Edgar the Bear
By: Richard Guenther
“Woof” That sound made by the mother bear was the danger signal. At the sound, the two cubs ran to the nearest tree. Climbing high up in the pine branches, they saw why their mother had warned them. There were strangers in the forest at the lake. The cubs saw strange sights. They saw people for the first time. They saw trucks for the first time. People were camping at Mit Lake! Soon the mother bear came running through the brush to the pine tree. At her signal, the two cubs climbed down and ran with her into the woods, away from the campers.
Bear Cub Number 1 and his younger sister were born near Mit Lake, a lake that lies thirty miles north of the little town of Ignace, Ontario, in Canada. Bear Cub Number 1 and his sister, Bear Cub Number 2, were born in the winter and first came out into the forest in early spring. It was in early spring that they saw the people. After the excitement of seeing people for the first time, the bears spent the rest their first year doing what bears do. They ate strange things that bears eat. In the spring they ate dead fish they found at the edge of the lake and the fish that their mother would catch in the river. Sometimes Mother Bear found a rotten log that was full of ants and grubs. Their mother smashed the log and they all licked up the goodies. Their mother showed them plants that were good to eat. They ate some kinds of mushrooms and they especially liked when the berries ripened. They ate serviceberries, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries until they were all so full they could hardly walk. In the fall their mother picked out a nice den under a fallen-down spruce tree. She filled the hole under the tree with grass and leaves. When the winter came with its cold and snow, the family of fat bears cuddled safe and warm and slept the winter away.
After that second winter together, the bears said “goodbye” to each other and went their separate ways. That’s also what bears do. Bear Cub Number 1 was now a yearling bear, somewhat fully grown. When his mother and sister left for their new homes at Widow Lake and Lard Lake, Bear Cub Number 1 stayed at Mit Lake. He liked being alone by the lake. He romped in the woods. He chased butterflies. At night he listened to the strange call of the loons echoing across the lake. He heard the honking of the Canada geese and watched them as they flew north in the spring. He watched silently as a long legged lynx stalked a mouse and pounced on it. He slid down the waterfalls of the Basket River at the outlet of Kayle Lake and sat beneath the falls while the water sprayed high above him. It was his favorite place! He ate fish, plants, grubs, and ants when he could find them, and waited hungrily for the berries to ripen because Bear Cub was usually hungry. Then one day, his life changed forever.
Bear Cub Number 1 lay in the woods watching as trucks came down the road to Mit Lake. The trucks made noises as they banged and clunked over the rocks on the road with their boat trailers squeaking and thumping. Bear Cub watched as boys and girls jumped from the trucks, talking and laughing. Little did he know that this was the FFA group from Edgar High School in Edgar, Wisconsin, USA, on their yearly fishing trip to Mit Lake. Soon the boats were put in the lake. Soon sleeping tents were put up, and soon he cooks in the cook tent were busy making good things to eat for the hungry kids. In the woods, Bear Cub remembered his mother’s danger warning of the year before. But Bear Cub smelled something new and attractive in the air. A hungry Bear Cub licked his lips as he smelled people food for the first time.
That first night as all the campers slept, Bear Cub checked out the cook tent. It had been cleaned too well, and almost nothing was left behind for a hungry bear to eat. Almost nothing, that is, but a couple of cheese curds that had fallen on the ground. Bear Cub sniffed at the little yellow scraps, then he licked then up as he licked grubs from a rotten log—but this was different. A strange, wonderful taste came to his mouth. He had never tasted anything so tasty as Wisconsin cheese. “I love this food,” said Bear Cub to himself, in bear talk. Suddenly the thought of eating dead fish, grubs and ants at Mit Lake was not so exciting anymore. He thought instead of the cheese he had tasted. He had to find out where this delicious food came from.
All week long Bear Cub watched the camp from his hiding place in the woods during each day and each night he sampled scraps of goodies near the cook tent. He ate bits of pancakes, pieces of fried walleye, scraps of bread—all were yummy, but the best eating came when Bear Cub found a piece of cheese.
At the end of a week, the camp suddenly changed. The kids took the boats from the water and put them on their boat trailers. They took their tents down. They stored their sleeping bags in the boats and soon everyone got into the trucks. Bear Cub was watching sadly as the cook tent was taken down, folded, and put into a boat. Just before the trucks started their long journey back to Edgar, Wisconsin, they got a new passenger. Bear Cub sneaked over the side of one of the boats and hid under the sleeping bags. He was going to the land of good cheese!
