Once upon a time, a family of two nice bears lived in a house in the woods. It was quite a nice house, with bay windows and a foyer and well suited furniture, and the bears were quite pleased with it. They were pleased with their lives on the whole: they loved to drink tea and go for long walks, and they finally had a pet of their own: a lovely duck billed platypus named Stuart.
One day, they had taken Stuart on one of their lovely walks when something unusual happened. In an uncharacteristic bout of carelessness, the bears had left their front door unlocked, and an uninvited girl wandered in.
The girl had no idea that she was in a house that belonged to two bears. She only knew she was hungry and sort of sleepy.
So, first, she went to the refrigerator. In it, she found two servings of pot roast and mashed potatoes. She sampled the first, but it was too tough. She sampled the second, but it was too soft. On the bottom shelf, she found a casserole made of shrimp, crayfish, worms, and what appeared to be small frogs. She had a taste, and was surprised to find that it was exactly what she wanted.
She ate the whole dish.
Even more tired now, she walked into the living room, where two chairs sat in front of the hunter-skin rug. But the first was too high. The second sunk too low. Desperate for some rest, she sat down on the small cushion at the end of the rug, and found it just right.
Soon, though, the open mouthed face of the hunter staring at her began to make her uneasy, and she decided to move on. On her way out, though, she spotted the bedroom, and figured she could stay a few more minutes. She was still quite tired, after all.
But the first bed was too firm.
And the second too soft.
Finally, she climbed into the burrow carved into the side of the wall. Although at first she found it hard, she realized that with the cushion from the living room, it could be made into quite the excellent napping space. And curled up there, she did indeed fall asleep.
She woke later to the sound of growling, or maybe clucking. All she knew was that when she opened her eyes, something with a furry head and the bill of a duck.
“That’s Stuart’s bed,” someone said.
“And his cushion.” someone else said.
“And his food is gone. Did you eat our pet’s food?”
The girl looked from one bear to the another, and finally, to their duck billed platypus, Stuart.
She was very, very confused.
The End.
Source: The Three Bears, Fairy Tale. First appeared in print by Robert Southey, 1837.
