The Adventures of Buster Bear | Page 4

is spoiled for to-day. I don't understand it at all. It's lucky I
caught what I did. It looks as if somebody is trying to--ha!" A sudden

thought had popped into his head. Then he began to chuckle and finally
to laugh. "I do believe that scamp Joe Otter is trying to get even with
me for eating that fat trout!"
And then, because Buster Bear always enjoys a good joke even when it
is on himself, he laughed until he had to hold his sides, which is a
whole lot better than going off in a rage as Little Joe Otter had done.
"You're pretty smart, Mr. Otter! You're pretty smart, but there are other
people who are smart too," said Buster Bear, and still chuckling, he
went off to think up a plan to get the best of Little Joe Otter.

IV
LITTLE JOE OTTER SUPPLIES BUSTER BEAR WITH A
BREAKFAST
Getting even just for spite Doesn't always pay. Fact is, it is very apt To
work the other way.
That is just how it came about that Little Joe Otter furnished Buster
Bear with the best breakfast he had had for a long time. He didn't mean
to do it. Oh, my, no! The truth is, he thought all the time that he was
preventing Buster Bear from getting a breakfast. You see he wasn't well
enough acquainted with Buster to know that Buster is quite as smart as
he is, and perhaps a little bit smarter. Spite and selfishness were at the
bottom of it. You see Little Joe and Billy Mink had had all the fishing
in the Laughing Brook to themselves so long that they thought no one
else had any right to fish there. To be sure Bobby Coon caught a few
little fish there, but they didn't mind Bobby. Farmer Brown's boy fished
there too, sometimes, and this always made Little Joe and Billy Mink
very angry, but they were so afraid of him that they didn't dare do
anything about it. But when they discovered that Buster Bear was a
fisherman, they made up their minds that something had got to be done.
At least, Little Joe did.
"He'll try it again to-morrow morning," said Little Joe. "I'll keep watch,

and as soon as I see him coming, I'll drive out all the fish, just as I did
to-day. I guess that'll teach him to let our fish alone."
So the next morning Little Joe hid before daylight close by the little
pool where Buster Bear had given him such a fright. Sure enough, just
as the Jolly Sunbeams began to creep through the Green Forest, he saw
Buster Bear coming straight over to the little pool. Little Joe slipped
into the water and chased all the fish out of the little pool, and stirred
up the mud on the bottom so that the water was so muddy that the
bottom couldn't be seen at all. Then he hurried down to the next little
pool and did the same thing.
Now Buster Bear is very smart. You know he had guessed the day
before who had spoiled his fishing. So this morning he only went far
enough to make sure that if Little Joe were watching for him, as he was
sure he would be, he would see him coming. Then, instead of keeping
on to the little pool, he hurried to a place way down the Laughing
Brook, where the water was very shallow, hardly over his feet, and
there he sat chuckling to himself. Things happened just as he had
expected. The frightened fish Little Joe chased out of the little pools up
above swam down the Laughing Brook, because, you know, Little Joe
was behind them, and there was nowhere else for them to go. When
they came to the place where Buster was waiting, all he had to do was
to scoop them out on to the bank. It was great fun. It didn't take Buster
long to catch all the fish he could eat. Then he saved a nice fat trout and
waited.
By and by along came Little Joe Otter, chuckling to think how he had
spoiled Buster Bear's fishing. He was so intent on looking behind him
to see if Buster was coming that he didn't see Buster waiting there until
he spoke.
"I'm much obliged for the fine breakfast you have given me," said
Buster in his deepest, most grumbly-rumbly voice. "I've saved a fat
trout for you to make up for the one I ate yesterday. I hope we'll go
fishing together often."
Then he went off laughing fit to kill himself. Little Joe couldn't find a

word to say. He was so surprised and angry that he went off by himself
and sulked.