He’d get even, somehow, Twinkly told himself, seizing his brother’s nose; and as the fat cubs clinched the storm was forgotten.
Mother Black Bear gave them each a cuff, then stalked away, leaving them unprotected in the pelting hail.
Such clawing and biting and squealing as followed you never did see!
The clouds rolled away toward Mount Olaf and the hail changed to rain, and the rain suddenly gave way to a red glow in the West where the sun goes to bed. But the cubs fought on.
Mother Black Bear stood and watched, feeling that they were gaining a training in the use of their muscles that would stand them in good stead later on. She would interfere only if she saw that one of them was really getting hurt.
“Such clawing and biting and squealing—you never did see!”
—Page 38
Now just behind the circle of brushwood in which they had sought safety from the thunder storm there was an old root that sloped straight down a 15-foot incline.
To this Twinkly was trying his best to shove his brother, and though he was somewhat lighter than Woof, weighing a bare six pounds to Woof’s six and a half, he was also quicker on his feet, and he did finally succeed in backing the other up to the incline.
True, there was no lake at the bottom, as there had been when Woof shoved him down the bank in his sleep, but at least the teaser should find out what it felt like to be sent rolling in a helpless ball.
With a sudden wrench he sprang free, just as he had the larger cub humped up at the top of the slide, defending his head with all four paws. The result was that fat Woof rolled like a rubber ball straight down the incline, whirling around and around till he came up, plunk, against the trunk of a tree.
But to Twinkly Eyes’ surprise Woof not only picked himself up with a laugh of enjoyment, but he raced back up the slope to try it again, ducking his tiny head and doubling up into a ball for the purpose.
Again and again he tobogganed down that slope, Twinkly staring after him wide-eyed. So that was the way he had thought to get even!
He was so surprised that he stood clear up on his hind legs, staring. Then he tried it himself!