The Story of Ben 13 



polar bears when the fight was over. But they acted 

 better the second try and soon learned to like their 

 new diet. And in a day or two they learned to feed 

 themselves out of a plate. And it was not very long 

 before our problem was, not to induce them to eat, 

 but to satisfy their unappeasable appetites. 



Meanwhile, however, we had had other troubles. 

 At the conclusion of their first meal we had put them 

 into their den, placed sections of bark against the 

 opening, rolled a boulder in front of the improvised 

 door^ and left them, as we thought, for the night. But 

 we were soon awakened by the cries of the lonesome 

 little fellows, and, as there seemed to be no prospect 

 of their quieting down, I finally got up, built a fire, 

 warmed some of the gruel, and gave them another feed. 

 I then warmed a couple of flat rocks, placed these under 

 the pine needles, and again tucked the babies into bed. 

 By daybreak I had to get up and give them an early 

 breakfast. 



This was the first night, but it was no sample of what 

 followed. The interval between feeds became less 

 and less until the feeding quieted them only so long as 

 the feeding act lasted. Then, as soon as a cub was 

 put down, it set up a bawling that was unbearable. 

 One night we put them all in a sack and tied the 

 mouth. This kept them from bawling so long as they 

 could not get out of the sack, but they all fell to work 

 with tooth and nail, and their combined voices soon 



