The mother bear pushed the boy along to the cubs.  One of them nabbed him quickly and ran off with him; but he did not bite hard.  He was playful and wanted to amuse himself awhile with Thumbietot before eating him.  The other cub was after the first one to snatch the boy for himself, and as he lumbered along he managed to tumble straight down on the head of the one that carried the boy.  So the two cubs rolled over each other, biting, clawing, and snarling.

During the tussle the boy got loose, ran over to the wall, and started to scale it.  Then both cubs scurried after him, and, nimbly scaling the cliff, they caught up with him and tossed him down on the moss, like a ball.

“Now I know how a poor little mousie fares when it falls into the cat’s claws,” thought the boy.

He made several attempts to get away.  He ran deep down into the old tunnel and hid behind the rocks and climbed the birches, but the cubs hunted him out, go where he would.  The instant they caught him they let him go, so that he could run away again and they should have the fun of recapturing him.

At last the boy got so sick and tired of it all that he threw himself down on the ground.

“Run away,” growled the cubs, “or we’ll eat you up!”

“You’ll have to eat me then,” said the boy, “for I can’t run any more.”

Immediately both cubs rushed over to the mother bear and complained: 

“Mamma Bear, oh, Mamma Bear, he won’t play any more.”

“Then you must divide him evenly between you,” said Mother Bear.

When the boy heard this he was so scared that he jumped up instantly and began playing again.

As it was bedtime, Mother Bear called to the cubs that they must come now and cuddle up to her and go to sleep.  They had been having such a good time that they wished to continue their play next day; so they took the boy between them and laid their paws over him.  They did not want him to move without waking them.  They went to sleep immediately.  The boy thought that after a while he would try to steal away.  But never in all his life had he been so tumbled and tossed and hunted and rolled!  And he was so tired out that he too fell asleep.

By and by Father Bear came clambering down the mountain wall.  The boy was wakened by his tearing away stone and gravel as he swung himself into the old mine.  The boy was afraid to move much; but he managed to stretch himself and turn over, so that he could see the big bear.  He was a frightfully coarse, huge old beast, with great paws, large, glistening tusks, and wicked little eyes!  The boy could not help shuddering as he looked at this old monarch of the forest.

“It smells like a human being around here,” said Father Bear the instant he came up to Mother Bear, and his growl was as the rolling of thunder.

“How can you imagine anything so absurd?” said Mother Bear without disturbing herself.  “It has been settled for good and all that we are not to harm mankind any more; but if one of them were to put in an appearance here, where the cubs and I have our quarters, there wouldn’t be enough left of him for you to catch even a scent of him!”