Cubby Thinks He Knows It All

Cubby

Cubby was the most independent little bear cub in the green forest.  It seemed that he had to learn everything the hard way. His mother was very patient with him, but it was hard to teach him anything.  He thought he knew it all, until one day when he discovered he wasn't so smart.

It was the season for the salmon run and Cubby didn't want to miss it this year. Now, he was old enough to catch his own salmon.   One afternoon after his nap , he noticed it was unusually quiet, so he  climbed up into his favorite look-out in a tree in the green forest. He noticed that all his buddies were down by the river. Cubby thought,"This is great. I'm going down and catch myself a salmon." But what he didn't know was that it was VERY DANGEROUS to catch salmon in this particular river, because of a quick drop-off.  Without warning you could be swept down stream towards the dam.  But Cubby didn't think much about danger.

By the time he arrived at the river , all of the other bear cubs with their mothers were having a feast. There was plenty of salmon jumping out of the water to satisfy their hunger.  Cubby thought to himself, "This is be a snap. I can do this!."  There was only one problem. When Cubby started to wade out to the salmon, He didn't know about the quick drop-off. Before Cubby knew it, he was over his head and he didn't know how to swim. He never took time to learn.  The river was flowing very fast and Cubby was caught in a whirlpool that started to pull him down stream.   He grabbed a piece of a broken tree limb floating by and for the first time in his life HE WAS SCARED!  The water was cold and his fur was wet and very heavy.  The salmon were jumping up stream all around him  as he was being pulled swiftly down stream.. Cubby could only look at the salmon as they jumped  upstream.

Grizzly and Cubby

His friend Grizzly saw what was happening and quickly ran along the river bank waiting for the right place and time to jump in to rescue Cubby. Grizzly was three years older than Cubby and understood what to do. Cubby was heading for the waterfall and he was moving faster and faster screaming out, "Help, help!, help!" Grizzly didn't waste any time. He noticed that Cubby was holding onto a tree limb.  That was perfect.  Grizzly called out to Cubby, "I 'm coming Cubby, don't let go of the tree limb."  For once Cubby knew he wasn't so smart.  Grizzly was swimming out to save his life at the risk of his own. Grizzly grabbed hold of one end of the tree limb and pulled Cubby back to shore.

 As they came to shore they were surrounded by all the other bear cubs and their mothers, who had seen what was happening. They had stopped their fishing to follow Grizzly.  Cubby's mother wasn't there because Cubby had never told her where he was going. Then off in the distance came Cubby's mother running like lightening.  Grizzly's mother had told her about Cubby. When Cubby saw his mother coming, he ran as fast as he could towards her. "I am so sorry mommy for not asking if I could go to the river.  Please forgive me."  Cubby's mother was kind and took this opportunity to teach Cubby that he wasn't so smart after all. If he wanted to catch salmon he had better learn to swim and to remember to always ask his mother if he could go to the river. 

Cubby and his mother heading home.