and the other cub jumped in to join it. They played around in the water, nipping
at one another’s snouts.
A sudden swoosh of mamma’s paw sent a silver streak flying out of the water.
She lumbered onto the bank and gobbled the fish down before it had time to stop
flopping.
“Doesn’t she feed her babies first?” Olivia whispered.
“They haven’t been weaned yet. Won’t be for another month or two.”
“How old do you think they are?”
“Six, seven months. A good guess would be that they were born in January.”
Mamma caught more fish and, after finishing her meal, went in for a swim
with the cubs. Then they lay on the bank sunning. The babies nestled up against
mamma while she groomed them.
“She looks so motherly now,” Olivia said softly. “You think she meant to hurt
the one she knocked into the water?”
“If she’d meant to hurt him, he’d be dead. A bear can kill a full-grown deer
with one swipe. Watch her now,” he said.
Mamma tilted her head to one side, as if listening real hard for something.
She got up, raised her front paws, and stood on her hind legs to full height, like a
person. Then she lifted her nose and sniffed the air.
“She knows there’s something out there,” Jeremy whispered. “She just
doesn’t know what we are or where. Keep completely still. I don’t think she can
make out the shape of us from that distance, but if you move, she’ll see it. And if
you had any food on you, she’d smell it.”
Mamma remained with her nose in the air for a few minutes. Standing like
that, she looked thin and graceful. It was hard to believe she was the same clumsy-looking animal. For a moment the bear seemed to be looking straight at
them, but she lowered herself to all fours and shambled off into the woods, her
twin children behind her. Neither Olivia nor Jeremy spoke until they were well
out of sight.
“That was really something,” Olivia said. “I’ve never seen a real live bear
before. I had no idea they were so cute.”
“You won’t think they’re cute if you ever get too close to one. I’m surprised
they haven’t bothered you.”
“Mourning found some tracks by the cabin, said they were made by a bear,
but we haven’t seen it.”
“They can smell fish or anything else you fry from miles away. Some folks
claim they can smell the apples in your cellar. Mourning did get a door on that
cabin, didn’t he?”
“Yes. I have a proper leather string on the latch that I take in at night, along
with a crossbar to let down, so I’m quite well fortified. So is Mourning. He got
one of those doors that rolls on a rail for the barn, where he sleeps. How did you
