The Two Travellers and the Bear

• 2 minute read
• Ages 6-10
• Moral Stories

Two friends were walking together through a forest.

They had known each other a long time, and on the way they made each other a promise: whatever happened on the journey, they would stand by one another.

An hour later they came round a bend and there was a bear on the path.

The tree

The first man did not say anything.

He ran to the nearest tree, got hold of a branch, pulled himself up and kept climbing, and he was well out of reach before his friend had properly understood what was happening.

The second man could not climb. He looked up and saw his friend's foot disappearing into the leaves, and he looked back and saw the bear coming.

He had heard once that bears do not touch the dead.

So he lay flat on his face in the path and made himself completely still, and stopped breathing, and waited.

The bear

The bear came up to him.

It put its nose against his shoulder. It sniffed along his back and his neck. It stayed a long time at his ear, breathing on him, and he did not move a muscle.

Then it lost interest and walked away into the trees.

The man in the tree waited until it was well gone before he came down.

He was laughing with relief as he landed.

"Well!" he said. "That was close. I saw the whole thing — the bear had its mouth right against your ear. It looked as if it was telling you a secret! What did it say?"

The other man got up and brushed the dust off his front.

"It gave me some advice," he said.

"What advice?"

"It told me never to travel with a friend who leaves you behind at the first sign of danger."

And he picked up his bag and walked on down the path alone.