have placed their mugs in a circle. Caps off, and all stand quiet for a moment, for grace, and then porridge and mountains of bread-and-butter begin to disappear at a great rate.
Breakfast finished, the pots and the pans washed up, the Pack invades the post office, and, armed with picture postcards and pencils, the Cubs squat along the sea-wall and write to their mothers. That duty done, and spades, pails, boats, and shrimping-nets bought, they lose no more time in getting down on to the shore. ”

“ One by one, the Cubs and their parents began to arrive for the meeting. Mr. Hatfield started it off with a little talk. First he told the boys how proud he was that Den 2 had won the swimming meet and the silver trophy which now graced a table in the Cave.
Next the Cub leader paid tribute to Dan for his coolness in the face of danger. Finally he spoke of the Cub ideals and the honor of the organization.
“A real Cub always is square,” he emphasized, smiling across the room at Jacques. “Crooked people are unfair, even to themselves. So the Cub follows the law of God and man. ”

“ Comical and cunning the cubs appear as they mimic the mother. When she stands up with fore paws against her breast, looking intently into the distance, the cubs stand up with their paws upon their breasts and look in the same direction. When mother turns or sniffs, these cunning little imitators also turn and sniff. The cubs walk up to a spot where the mother has been sniffing and digging and there sniff and dig. If mother continues digging rather long, they find a place of their own and dig. ”

“ When cubs are about two months old, they begin to forage in the vicinity of their lair. This hunting, however, is more than half play, for they are sprightly little creatures whose gambols and infantile familiarities soon become distasteful to the grave and morose nature of their father. The lion then takes up his quarters out of their reach, but at the same time near enough to come to the assistance of his family if aid should be needed. Two cubs as a rule are born together, and one of these is generally a male. ”

“ She loved the cub with a certain extravagance, and gave herself up to it utterly. Even her beloved master fell into a secondary place, and his household, of which she had hitherto held herself the guardian, now seemed to her to exist merely for the benefit of this black prodigy which she imagined herself to have produced. The little one's astounding growth—for the cubs of the bear are born very small, and so must lose no time in making up arrears of stature—was an affair for which she took all credit to herself ”