Bear Story

The policeman overheard one of the barge people talking about how the searchers had been fooled and how the bear had been smuggled out of London on a barge. After eavesdropping long enough he was able to realise that the barge had left travelling in a westerly direction. He reported this to the Officer in Charge. It wasn’t difficult to work out where the barge had gone. There were only three possible destinations, so the Officer informed and alerted the police stations at each location. Meanwhile the bear and Sydney had gone a fair distance and they could see the first hill of Wales in the distance. They were walking down a pathway through a small woodland when they came suddenly came upon a fellow who was to say the least drunk. The drunken fellow had been getting drunk on a daily basis for some months. Everything had gone wrong for him and he was feeling very sorry for himself. All that was about to change. As he walked around the corner, the bear had been standing up trying to see what was ahead. The fellow walked round the corner and bumped into the bear. At first he didn’t realise what he had walked in to. As he looked up the bear appeared unbelievably tall, and then he saw the bear’s very large mouth and teeth above him. (The bear was in fact smiling) At first he started to stutter and then let out a scream and then he started to run. He didn’t stop running until he reached the police station. By the time he got there he was sober. It took some time for him to calm down, then as it is in the case of most people, in circumstances like this, his story didn’t match the true facts. By the time he had finished, the police were looking for a wild savage bear, that had attacked half of the population of the area. I do believe that the fellow never got drunk again.

The information was passed on to the police in London, and immediately the searchers were despatched to the area. Tom was close to where the police were when the information arrived. He went immediately to Bert and the others.
“Quick” he said, “The bear and Sydney have been spotted near a village on the Welsh border, and I reckon they might need some help - lets get a lift on one of those lorries going to Wales and see if we can find them”.
It was quite dark but suddenly the moon came from behind the clouds, and lit up the whole area.
“Doesn’t it all look wonderful” said the bear to Sydney.
“Have you never seen the moonlight before?” asked Sydney.
“No”, answered the bear “There are many things I have not seen because most of my life I have been kept in that cage”.
“Oh I forgot”, said Sydney “You have a lot of wonderful things to see and do”.
With that the bear gave Sydney a playful push.
“Come on I’ll race you - can you believe a bear can skip?”
I tell you the bear skipped, rolled over and he even did a near cartwheel. He was laughing and so was Sydney. The two of them had never had such fun with a friend before. Suddenly Sydney was aware that they were not alone. He called to the bear and the bear stopped and looked up. There in front of them were a group of about ten young people, mainly boys. The biggest one stepped forward and said, “Look at them, I thought this bear was supposed to be dangerous, he is just a big softie.”
“No he is not” said Sydney sticking up for his friend.
“Get out of it” said the leader and he hit Sydney.
“Don’t do that”, said the bear taking hold of Sydney. The whole group backed off, but the leader realised that if he didn’t do something the others would not follow him anymore. He knew he would be scared on his own.
“And what are you going to do?” said the leader picking up a stick.
“Nothing”, said the bear realising that they were no more than children, and he didn’t want to hurt them. With that the one with the stick hit the bear, but still the bear didn’t do anything.
“Go on”, said the bully “The rest of you get sticks and we will teach this bear a lesson”. Quickly the bear put himself between the gang and Sydney, and they all started to hit the bear. There was a little girl in the gang called Helen, and she was crying and asking them all to stop. None of them took any notice. The bear had been hit many times, and Sydney was crying, and he was shouting at the bear that he would have to stop them. As it appeared they were not going to stop, the bear swung one of his paws and knocked two of them over. He then stood up because he had been crouched down. They hadn’t realised how big he was. The leader, whose name was Claude, was not so sure of himself, but the others in the gang were all saying “Go on Claude show him who is boss”. Claude approached the bear and went to hit him with the stick again, but this time, the bear knocked the stick out of his hand, and picked him up with one of his paws. The other gang members started to be afraid when they realised how strong he was. The bear looked into Claude’s eyes and said in a low growl “You have all hit me for no reason, but I haven’t hit you, now I cannot promise that if you do anything like this again to me or anyone else” and then he repeated “I can’t promise that I won’t hit you”. With that he let Claude fall to the ground, and then let out a deep growl that seemed like a volcano was about to explode. This was too much for them all, and they ran faster than they had ever done if their lives before. They ran so fast, the little girl, Helen, could not keep up. Sydney called to her and she came to speak to them. “Where do you live?” asked Sydney. “nowhere really as I don’t have a family, and for as long as I can remember the gang has been my family, but after tonight I don’t want to be with them”.
“Why don’t you come with us?”, said Sydney, “We are going to find the Sanctuary where we are going to live”.
“Alright “ she said , and the three of them set out.