What a long ride for Bear Cub. He peeked out from under the sleeping bags to see many exciting things. He saw the waterfalls at Kakabeca Falls when the trucks stopped so the kids could see the sights. He saw the great blue waters of Lake Superior and the big boats at Duluth harbor. He watched the countryside change from the forests of Ontario to the farms and woodlots of central Wisconsin. It was night when the truck caravan arrived back at Edgar High School to unload. In the dark, before anyone knew he was there, Bear Cub climbed from the boat, ran across the parking lot by the football field and hid in the school forest. He was in his new home. He didn’t know it yet, but he was now Edgar the Bear.
For the next few days and nights, Edgar the Bear carefully explored his new world. He met Stinker, the skunk, Stub, the squirrel (who had only half a tail), and some fat-cheeked chipmunks. He liked the wild turkeys which were far bigger than the spruce grouse that lived near Mit Lake and the deer which were far smaller than the moose he remembered seeing in the Basket River shallows.
Edgar the Bear did not go hungry. He ate acorns. He ate fish from Scotch Creek. He even found berries to eat. But he really liked eating the popcorn, candy, and—cheese curds he sometimes found under the bleachers by the ball diamond when he made his nightly food search. When the Edgar Homecoming Celebration was held, Edgar the Bear looked in the garbage barrels at night after the crowds had gone home and he found parts of sandwiches, pieces of hot dogs and deep fried cheese curds. Deep-fried cheese curds—Yum!
Edgar the Bear enjoyed himself all summer. He romped in the woods. He chased butterflies. He swam in the swimming hole at Minnow Ponds Park and played on the slides and swings in Oak Street Park. Edgar the Bear even climbed the monkey bars at the elementary school playground. He saw kids doing all these things during their summer school and that looked like fun. It was fun! Of course, Edgar the Bear did all of this when no one was watching.
When autumn came, he found something else to do. He could not watch a lynx because that kind of wildcat lives in Canada. But Edgar the Bear watched the wildcats for hours from his hiding place in the school forest. He watched the Edgar Wildcats practice football. At night he watched football games under the lights. Later, after the game when the lights were turned off, he ate popcorn under the stands. Everybody knows that they drop some popcorn when they eat popcorn at a football game. Edgar the Bear got fat eating corn from the farm fields around Edgar. And when he heard the honking of Canada geese flying south for the winter, he knew that soon he would find a nice place under a fallen tree in the school forest and sleeps the winter away. His life was perfect.
Well—his life was almost perfect. Something was missing. It was not that Edgar the Bear missed the company of bears. There were bears in some of the woods around Edgar. They were nice, even though they sounded funny when they said certain words and did not understand French. He certainly did not miss watching the lynx. The wildcats of Edgar High School were more fun to watch. What Edgar the Bear really missed was the waterfalls of the Basket River. He remembered all the fun he had playing in the water under the falls. Sadly, he missed the Basket River. Scotch Creek in Edgar is just not like the Basket River near Mit Lake.
Just before Edgar the Bear was to curl up in the den he had made for the winter, his life did become perfect. While Edgar the Bear was walking the streets late one night hoping to find just one more cheese curd, he heard a wonderful sound. It was the sound of a waterfall. Strangely, he had never heard that sound before in Edgar. Peeking from behind some bushes, he saw Bill and Dan, two workers for the Village of Edgar. They were spending the night flushing the fire hydrants to keep the water lines clean. As they opened the hydrant, the water shot into the air. When Bill and Dan went to their truck for tools, Edgar the Bear could not stop himself. He raced to the water spray and, just like in the Basket River waterfalls, he rode the plume of water. “Whee!” he said again and again. After a long while, when Bill and Dan returned to the fire hydrant to shut it off, they did not know that just a few feet away, hiding in the dark under the bushes was a very, very wet and very, very happy bear.
Life was indeed perfect for Edgar the Bear. He would sleep the winter away dreaming of things he would do next year. He would dream of eating the good popcorn, finding more yummy cheese curds, eating lots of good field corn, watching the Edgar Wildcats romp and play under the lights, and, best of all, Edgar the Bear would wait for the fire hydrants to be flushed. Then he would bounce in the water spray, say “Whee!” again and again in bear talk, and once again be so happy that he now lives in Edgar, Wisconsin.