Momma Bear held her babies close and told them to be quiet while she was gone. She took short steps up a long hill and got to the top. She had been here many times. 

There were many ant hills in the summer but now they were all sleeping. She remembered all the mice on that path over the hill so she thought she could get some mice under the spring snow. 

She had to get food quickly because she didn’t have enough milk for her two babies. 

She was a clumsy bear, not like her brothers who could outrun her and catch more mice than she could. 

There it was!  Darting under a melting snow drift— a nice fat mouse! 

She raced toward it but didn't see that sharp stick until too late. The sharp pointed end dug deep into her leg and she fell down. She bit at the stick until it came out but it left a big open hole near her hip.  

So, there she was deep in the bush, hurt and not able to walk. She had to rest for a few days until she was able to walk. She dozed off to sleep and dreamed of her babies in their beds in the old root cellar. Would they be there when she got back?

My name is Jacob but I like to be called Ethan sometimes. I think I’ll just be Jacob because I can’t spell Ethan. 

I have a little brother; his name is Jack. He is 3 and really little. He doesn’t even have any big muscles. Can you ever imagine that I’ve had big muscles for a long time, ever since I was smaller than Jack? Oh well, maybe someday he will get muscles.  But if he gets too many, he might be able to pass me when we have our running races. I am way ahead of him now when we race. That’s what we were doing one day a while ago.

We were racing ahead of Grandma on our way to the cellar (I think there’s another word in front of cellar). Anyhow it’s a place, a really dark, scary place near a creek. But inside this scary place there are lots of big big carrots and many potatoes. It’s cold in there and very dark. But Grandma told Jack and I not to be scared. She said it was just a cold dark place where all the stuff that I helped dig out of the garden had to be put away for the winter. And I believed her because Jack and I loved to eat those carrots. Jinx, Grandmas dog, loved carrots too. She eats more carrots than we do.

Our big adventure started near that cellar one day in the spring. Jack and I were running ahead of grandma, of course I was way ahead.  I had more muscles. When I got there, I heard funny crying sounds coming from the old cellar next to the one where those big carrots were. But Jack couldn’t hear anything. When Grandma caught up to us she couldn’t hear it either so I thought it was just a noise I imagined.  I know that word because my mom said my imagination was very important. So that night when I was supposed to be sleeping I made a plan. 

Jack and I were going back to that cellar the next day because those strange sounds I heard there kept bouncing around in my head. This cellar was many steps past Great Grandma’s house and I told Jack that if we got into trouble, Great Grandma could hear us better now that she got those new things put in her ears. She said they cost lots and lots of money, way over five dollars. When we got to that old cellar we heard those crying noises again. So, Jack and I got closer to that black hole but now it was getting scary. But right then we saw some black furry stuff and also four eyes looking at us.