ar. Having so much brought
to him, he grew very particular. Yes, Sir, old King Bear grew very
particular indeed. Some began to whisper behind his back that he was
fussy. He would pick out the very best of everything for himself and
give the rest to his family and special friends or else just let it go
to waste.

"Now old King Bear was very fond of lively little Mr. Squirrel, and
often he would give Mr. Squirrel some of the good things for which he
had no room in his own stomach. Mr. Squirrel was smart. He soon found
out that the more he amused old King Bear, the more of King Bear's good
things he had. It was a lot easier to get his living this way than to
hunt for his food as he always had in the past. Besides, it was a lot
more fun. So little Mr. Squirrel studied how to please old King Bear,
and he grew fat on the good things which other people had earned.

"One day old King Bear gave little Mr. Squirrel six big, fat nuts. You
see, old King Bear didn't care for nuts himself, not the kind with the
hard shells, anyway, so he really wasn't as generous as he seemed, which
is the way with a great many people. It is easy to give what you don't
want yourself. Little Mr. Squirrel bowed very low and thanked old King
Bear in his best manner. He really didn't want those nuts, for his
stomach was full at the time, but it wouldn't do to refuse a gift from
the king. So he took the nuts and pretended to be delighted with them.

"'What shall I do with them?' said little Mr. Squirrel as soon as he was
alone. 'It won't do for me to leave them where old King Bear will find
them, for it might make him very angry.' At last he remembered a certain
hollow tree. 'The very place!' cried little Mr. Squirrel. 'I'll drop
them in there, and no one will be any the wiser.'

"No sooner thought of than it was done, and little Mr. Squirrel frisked
away in his usual happy-go-lucky fashion and forgot all about the nuts
in the hollow tree. It wasn't very long after this that Old Mother
Nature began to hear complaints of old King Bear and his rule in the
Green Forest. He had grown fat and lazy, and all his relatives had grown
fat and lazy because, you see, none of them had to work for the things
they ate. The little forest and meadow people were growing tired of
feeding the Bear family. It was just at the beginning of winter when Old
Mother Nature came to see for herself what the trouble was. It didn't
take her long to find out. No, Sir, it didn't take