There were birds of many kinds in many, many trees twittering and teetering as if discussing their plans for the day. Their voices caused Little Black Bear to remember the mysterious ones of the night. But he soon dismissed them from mind, and turning his thoughts to peanuts and carrots, sat down with the lunch bag between his knees and devoured a most appetizing breakfast. Once more he was about to eat the taffy-on-the-stick, but again decided to wait until later. As he finished his last peanut, the pounding of the hammer sounded again and then, a moment later, came the rising and falling “gr-r-r-rrr” of a saw.
“I have just got to find out what all that is about,” decided Little Black Bear, as he folded his lunch bag. “Who knows? It may prove the best kind of an adventure.”
And so, guided by the song of the saw, he started up the side of the mountain. As he advanced the trees grew less dense and this made more light. Long, dazzling beams that seemed to split into thousands of glistening splinters came from the foliaged canopy that spread far above. Great rocks began to appear. The grass grew more green. The hammering was very near now. And then, reaching the edge of what proved to be a broad clearing, Little Black Bear came in sight of a scene that caused him to halt in amazement.
Spread out before him was a sort of niche in the mountain with a floor as wide as the menagerie tent, fully as smooth and almost as long. At the back of the niche and framed by jaggedy rocks were two wooden doors made of small trunks of trees bound tightly together with bolts and with bars. Both these doors were closed as if shutting the mouth of a cave.
But it was what occupied the center of the clearing that held the fascinated attention of Little Black Bear. Here was a wide-spreading tree and under its shade an enormously long work-bench surrounded by whole drifts of curlycue shavings. The bench was fitted with a vise with wide wooden jaws, while its face was covered with many strange tools. Just in front of the bench and half in the sunlight were two massive sawhorses that supported an oddly shaped frame. And, bending over these, a cap on his head and a carpenter’s apron tied round his waist was a shaggy coated bruin of marvelous size.