90 WILD BROTHER 



Owing to his unusual bringing up, Bruno had 

 never become acquainted with the ordinary ani- 

 mals of the woods and fields, and so I was curious 

 to see what he would do when he met any of them. 

 Down in the garden one day I found a large fat 

 toad, and when Bruno was at lunch I placed the 

 warty creature on the ground beside the saucer 

 from which the cub was taking his food. Being 

 quite hungry, at first he paid no attention to the 

 intruder; but presently, as the saucer became 

 empty, he caught sight of his curious visitor. With 

 a jerk he raised his head, and for a moment, with- 

 out moving a muscle, gazed in astonishment and 

 with some misgiving at the strange monstrosity 

 in front of him. His natural curiosity, however, 

 soon overcame his doubtful frame of mind ; he was 

 a born investigator and this thing must be looked 

 into. Very cautiously he reached forward his paw 

 and ever so gently he touched the curious thing on 

 the back. 



The toad did as toads usually do when tickled 

 from behind. It hopped, and with such force that 

 it went quite over the saucer. Simultaneously the 

 bear stood erect. He had a puzzled look of amaze- 

 ment and dismay on his hairy visage ; he appeared 

 to be utterly overcome with astonishment. It 

 did n't seem reasonable that an insignificant mis- 

 shapen creature like that could, with no apparent 



