until Mr. 'Coon, who has
very sharp ears, said that he was sure he heard Mr. Bear breathing and
that he must be still asleep. Then the others thought they heard it,
too, and pretty soon they were sure they heard it, and Mr. 'Possum said
it was too bad to let Mr. Bear oversleep himself this fine weather, and
that they ought to go in and let him know how late it was.

[Illustration: SLEEP RIGHT WHERE HE WAS]

So then they pushed open the door and went tiptoeing in to where Mr.
Bear was. They thought, of course, he would be in bed, but he wasn't. He
was sitting up in a big arm-chair in his dressing-gown, with his feet up
on a low stool, before a fire that had gone out some time in December,
with a little table by him that had a candle on it which had burned down
about the time the fire went out. His pipe had gone out too, and they
knew that Mr. Bear had been smoking, and must have been very tired and
gone to sleep right where he was, and hadn't moved all winter long.

It wasn't very cheerful in there, so Mr. 'Possum said maybe they'd
better stir up a little fire to take the chill off before they woke
Mr. Bear, and Mr. 'Coon found a fresh candle and lighted it, and Mr.
Crow put the room to rights a little, and wound up the clock, and set
it, and started it going. Then when the fire got nice and bright they
stood around and looked at Mr. Bear, and each one said it was a good
time now to wake him up, but nobody just wanted to do it, because Mr.
Bear isn't always good-natured, and nobody could tell what might happen
if he should wake up cross and hungry, and he'd be likely to do that if
his nap was broken too suddenly. Mr. Possum said that Mr. Crow was the
one to do it, as he had first thought of this trip, and Mr. Crow said
that it was Mr. 'Possum's place, because it had been in his dream. Then
they both said that as Mr. 'Coon hadn't done anything at all so far, he
might do that.

Mr. 'Coon said that he'd do it quick enough, only he'd been listening to
the way Mr. Bear breathed, and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be ready
to wake up for a week yet, and it would be too bad to wake him now when
he might not have been resting well during the first month or so of his
nap and was making it up now. He said they could look around a little
and see if Mr. Bear's things were keeping well, and perhaps brush up his
pantry so it would be nice and clean when he did wake.

Then Mr. Crow said he'd always wanted to see Mr. Bear's pantry,