into it. He must have had a sore head for days afterward, however.

When the Father Bear came back again, he was panting and growling.
"There," said he, "I guess that's the last time any of the mermen will
try to play their tricks on us. Come, come," he went on, "it's time we
were off for our hunting."

But the Mother Bear only shook her head. She had been doing nothing
since she saw that Sprawley was an ice-merman but sit and rock herself
backward and forward and whine. "I couldn't go, my dear; I couldn't
indeed," she said. "I'm all of a tremble now to think how that dreadful
merman has been playing with Fatty and Dumpy day after day and I never
knew it."

"Then I'll go by myself," said Father Bear, gruffly, "and leave the
children home with you. But you can go, Fairy," he said to Teddy. "I'll
carry you on my back if you like, and maybe you'll see me catch a young
walrus. I suppose it was you who split him down the back, as the
Counterpane Fairy brought you."

"Yes, sir, it was," said Teddy, timidly; "but I'm afraid I can't go with
you; I'm afraid I'm going back,"--for the bears, the fields of ice, the
far-off green water, were all wavering and growing misty before his
sight. Faintly he heard the voices of the bear cubs: "Owie! owie! don't
go away"; for they had grown fond of him the day before.

Then their voices died away. He was back in the old familiar room with
the Counterpane Fairy perched upon his knees, and a bunch of snowdrops
in the vase beside the bed. The door opened and his mother stood holding
the knob in her hand and speaking to Hannah outside, and in that moment