Snubby Nose shouted, “Pass me the cream!  Pass me the butter!  Pass me the bread!  Can’t you see I am starving?”

The mirror spoke up suddenly,

     “Snubby Nose it’s no use to tease,
     You might say, ‘Thank you,’ and ‘if you please.’”

Tippy Toes slipped down from his chair and ran out after Bunny and Susan.

Snubby Nose cried and he screamed and he howled!  He reached for the sugar bowl and it sailed away in the air!  He reached for the bread and butter but they went farther out of his reach.  He was very hungry and he cried and he screamed and he howled, but there was no one to answer him.  By and by he danced before the mirror and said,

     “Mirror, mirror, I’ll be good,
     And speak politely as I should.”

The mirror said,

     “If you say, ‘Thank you’ I suppose,
     You’ll be loved like Tippy Toes.”

Then the most surprising thing happened!

Snubby Nose said, “Thank you for a bowl of milk.”  The milk stood at his plate.  Then he said, “Thank you for cookies and sugar and pie.”  The cookies and sugar and pie stood by his plate.  He had never had so much fun before in all his life.  He kept on ordering things and they came before him.

By and by Snubby Nose cleared off the table and washed the dishes, saying over and over,

     “I must forget to try to tease,
     I will say, ‘Thank you’ and ‘If you Please.’”

At this very minute in came the Seventeen Little Bears.  They cried,

     “Hurrah, hurrah, old Snubby Nose! 
     What has happened, do you suppose?”

Snubby Nose made a low bow and said, “If you please I should like to know what has happened.”

The Seventeen Little Bears stared at Snubby Nose.  They had never seen him so polite before.

They said, “We met Bunny and Susan and Grandpa Grumbles and they said we could go up in the garret and get skates and go skating.”

No sooner said than done.  Up to the garret danced the Seventeen Little Bears.  They found seventeen pairs of skates and danced out again.

Snubby Nose was left alone in the house.  He forgot to be polite.  He cried and he screamed and he howled!

The mirror said,

     “If you’re polite, as you should be,
     Perhaps a pair of skates you’ll see.”

Snubby Nose looked about the house.  He looked high and low, but he could not find any skates.  He rubbed his eyes and he rubbed his little red nose.  He put on his cap and mittens and went to the pond.  Tippy Toes came to meet him.  He had two pairs of skates and cried,

     “Where were you so long, goodness knows,
     Here are your skates.  Come Snubby Nose.”

He kissed Snubby Nose on both cheeks.

The Seventeen Little Bears sat on the bank trying to fasten their skates.  Their little paws got colder and colder every minute.  Snubby Nose helped them fasten their skates and Tippy Toes helped them too.  Then they put on their own skates and went skating away, and away, and away.