and also, in accordance with the eternal fitness of
things, the MIDDLE-SiZED BEAR had a MIDDLE.
SIZED POT, and Eee was for the wer wEE BEAR
only a WEE WEE Po

One day after they: had poured out their porridge
they scalded their tongues with it. That is to say,
the GREAT BIG BEAR scalded his GREAT
LONG TONGUE, and the MIDDLE-SIZED BEAR
scalded his MEDIUM TONGUE, and the wEE wEE
BEAR SCalded his weEn1E WEENIE TONGUE. So they
resolved to walk out arm and arm into the wood
and listen to the whistling of the birds whilst their
porridge cooled.

Now, whilst they were out, a little girl came into
the cottage, and seeing ‘that there was good
porridge smoking on the table, and no one there
to eat it, she tripped in, as she was very hungry,
and first she tasted the porridge of the GREAT
BIG BEAR, and found it so hot that she burnt
her mouth, so she went to the second pot and
' tasted them, and then also after having taken a
little, she thrust the pot from her, as it was too cold.
Lastly she went to the pot of the wer wEE BEAR,
and that was just right, so she ate it all up. Then
the little maiden, having satisfied her hunger, felt
tired with her walk, so she went to sit down, and
first she sat in the chair of the GREAT BIG
BEAR, but she found it was too hard for her.
She did not like it, so she got up and tried the
chair of the MIDDLE-SIZED BEAR, and that she
thought too soft, so she quickly jumped up out of
that and tried the chair of the wEE wer Bear, and
that was exactly right, neither too hard nor too
soft; and she sat in it till she sat through the seat
and came plump on the ground. Then the little
maiden went upstairs into the bedchamber in
which the Three Bears slept. And first she lay
down on the bed of the GREAT BIG BEAR, but it
was too high at the head for her, so she got off it

195

THE
THREE
BEARS