The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Bears, by Anonymous

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Three Bears

Author: Anonymous

Release Date: November 4, 2007 [EBook #23322]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE BEARS ***

Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

[Illustration: Cover]

_THE STORY OF_ THE THREE BEARS.

There were once three bears, who lived in a wood,
Their porridge was thick, and their chairs and beds good.
The biggest bear, Bruin, was surly and rough;
His wife, Mrs. Bruin, was called Mammy Muff.
Their son, Tiny-cub, was like Dame Goose's lad;
He was not very good, nor yet very bad.
Now Bruin, the biggest--the surly old bear--
Had a great granite bowl, and a cast-iron chair.
Mammy Muffs bowl and chair you would no doubt prefer--
They were both made of brick-bats, but both suited her.
Young Tiny-cub's bowl, chair, and bed were the best,--
This, big bears and baby bears freely confessed.
Mr. B----, with his wife and his son, went one day
To take a short stroll, and a visit to pay.
He left the door open, "For," said he, "no doubt
If our friend should call in, he will find us all out."
It was only two miles from dark Hazel-nut Wood,
In which the great house of the three Bruins stood,
That there lived a young miss, daring, funny, and fair,
And from having bright curls, she was called Goldenhair.
She had roamed through the wood to see what she could see,
And she saw going walking the Bruins all three.
Said she to herself, "To rob bears is no sin;
The three bears have gone out, so I think I'll go in."
She entered their parlor, and she saw a great bowl,
And in it a spoon like a hair-cutter's pole.
"That porridge," said she "may stay long enough there,
It tastes like the food of the surly old bear,"
She tried Mammy Muff's, and she said, "Mrs. B----,
I think your taste and my taste will never agree