As the three bears crossed the shallow head of the river, whose course they had been following up the mountainsides, from the grass almost under their feet leapt what at first glimpse they took to be a mammoth mouse.
Of course they chased it. Soon they noticed that it ran very differently from the mice they had known. Instead of scuttling along on all fours, with its long tail streaming out behind, this one gave mammoth leaps, and its tail was just a bunch of brown fur. Then they noticed what long ears it had, and what broad hind feet. It’s a hare, signalled Mother Brown Bear, a snowshoe rabbit.
The big brown hare raced so fast that it was soon out of sight; then instead of staying safely away, back it came circling, to stand on its hind legs with its long ears pointed forward to catch the sounds these strange newcomers were making, and its paws folded on its furry chest. The minute it caught sight of the pursuing cubs, it leapt away again with such great bounds that the bears again lost sight of it.
You’d never catch it that way in a million years, Mother Brown Bear laughed, her black eyes twinkling as the cubs returned.
Why not? Chinook demanded. Let’s wait until it comes back, and have another try.
I don’t mind resting here a while, said Mother Brown Bear, seating herself with her back to a rock and her legs straight out in front of her, while the cubs sprawled out in the sunshine. Up here so high above their woods, where the wind was cool, the sun felt good on their fur.
In chasing a hare, Mother Brown Bear told them, you never want to follow right along in its tracks, because it can generally outrun you.
I thought you said it was a rabbit, said Snookie.
They call this one a snowshoe rabbit, her mother explained, but it’s really a hare, a snowshoe hare. You see how broad its feet are. In winter when there is snow on the mountainsides, its wide furry feet keep it on the tops of the drifts, where an animal with slender feet sinks in. In creeping up on a hare, you can sometimes pounce the way a bobcat pounces on a mouse, but that is only possible when the wind’s in your face (blowing from the hare to you) and it’s curled up asleep and doesn’t see you. If the wind blows from you to the hare, it gets your scent, and takes warning. Then remember, you can’t make the teeniest, weeniest sound or it catches it with those great, funnel-like ears. But where a thing is hard to catch in a straightaway race for it, that is the time to try strategy, and where one pursuer cannot catch a supper that runs so fast, it is sometimes possible for partners to work it between them. I have seen a family of bobcats bring down a snowshoe rabbit by careful teamwork.
Tell us about it, begged the cubs, who did not see the hare looking at them from behind the stump, to which it had circled in its foolish curiosity to find out more about its enemies. It was wriggling its nose this way and that, for the wind was in its face, and for the moment it was safe.
It was a cold moonlight night, began Mother Brown Bear, when Paddy-paws and his mate went rabbit hunting and took their five half-grown kittens along. The kittens were handsome, bright-eyed little fellows anxious to learn how to do everything their parents did. Well, first Paddy himself gave chase to a big brown hare, who went hopping away so fast that the heavy cat was all out of breath before he had come anywhere near his quarry. But Mrs. Paddy-paws had stationed the kittens around every here and there through the woods, and just as the old cat had to give it up for the time, she was right there ready to take his place. They made a regular relay race of it. When Mrs. Paddy-paws had chased the hare around in a circle and got so winded that she had to stop, the nearest kitten took up the race, and by that time Paddy had his breath back and cut straight across the circle to take the kitten’s place. All this time, of course, the hare was getting more and more worn out, but it still kept leaping ahead so fast that it nearly got away after all. Yes, sir, it took every one of those seven cats to catch that hare. They certainly worked hard for the quick lunch that they got out of it, and they had to work harder still before they had caught enough to satisfy those hungry kittens. But teamwork finally did it.
At that, the hare, whose eyes had been nearly popping out of his head with surprise, leapt away as fast as he could go.
Hey, Snookie, Chinook gave his sister a resounding slap, Let’s try a relay race the next time we see a hare.
All right, but you needn’t hit so hard, and Snookie landed him a biff that sent them tumbling downhill in a wrestling match.
Mother Brown Bear yawned and stretched. Come, children, she bade them, as she rose to her feet, we have a long way to go if we are to have supper in Rat Town.
At the word, the cubs went racing after her, and a little further on, their eyes brightened when they came to a footprint that looked almost like a squirrel’s but which smelled distinctly mousy. It was the track of a mountain pack-rat. The cubs sniffed curiously. It was a part of their schooling to learn the meaning of every odor, for next year, when they had to earn their own livings, they would have to know where to find enough to eat, and then their noses would be a bigger help than eyes and ears put together.
For a few minutes they followed the trail of the pack-rat, which smelled stronger and stronger. Of a sudden, the rat himself darted off to the right. Mother Brown Bear watched to see if the cubs would profit by what she had just been telling them. Quick as thought, Snookie was after that rat. Quick as thought, Chinook saved his breath and watched to see where the race would lead, and when the rat began circling further to the right, so that the wind was in his face, Chinook made a dash across the circle and took Snookie’s place. Good work! thought Mother Brown Bear, proud that her children were so quick to learn. For a couple of minutes Chinook raced with all his might, but the rat ran faster. Then Snookie came leaping downhill to take his place as the rat darted past her, and just as she lost her balance and went tumbling head over ears, her brother had taken a short cut and was ready to take her place; and the next thing that old rat knew, he was flattened out under Chinook’s paw.
You see, Mother Brown Bear told them, there is nothing like team work. The reason a bear is so brainy is because he is always watching other forest folk to see what he can learn from them; and when cubs are too little to make their way alone, they want to stand by each other.
How Mother does love to preach, thought Chinook, but he didn’t dare say so, and the time was coming when he was glad to remember what she had told him. But if his nose was any judge, they were nearing the Rat Town she had promised to show them.
