ould, 'Pa! Pa!
Oh, pa, come back! I's me, pa; come back!'

"And Uncle Brownwood stopped in his tracks and whirled around and said,
in an awful voice, 'You, Redfield!' for he thought Reddie was playing a
joke on him, and he was mad clear through.

"Cousin Redfield saw that he was mad by the way he started for him, and
became scared, and tried to run away as well as he could; but, not being
able to see well, ran right toward the Wide Blue Water, and before he
noticed where he was going he stumbled off of a two-foot bank where it
was deep, and was down in the water, and had gone under for the second
time before his father could lean over and grab him and get him out.

"Poor little Cousin Redfield Bear! By that time most of the hay was
washed off of him, but he had got a good deal of the Wide Blue Water
inside of him, and was so nearly drowned he couldn't speak. And when his
father laid him on the bank, and rolled him, the water and molasses came
out, 'po-lollop, po-lollop, po-lollop,' and, feeble as he was, little
Cousin Redfield realized that he probably would never care for molasses
again.

[Illustration: "IT GAVE HIM SUCH A SICK TURN THAT HE NEARLY DIED"]

"When he was empty and could sit up, Uncle Brownwood got a pail, and a
dipper, and a brush-broom, and cleaned him on the outside, and then
rubbed him dry with an old towel, and put him to bed, though not until
after he had scrubbed up the cave so they could live in it.

"Uncle Brownwood Bear did not punish little Cousin Redfield," Mr. Crow
said. "He thought Reddie had been punished enough. Besides, Reddie was
sick for several days. But Uncle Brownwood put up the bear-ladder much
stronger than before, and set the empty molasses-jug in the middle of
the table, and kept it there a long time, and when Cousin Redfield tried
even to look at it, it gave him such a sick turn that he nearly
died."

MR. BEAR'S EARLY SPRING CALL

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR PAYS A VISIT TO THE HOLLOW TREE

ONCE upon a time when it had been a hard winter in the Big Deep Woods,
and spring was late, and there was still very little in the way of fresh
food to be had, Mr. 'Possum came in quite excited, one evening, and
after bolting the down-stairs door put a heavy prop against it, though
he called up first to see if Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow were both in.

"_I'm_ in," Mr. 'Coon called back. "I hunted till I was tired and
couldn't find a thing worth bringing home, except some winter parsnips