If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s knickerbockers half-mast,”

“Oh, I don’t mind that so much,” Mrs Koala replied. “Every real bear at that age seems to wear them that way; but he loses the buttons, and I can’t find any at all now.”

“We don’t seem to be any further ahead in our discussion,” said Mrs Grunty coldly.

“If I send Blinky to Mrs Magpie’s school for a month, perhaps he’ll return a little quieter,” Mrs Koala said sorrowfully. “But you’ll never make a man of Snubby!”

“What did you say?” Mrs Grunty exclaimed snappily.

“You’ll never make a man of Snubby!” and Mrs Koala glared as she repeated her remark.

“Gome, come, my dear, we must not quarrel over our children,” said Mrs Grunty kindly. “After all it will do Blinky no harm and give you a good rest.”

So it was decided. Blinky was to be packed off to Mrs Magpie’s school the next evening and the two mother bears became friends again.

Up in the gum-tree snuggled together, two little bears had listened to all this with big ears opened wide.

“Did you hear that, Snubby?” Blinky asked with wide open eyes. “I’m to be sent to Mrs Magpie’s!”

“How dreadful! She’ll peck you ever so hard,” Snubby whispered.

“She won’t, ‘cause I won’t go!” Blinky boldly replied.

“You’ll have to. Your mother will make you,” Snubby answered.

“I’m nearly as big as she is; and besides I’m grown up now. Look at my bockers!” And Blinky proudly pulled them a little farther down his short stubby legs.

“I wish my mother would make me a pair of bockers,” signed Snubby.

“I’ll leave you mine, ‘cause I won’t be wearing them again,” Blinky replied.

“Oh, you can’t go to school undressed!” And Snubby looked very shocked.

“I tell you, I’m not going to school, now or never. I’m going to run away; but I think I’ll take my bockers with me as you’d look silly in them.” With that Blinky puffed out his tummy till a few stitches gave way.

“Where are you going?” Snubby inquired in a frightened voice.

“Oh, just away, over there.” And Blinky waved a little paw in all directions.

“That’s where the men are!” Snubby whispered, holding his breath.

“And adventures, too,” Blinky replied excitedly.

“I tell you, I’m not going to school, now or never.”

“I know where Mr Smifkins’s farm is and I know where Mr Willie Wagtail lives, and where the flying squirrel plays, and lots of other things, and best of all where the lyrebird dances. I’ll go and see all these things, while you’re up here in the gum-tree just eating leaves all night long and listening to old Mrs Grunty growling.”

“I know where the flying squirrel plays.”

Snubby longed to go too, but he was such a good little bear. When he thought of all that Blinky said, his heart went pita-pat so loudly that he became frightened at the very thought of running away. Much better to be safe in a tree even if his mother did growl sometimes. But he knew he would miss his playmate and tears slowly trickled down his little face.

“How could you wear bockers when you’re crying?” said Blinky scornfully.

Snubby brushed the tears away with his paw.

“I don’t think I’m crying,” he said bravely, “Mother’s eyes go like that when she has lost her glasses.

“What will you eat while you’re away, and where will you sleep?”

“There are juicy plants to find and I’ll sleep in a tree; but if I get to Mr Smifkins’s place I’ll find a cosy corner in his house. But I can’t tell you any more just now — it’s wasting time. The sun will be up soon and I must hide before mother finds I’m gone. Just watch how quickly I slide down this tree.”

The naughty bear climbed down past Mrs Koala and Mrs Grunty, who were snoozing in a corner. Quickly and silently he slid to the ground leaving a patch of his bockers on the last branch as he went. He looked very funny, pattering over the ground, one leg of his bockers torn and draggled. But he didn’t care a fig — anything was better than Mrs Magpie’s school.

“The old pecker!” he mumbled to himself as he trotted along. “And it’s all through Mrs Grunty. I wish I’d hidden her glasses before I left!”

The sun peeped through the bush warming the leaves on Blinky’s pathway, and shy little lizards poked their heads out from under the stones, surprised to find a bear wandering through their bushland.

Blinky began to stumble, and his knickerbockers caught in every bramble and twig on the way. At last, feeling so tired, he decided to find a suitable tree for a sleep.

A large gum stood straight in his pathway, just the kind made for bears. Smooth and tall, protecting branches high up from the ground, and hundreds of leaves to shelter a little chap like himself. Struggling along he reached the foot of the tree and began to climb. He was an expert climber, much stronger now than when we first knew him, and his claws were longer so that his grip on the trunk of the tree was very sure and strong. Up and up he climbed and had almost reached the top when he heard a great commotion.

“Goodness! What’s that?” he exclaimed. “Sounds like Mrs Grunty again,” and pausing just under a branch he peeped round the bough to see what all the noise was about.

Feathers were flying in all directions, pecks and squawks disturbed the morning air and the leaves of the tree trembled with fright. Strangest of all, rows and rows of little dead birds hung from the twigs. It looked like a jeweller’s shop. The sun caught the bright colours of beautiful feathers on the breasts and wings of tiny feathered folk.