5 Min Stories the Bear y Zap

8/3/2019 5 Min Stories the Bear y Zap

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THE BEAR-WHOLIKED HUGGING,x PEOPLE ,x ,v.,1+ 7

RuthAinsworthfhere was once a bear who lived in a cave inI the mountains. He was a mountain bear. Heate fruit and berries and did no harm to anybody,

but he had one bad habit. He would hug people.He only hugged them becausehe liked them, butthey did not know that. His furry arms were sostrong that he hugged much too tightly. Some ofthe people he hugged were never the same again.They were quite flat when he let them go, andlopsided.

Not many people went along the rough trackthat passed he door of his cave,but he never failedto rush at them, his arms outstretched, to givethem a loving hug.

The people living near dared not pass hat wayor let their chi ldren go by alone. They used,instead,a very long, steep, ocky path that led them

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right up on the side of the mountain. It took muchlonger and was difficult to find at night or in thesnow.

The mothers were particularly worried abouttheir children who emerged from the bear's hugquite a different shape, lat instead of round, withsnub noses which complete ly changed thei rexpression.

The men of the neighbourhood met together todecide what to do for the best. Should they catchthe bear and put him in a cage n a zoo?Or shouldthey shoot him and make something useful out ofhis fur, a coat or a rug? They decided, rather sadly,to shoot him, and the wife of the man who shothim should be given the skin for a fur coat. Theywere upset about this, but there seemed no otherway out. They could not risk their little childrenbeing deformed and it did not seem asthough thebear would changehis habits.

About this time, a poor man who lived far away,on the other side of the mountain, decided to goand visit his old mother who lived down in thevalley. He had saved downy goose feathers to makea deep,billowy featherbed to give her as a present.One day, he lef t home and travel led over themountain with the new feather bed rolled up andstrappedon his back.'W.henhe got near the cave where the bearl ived, th e bear smelled him coming and came

lumbering out into the sunshine,hi s furry armsoutstretched. The traveller remembered hearingstoriesof a bear who hugged people and he calledout loudly: "Lord Bear. I've brought you a present.I've brought you something warm and just madeto be hugged. Wbit while I unstrap it from myback."

The bear waited, becausehe was a good-naturedfelloq and when the bed was unstrapped,but stillin a ro11, e took it in his arms and gave t a tight,closehug.

It did not struggle or cry out. It melted into hisarms with softness nd warmth. ,,\(J1 t,"Keep it," said he traveller, '&>*?shaking it h fear.Keep -,-?.- -- f i-,?it, my Lord. I made t / \ Ifor you." r\

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This was not really true as he had made it for hisold mother, but a man rnay change his mind. Andthe bear did not know about the old mother.

So he kept it and carried it into his cave andhugged it every night, when he went to sleep.Thissatisfied him and he quite gave up hugging otherpeople. The men in the neighbourhood gave upthe horrid idea of shooting him, too. Even thesmallest children were now quite safewhen passinghis cave door alone.

All the cold, dark winter the bear dozed in hiscave,under the snow;his feather bed held tightly inhis arms.

When the spring came with flowers and birds,he woke up and was lucky enough to meet with awife, a young bear ust old enough to get married.So if he felt like hugging anybody, she was alwaysnear at hand and loved to be hugged.

As for the feather bed, they kept it in the caveand slept on it. This was much more comfortablethan lying on the hard, rocky floor.

Dick King-Smith

a\f all the chameleons in Africa, Kenneth was\-/ the most unhappy.He couldnt changecolour.Kenneth could do al l the other things thatchameleonsdo.He could walk along a thin branch, holding itwith two fingers of each hand.He could ro11his eyes in different directions atthe sametime.He could shoot out his long sticky rongue and,sometimes,zapafly.But his brothers and his sistersand his friendscould do the cleverest hing of all.They could change the colour of their skins.I f they sat on a greenish leaf, they turnedgreenish.If they sa t on a reddish flower, they turnedreddish.

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I f they sat on yel lowish sand, they turnedyellowish.

But Kenneth always stayed he same colour - asort of muddy brown.

Flowever hard he tried, he didn't seem to beable to get the hang of changing. He was alwaysmuddy brown.

So he could only zap f l ies when he sat onbrown mud.

So he didn't zap many flies.

'G

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FIe was the most unhappy chameleon n Africa.One day Kenneth was sitting on a leaf, trying tozap flies.The leaf was silvery,so the flies could seehim easily;and one after another they bu,zzed, fflaughing."Oh dear!" said Kenneth, rol l ing his tongueback up, after the fifteenth miss."-What's he trouble?" said a voice, and Kennethlooked round.There on the next branch was a prerry youngfemale chameleonwhose name was Kiki.Kenneth sighed."I'm feeling blue," he said."You don't look it," saidKiki. "Why do vou stavmuddy brown on a silvery leaf?"

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"Yes,"said Kenneth."'W'ell, here you are. f you want to be green, for

instance, ry feelingenvious."So he tried, and sureenough, he turned green.Then Kiki to ld him to pretend feel ing

frightened, and he turned yellow;and to feel angryand he turned black: and to feel old and tired. andhe turned grey."Now," said Kiki, "try feeling unhappy.""No," said Kenneth, rol l ing hi s eyes madly."Now I've met you, blue's the one colour I 'm

never going o be. Let's go fly-zappingt"And from then on, the flies never had another

chance o laugh at Kenneth the chameleon.Zap! they never knew what hit them.ifferent directions."I can't change," he said. "All my brothers andsistersand friends can changecolour, but I can't getthe hang of it.I wish I could.I'm green with envy."

"You dont look it," said Kiki again. "But," shesaid softly,"I'11 ell you what you do look."

"'What?""You look very handsome."Kenneth felt terribly embarrassed."There!2'shecried."You can do it!"Kenneth kept one eye on Kiki, and rolled the

other one backwards to look at himself. He hadturned bright red!

"You see," said Kiki, "yot't felt embarrassed,didn't vou?"

Kenneth was ashamed.He rolled his eyes n

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5 Min Stories the Bear y Zap