Long years ago, before the white men came to the Sunny South, there lived a little black boy with his mother and father near the happy hunting grounds among the Baw Baw Mountains. Barak was the little boy’s name.

Barak was all very much of everything about him. He was very fat and shiny, his eyes were very black, his hair very frizzy, his nose very flat, and his lips very thick, his laugh very jolly, and his heart very kind.

One day his mother said to him, “Barak, your mother is sad; honey is the only medicine that will make her happy. Go, find the wild honey and bring some in the honeycomb.”

Barak being very kind, went to look for honey for his mother. A long, long way he went before he found a honey tree, and when he found one he sat down under it and cried, for a big, big bear was licking his paws after having eaten all the honey.

“Boo hoo! Boo hoo!” cried Barak. “Mother is sad because she has no honey, and you have eaten it all up.”

“Good little fat boy,” said the bear, “there is another honey tree behind this one. I am very thirsty, and the water is a long way from here; bring me some water, and I will climb the tree and give you honey.”

Barak dried his tears and smiled.

“Good, big bear, bring me the honey first, then I will get the water for you.”

Now the bear was very thirsty indeed after having eaten so much sweet honey, and the sun was shining so fiercely that he really felt too hot and tired to walk to the water, while he could easily climb the honey tree. Barak stood under the tree, watching the bear, who quickly brought down a small piece of honeycomb.

“Give it to me to take to my mother,” said Barak.

“When I have drunk the water, you may have the honeycomb,” said the bear, watching the golden honey drop slowly from the comb. But even while he was speaking, Barak snatched the honeycomb away, and when the bear tried to get it back again, the little boy put it in his mouth, and the honey dropped down his throat.

“Where is the water you promised me?” growled the bear.

“I promised to get you some water if you gave me some honey, but you would not give me the honey.”

“You have eaten the honey,” cried the big bear.

“But you did not give it me, big bear; I took it.”

Then the big bear took up stones to kill the fat little black boy, who ran quickly behind a tree, and there was such a chasing around and around that tree that at last Barak got so tired he thought he must fall to the ground, but he kept on running, and he cried aloud to the Great Spirit to help him.

Now the Great Spirit knew that Barak had wanted the honey for his mother, and that he had only eaten it so that the big bear should not get it again. So when he heard the little boy cry to him for help when the big bear’s breath was hot on him as he ran, the kind Great Spirit was sorry for the little boy who had only been foolish.

“I will send a Shining One to help him,” he said.

How glad Barak was when a Shining One suddenly caught him up in his arms and ran away with him. It was a hot, hot day; but Barak could hear, first, the gurgle of a stream, then the sound of deep running water, and as he peeped over the shoulder of the Shining One to see if the bear were very near, he saw a strange sight, for as the Shining One ran, he dragged his right foot along the ground, and the earth opened and water flowed in the opening.

In and out among the trees, often doubling back, then on again, ran the Shining One, with the bear following fast. All day long they went, until the sun went down like a ball of fire and the moon rose looking very much like the fiery sun, showing that the next day would be another scorcher.

In the moonlight the big bear looked very terrible.

“He is coming nearer!” cried Barak. “Oh, don’t let him catch me!”

“Don’t be afraid,” said the Shining One, in a quiet voice that made Barak feel happy even in his fear. “Tell me what you can see following the bear?”

“Yarra Yarra it is,” said the boy joyfully; “a deep swift river flows in the track you make with your foot as you pass along.”

“And look in front of you now, what do you see there?”

“The sea, the beautiful sea,” said Barak.

“We will go on the sea to the Great Spirit who sent me when you called to Him for help; but the bear, who only thinks of revenge, will be caught between the river and the deep blue sea.”

And so it happened.

Barak was taken in the Shining One’s arms right up to the Great Spirit who had heard and answered his cry for help, and the bear, who only wanted revenge, was drowned.

Barak’s mother waited long for the honey. When she found no dear little black son coming back to her, she followed his tracks until she came to the tree from which the chase had begun. There she found marks of her dear boy’s feet, and knew he had been chased by a big, big bear. There, too, she found, where all had been dry and hard, a hole in the earth, as if some one had thrust in their foot with great force, and from this hole flowed water.

Barak’s mother followed the flowing water for many days, for she could not go fast like the Shining One. At last she came to the place where the water flowed into the sea, and there, on the seashore, was the big bear quite dead and harmless. Far away over the seas was a bright, beautiful light, and even as the lonely mother stood looking at it, the bright clouds parted, there came forth the Shining One, and as he left the golden glory Barak’s face shone out. He beckoned with his hand, and his mother heard him say, “Come with the Shining One, mother; I am waiting for you here.”