was due to
Chattie's careful nursing, rather than to Dr. Beaver's baths and poplar
pills.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ADVICE OF HUG-GRIPPY, THE AFFECTIONATE.

The class was just finishing when Hug-grippy, the chief of the Chippewa
bears, appeared upon the scene. He had come on a friendly visit, and
to get a breakfast of ripe raspberries and honey that Robin had
promised him for saving the white pony, Plumpy, from the horns of a
huge elk. He had indulged in a recent meal evidently, for his ribs
bulged out so much and so comically that Chattie shrieked with laughter
and cried out--

"There is more nourishment in fasting sometimes than in eating over
much."

Hug-grippy himself laughed, although had he been thin-skinned he would
not, but he was good-natured, and looking up he merely remarked that
Miss Chattie appeared to him to be uttering a contradiction in some way
or other. For his entertainment the teacher gave the class another
question in division, and Hug-grippy wondered at their cleverness.

"As for me," said he, "I am bad at any kind of counting, but I can't do
division at all. I suppose it's because I----"

"like everything to myself," said Chattie, finishing his sentence and
laughing a her own joke.

When Robin told his class to count the bear's toes, they all jumped
from their seat and seized his feet, and before he could recover from
his mock alarm he was astonished to learn what he never could find out
for himself--that he had no fewer than twenty toes. Then the friskies
jumped upon his great back and head like a lot of monkeys. During the
fun and confusion that followed, Black Ribbon ran to his home (which
was close by) and begged a nut from his mamma; then returning quickly,
he stood upon his hind legs and duly presented it to Hug-grippy. The
great bear looked down, and patting the little fellow on the head,
remarked, with a broad grateful smile, that he was a dear wee boy, fit
to be at the head of his class, if for kindness only. Then turning to
Robin he said--

"I think you should get up a kindness class, and (with a sly twinkle at
Chattie) I shall come along often, not to talk and joke like some
people, but to give the class an opportunity of putting their learning
into practice."

"Very good advice," replied Robin.

Encouraged by this, Hug-grippy continued--

"There is too much teaching of the head in this world, and too little
acting of the heart. Is it not intended that every bit