The Adventures of Buster Bear | Page 9

Smiling Pool, and you know it. We are all afraid of
him."
Little Joe glared back at Blacky. "I don't care whether you believe it or
not; it's true," he retorted. Then he told how early that very morning he
and Buster Bear had been fishing together in the Laughing Brook, and
how Farmer Brown's boy had been fishing there too, and hadn't caught
a single trout because they had all been caught or frightened before he
got there. Then he told how Farmer Brown's boy had found a footprint
of Buster Bear in the soft mud, and how he had stopped fishing right
away and started for home, looking behind him with fear in his eyes all
the way.
"Now tell me that he isn't afraid!" concluded Little Joe. "For once he
knows just how we feel when he comes prowling around where we are.
Isn't that great news? Now we'll get even with him!"
"I'll believe it when I see it for myself!" snapped Blacky the Crow.

X
BUSTER BEAR BECOMES A HERO
The news that Little Joe Otter told at the Smiling Pool,--how Farmer
Brown's boy had run away from Buster Bear without even seeing
him,--soon spread all over the Green Meadows and through the Green
Forest, until every one who lives there knew about it. Of course, Peter
Rabbit helped spread it. Trust Peter for that! But everybody else helped
too. You see, they had all been afraid of Farmer Brown's boy for so
long that they were tickled almost to pieces at the very thought of
having some one in the Green Forest who could make Farmer Brown's
boy feel fear as they had felt it. And so it was that Buster Bear became
a hero right away to most of them.
A few doubted Little Joe's story. One of them was Blacky the Crow.

Another was Reddy Fox. Blacky doubted because he knew Farmer
Brown's boy so well that he couldn't imagine him afraid. Reddy
doubted because he didn't want to believe. You see, he was jealous of
Buster Bear, and at the same time he was afraid of him. So Reddy
pretended not to believe a word of what Little Joe Otter had said, and
he agreed with Blacky that only by seeing Farmer Brown's boy afraid
could he ever be made to believe it. But nearly everybody else believed
it, and there was great rejoicing. Most of them were afraid of Buster,
very much afraid of him, because he was so big and strong. But they
were still more afraid of Farmer Brown's boy, because they didn't know
him or understand him, and because in the past he had tried to catch
some of them in traps and had hunted some of them with his terrible
gun.
So now they were very proud to think that one of their own number
actually had frightened him, and they began to look on Buster Bear as a
real hero. They tried in ever so many ways to show him how friendly
they felt and went quite out of their way to do him favors. Whenever
they met one another, all they could talk about was the smartness and
the greatness of Buster Bear.
"Now I guess Farmer Brown's boy will keep away from the Green
Forest, and we won't have to be all the time watching out for him," said
Bobby Coon, as he washed his dinner in the Laughing Brook, for you
know he is very neat and particular.
"And he won't dare set any more traps for me," gloated Billy Mink.
"Ah wish Brer Bear would go up to Farmer Brown's henhouse and
scare Farmer Brown's boy so that he would keep away from there. It
would be a favor to me which Ah cert'nly would appreciate," said Unc'
Billy Possum when he heard the news.
"Let's all go together and tell Buster Bear how much obliged we are for
what he has done," proposed Jerry Muskrat.
"That's a splendid idea!" cried Little Joe Otter. "We'll do it right away."

"Caw, caw caw!" broke in Blacky the Crow. "I say, let's wait and see
for ourselves if it is all true."
"Of course it's true!" snapped Little Joe Otter. "Don't you believe I'm
telling the truth?"
"Certainly, certainly. Of course no one doubts your word," replied
Blacky, with the utmost politeness. "But you say yourself that Farmer
Brown's boy didn't see Buster Bear, but only his footprint. Perhaps he
didn't know whose it was, and if he had he wouldn't have been afraid.
Now I've got a plan by which we can see for ourselves if he really is
afraid of Buster Bear."
"What is it?" asked Sammy Jay eagerly.
Blacky the Crow shook his head and winked. "That's telling," said he.
"I