It was a deep winter, with snow everywhere. There was loud snoring in the bear’s den. The bears were hibernating. But what was that? Someone blinked into the darkness, yawned and stretched. The little bear was getting up.
“Hello, wake up, my friends, I want to go outside and play,” he hollered to the other sleepers in the den.
But the bears were sleeping so soundly that no one answered him. The little bear didn’t mind. He would find another friend to play with. Maybe a badger or a hedgehog, he played with those in the fall and they were a lot of fun.
And so the little bear dug himself out into the snow. The woods looked very different than he remembered them from the fall. Everything was white. The tree branches, the grass, the stumps – there was a cold blanket of white on everything. The cold wind ruffled bear’s body hair so much that he shivered several times.
“What are you doing here, little bear?” He heard a voice above him. It was a squirrel who was cracking a nut for lunch.
“I’m searching for a badger to play with,” said the bear cub.
“He is sleeping,” replied the squirrel. “And you should be sleeping, too. It’s really cold.”
“Why? I’m not tired.”
“Because it’s cold and there’s nothing to eat,” explained the squirrel.
“But I’m not hungry. I want someone to play with.”
So the bear went to the burrow where the badger lived. He knocked on the stump above the burrow and called out: “Buddy, get up and come play!”
But all that came from the burrow was a loud, “Zzzzzzz”
“Oh I see, he’s asleep too. I’ll go and play with the hedgehog,” said the bear.
He hopped over several stumps and snow-covered bushes to a huge pile of leaves.
“Hey, hedgehog, come play,” called the bear to the pile of leaves.
But all that came out of the pile of leaves was loud gasping and snorting. The hedgehog was sleeping a hard winter’s sleep.
“Oh, dear. Who am I going to play with?” thought the bear to himself.
He wandered sadly through the forest and became hungry. Where could he get something to eat? He got a craving for raspberries. They grew in the trees near the forest. He ran there at once. But the raspberry shoots were leafless, dry and covered in snow. Not a raspberry anywhere.
A rabbit ran by.
“Oh bear, you’re a fool,” said the hare. “You should go back sleep, you can’t get any food in winter.”
“Then why don’t you sleep?” asked the bear.
“I’m stocking up. I carry enough so that I can run around outside during the winter and have everything I need at home. But you would have to carry too much, you don’t have such a big den. That’s why bears sleep through the winter. They eat a lot in the fall to keep them warm all winter. They mustn’t wake up, because they can get hungry and can’t get anything,” explained the hare.
“But I can’t fall asleep when I’m hungry,” whined the little bear.
“I’ll share with you. You’ll have something to eat and go back to sleep.”
The little rabbit took the little bear to visit, gave him his food, and then walked him to his den.
“Well, good night, you little wanderer. And don’t wake up until spring,” said the hare to the bear and kissed him on the forehead to make him sleep well.
The bear crawled back into his warm den. All the other bears were still fast asleep and snoring loudly. Bear yawned, curled up in a ball and closed his eyes. He didn’t even know how he fell asleep.
And when he woke up, the other bears woke up too. Spring was here. Hooray, it’s time to get up! Surely the badger and the hedgehog were waiting for him outside to play together in the woods.