s hurt him awful, and he thought he'd have to
give it up, but at last the end of the bear-ladder caught on the side of
the cave where the jug was, and stayed there, and Cousin Redfield could
let go of the rope, and get behind the ladder and push, and then, pretty
soon, it was up straight, and he could get the molasses-jug as easy as
anything.

"It was getting along in the afternoon now, and Reddie knew that Uncle
Brownwood Bear was likely to come home before long. So he went right up
and got the jug, and nearly dropped it getting down, it was so heavy.
But he got down with it all right, and then pulled out the cob that
was its stopper, and tipped the jug to pour some of the molasses out in
his hand.

[Illustration: AND THEN PRETTY SOON IT COMMENCED TO RUN BETTER]

"But the jug was quite full, and, the molasses being very thick, would
not run out very well. So he tipped the jug over farther, but could only
get a little. Then he tipped it on its side, and then pretty soon it
commenced to run better, and came out better, and made a nice noise,
'po-lollop, po-lollop, po-lollop,' and formed quite a thick pool right
on the floor of the cave, and little Cousin Redfield Bear got down on
his hands and knees and licked and lapped, and forgot everything but
what a lovely time he was having, and didn't realize that he was getting
it all over himself, until he started to get up, and then found it was
all around him, and his knees were in it, and everything.

"Cousin Redfield didn't get entirely up. He was nearly up when his foot
slipped and he went down flat on his back; when he tried it again he
went down in another position, and kept on getting partly up and falling
in different ways, until he was an awful sight, and there wasn't so much
molasses on the floor any more, because it was nearly all on Cousin
Redfield. Then that little bear--little Reddie Bear--suddenly remembered
that his father would be coming home presently, and that something ought
to be done about it. He was so full of molasses he could hardly move or
see out of his eyes. If he could only wipe it off. He had seen his
father take a wisp of hay or nice, soft grass to wipe up a little that
was sometimes spilled on the table, so Reddie thought hay would be good
for his trouble. He would roll in hay, and that would take off the
molasses.

"There was a big pile of soft hay-grass in the back part of the cave
that Uncle Brownwood used to stuff his mattress with, and