It’s quite as easy to be good
        And kind to all, as children should,
        For grown-ups never give you toys
        If you are naughty girls and boys.

        Besides, if you do what is right
        Your mother kisses you at night,
        And who could sleep in peaceful bliss
        Without a mother’s good-night kiss?

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XX

And Jackie Tar had found a little compass on the ship, and this he had put in his pocket, for said he: 

“You can never tell when you may be lost around the North Pole.”

So they went ashore and, after Jackie had taken his bearings with his compass to see which way to go, they set out to walk to the North Pole.

And after they had walked for hours and hours, they saw a little bear, which is called a cub.

“I wonder if he is a tame bear,” said Sweetclover.

And Kernel Cob went up to him as brave as you please and put out his hand to the bear and said: 

“Hello, Teddy!” but the bear growled and showed his teeth.

“Don’t start anything like that,” said Kernel Cob, “unless you want to get hurt.”

“Well, don’t you call me names,” said the Cub.

“Who’s calling you names?” asked Kernel Cob.

“You are,” said the Cub.

“What name did I call you?” asked Kernel Cob.

“Would you like to be called after a make-believe bear if you were a real one?” asked the Cub.

“No, I guess not,” said Kernel Cob.

“Well then,” said the Cub.

“Excuse me,” said Kernel Cob, for he liked to see anybody who had spunk.

And they shook hands and were friends at once.

“Who are you?” asked the Cub, “and what are you doing up here?”

“I’m Kernel Cob,” said he, “and this is Sweetclover and Jackie Tar,” and the cub came forward and shook hands with them, and really he had very nice manners for a bear who lived so far away from nice people and things.

“You haven’t told me what you are doing way up here.”

“We’re looking for Jackie and Peggs’ motheranfather,” answered Kernel Cob, “and we believe they are up here near the North Pole.  Are we far away from it?”

“About a hundred miles or so,” said Wak Wak, for that was the cub’s name.

“Goodness,” said Sweetclover, “how are we ever going to walk so far in this dreadful cold.”

“If you’ll come to my cubby hole,” said Wak Wak, “we can sit down and talk it over.  It’s not far.”  So they came to his cubby hole, they went inside and it was nice and warm and comfortable.

“You must stay the night with me,” he said.

So he covered them over with some pieces of fur and they all went to sleep.

But, in the middle of the night, they were awakened by loud yelping, and running to the doorway of the hole they saw thousands and thousands of what looked like little lanterns dancing on the ice.