"Oh, let us sing some new, new tunes!
All about her prunes, prunes, prunes!"

And "Prunes, prunes, prunes," the Three Bears sang
all that merry day. "Prunes, prunes, prunes, prunes
we had for breakfast!"

Little Bear had never heard of the Pied Piper of
Hamelin who rid the town of rats, and then, when he
went back for his promised pay, was only laughed at,
so that he piped away all the children of Hamelin town
and never piped them back again. Mother Bear had
never told Little Bear that story. However, she had
taught her child to keep his promises, which was very
fortunate, because one day the Pied Piper appeared
when Little Bear was alone in the sunbright clearing
which was his favorite playground.

It happened that day that Little Bear found his playground
full of caterpillars, and he did not like caterpillars.
They were everywhere--on the ground, on the
grass, on flowers, on the trees, humping along and
humping along, eating green leaves.

"Oh, you old humpty-humps," exclaimed Little Bear,
"I wish you would go away!"

But the caterpillars would not go away. They even
began crawling over Little Bear. He shook them off
and was about to run away when along came that man,