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Updated: June 19, 2025
The merman who hadn't spoken, and who was Scritchy, still did not say a word. He looked at the others with his goggle eyes and then he tumbled off into the water and swam away as fast as he could and did not come back any more. All the other mermen looked after him in silence until he had disappeared; then one of them said in an awe-struck voice, "It's bad for you, Sprawley, ain't it?
Presently the cubs came out, too, still blinking with sleep. "Oh, Mother!" cried Dumpy, "just look at Sprawley's back!" "Why, what's the matter with it?" asked the Mother Bear. "There ain't anything the matter with it," growled Sprawley, twisting his head round and trying to see. "Yes, there is too!" cried Fatty. "Oh my! Sprawley's splitting hisself all down the back."
At last he made out that they were asking Sprawley about him, where he had come from, and how. "Well, I'll tell you how he came," said Sprawley, and all the mermen stopped to listen. Sprawley, too, was silent for a moment, and then he said in a low, impressive voice, "The Counterpane Fairy brought him."
They swam over to where Sprawley stood, and climbing out on the ice they seemed to be welcoming him, hopping and sliding about, and pulling at his hair and claws. Now that Teddy saw them quite close they were uglier than ever, with goggle eyes, and rough, fishy-looking skins.
"Pooh!" said Sprawley, "I ain't afraid. It's a great deal nicer than this. Come on." So the three little bears and Teddy trotted on to another hill, and it really was much longer and steeper than the other; it went down almost to the edge of the sea. They had slidden down it only a few times when Dumpy cried out: "Oh! look! look! There are some ice-mermen and they are making faces at me."
One of them was sucking its paws, and the other two were talking as fast as they could. The Mother Bear looked worried and anxious. "What's all this Dumpy and Sprawley are telling me?" she said. "And what's that you have on your back?" "It's an ice-fairy," growled old Father Bear, "and the Counterpane Fairy wants us to take care of it for a while. You don't mind, my dear, do you?"
When he looked out he saw Sprawley shuffling over the fields of ice in the distance, and already quite far away, so, led by his curiosity, Teddy, too, crept out of the cave and set off running after the bear cub.
"Yes, I am," said the Father Bear. "What do you want?" The Mother Bear sighed. "I don't know how it is, husband," she said, "but I never had a cub like Sprawley before. He is so naughty and mischievous that he keeps his little brother and sister whining all the time." "You ought to box him," said the Father Bear.
Dumpy growled at them, though he was frightened, but Fatty began to cry. Just then one of the mermen sent a piece of ice sliding across at them, and it hit Fatty's paws and upset her. She was so fat that she rolled over and over before she could get up. Dumpy ran to her, and as soon as she was on her feet again they began galloping toward home as fast as they could, followed by Sprawley and Teddy.
The Mother Bear gave them each their share of seal meat, and then she went into the cave. "Oh, Fatty," said Sprawley, "just look behind you and see if you don't see a merman." Fatty turned her head, but there was nothing there. When she looked back again she burst into a loud whine. "Ou-u-u! ou-u-u-u!" she cried, "Sprawley stole my nicest piece of meat, so he did. Ou-u-u!"
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