The Bear

We heard somebody coming! We ran and hid behind a large tree. By then they had come close enough for us to hear what they were saying.
“Come on, hurry up.”
“I can’t my pants are falling down"
“Well, Lieutenant Pierce has a good sling now anyway.”
“I still can’t belive you took my belt like that, it was only a piece of cloth as it is.”
“Exactly, come on lets go back, nobody out here anyway.” The one with a belt grumbled.
“Good idea, my feet are getting wet.” Whined the other one. They tramped away. As soon as they were out of earshot Ara and I let out our suppressed giggles.” “ Oh Lissie,” she panted, we were both weak with laughter, ”I don’t think anything could be funnier!!” “I agree,” I mimicked the ninny soildier “My feet are getting wet. If a fierce butterfly flew across his path he’d probably faint !!” We went off in gales once again.
Finally we calmed down and decided we would sleep in the daytime and walk during the night. So we found a small cave nearby to sleep in. the sky was already rosey with dawn. We went inside and Ara pulled a bearskin out of the basket.
“Here,” she said. “We’ll curl up under this. That way we’ll keep warm, and anyone looking in here will only see a hibernating bear - or so they’ll think.”
“Good idea,” I agreed.
We did as she proposed, and slept quite peacefully until late afternoon. Then we woke to hear someone coming. It was a group of children nearby. We curled up tighter under the skin. We could hear what they were saying now.
“I hope we can find fido.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“He must be so cold.”
I felt sorry for them, and their dog. My sympathy instantly changed to horror as one of the children started toward our cave. My breath stopped coming and Ara tensed considerably next to me.
“I’ll look over here,” the girl was saying.
I had an idea. I nudged Ara and we began breathing in unison. Now, it looked like the “bear” was breathing. In a moment, we heard a scream of “Bear!” I could hardly keep from giggling and giving us away.
“Bear!” she screamed again, and all theother children began running toward the direction from which thay had come. Ara and I could hear a boy sobbing something that made us feel pretty guilty.
“I don’t wanna’ be eaten by a bear,” he was crying as they ran away. Ara and I couldn’t go to sleep after that. So we ate a little bread and huddled under the skin until dark. Then we started off again.