With that he shuffled out of the cave, followed by the Mother Bear, and
stood looking about him. Presently the cubs came out, too, still
blinking with sleep.

"Oh, Mother!" cried Dumpy, "just look at Sprawley's back!"

"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked the Mother Bear.

"There ain't anything the matter with it," growled Sprawley, twisting
his head round and trying to see.

"Yes, there is too!" cried Fatty. "Oh my! Sprawley's splitting hisself
all down the back."

"Why! why!" cried the Father Bear, "what's this?" He shuffled over and
looked at Sprawley's back, and then without a word he began to tear and
pull at the bear-skin. In another minute he had it off, and there stood
the merman shivering and blinking at them with his mouth open like a
gasping fish.

"Oh dear! oh dear!" cried the Mother Bear, turning whiter than ever.
"He's not my cub after all," and she sat down and began to whine and
cry. But Father Bear gave a growl, and rising on his hind legs he
fetched the merman a cuff that sent him tumbling head over heels across
the ice.

Father Bear was after him, but before he could reach him the merman was
up and running for the open strip of water in the distance. Father Bear
chased him the whole way; sometimes he caught him and gave him a cuff
that sent him flying, but at last the merman reached the water and dived