Tall Tree Trouble

There is one very important thing to remember if you are going to climb a tree - you have to be able to get down again. It's a pity that Teddy Bellingham didn't think of that before he set out one morning to climb the tallest tree in the garden.

"I sometimes think," said Teddy Bellingham to himself, as he clambered up onto the lowest branch, "that people think that bears aren't very adventurous. It's time that a brave, strong bear like me showed them how wrong they are!"

So Teddy Bellingham climbed a little bit further. It was harder than he had thought it would be as he looked at the tree from the bedroom window. For one thing, the branches didn't seem to be in quite the right places. "This is a badly designed tree, from a climbing point of view," said Teddy Bellingham to himself, as he struggled to reach the next branch.

After a few more branches, tired Teddy Bellingham decided that it was time to have an official rest. In fact, he'd already had a few unofficial rests but they didn't really count. He sat on a branch and swung his legs and looked down at the garden.

It was a mistake. When the little bear looked down, he really couldn't help noticing what a very long way from the ground he was. "A brave, strong bear who fell off a branch as high as this might hit the ground with a very nasty bump indeed," thought the brave, strong bear in the tree.

Then Teddy Bellingham remembered that climbers always try to look up instead of down. He held on tight to the trunk and screwed up his eyes. There was still a lot of tree above him. For the first time, Teddy Bellingham wondered if he should have had a little more training for his important tree climb. But he really was a brave bear, and he carefully began to step onto the next branch.

Teddy Bellingham climbed slowly and steadily. "I'm beginning to get into my stride," he said to himself. "This isn't so difficult after all. The branches seem closer together up here."

It wasn't until his next official rest that Teddy Bellingham noticed that the tree was moving. The wind was stronger now and the tree was swaying gently from side to side. "Ooooh," moaned Teddy Bellingham, holding on very tightly now. "I'm beginning to feel just a little bit queasy." He shut his eyes, but that just made him feel worse. "Even a brave, strong bear can be ill," he thought. "It wouldn't be wise to go on. I shall climb down carefully and make another attempt tomorrow."

And this was when Teddy Bellingham's troubles really began. He found that it's very hard to climb down without looking down. And the branches seemed a lot further apart now. He managed a few branches but then he had to admit, he was well and truly stuck.

Teddy Bellingham sat on his branch for a long time. A cold, worried feeling seemed to grow in his tummy. "No one knows I'm here," he thought. "I could stay here for days and days. Or weeks and weeks. Or months and months. Or years and years! My fur will get wet and my stuffing will fall out, and birds will make nests out of me. Oh, dear!"

But what Teddy Bellingham hadn't noticed was that the branch he was sitting on grew straight toward the house. In fact, its leaves brushed the bedroom window where he often sat.

It wasn't until the sun began to go down and someone put the light on in the bedroom at the end of the branch that Teddy Bellingham realized there was a way to escape.

"I will need to be a braver, stronger bear than I have ever been," he said, "but I think I could just reach that bedroom window."

So Teddy Bellingham crawled along the branch. At first, it was wide and easy to hold onto but soon it became narrower. The little bear found that it was safer to wriggle along on his bottom. And the nearer he came to the window, the braver he felt. At last, he could reach out his paw and just touch the window.

It was shut. Teddy Bellingham groaned. But adventurous bears don't give up just like that. He broke off a twig and used it to tap on the window. And through the glass, he heard the little boy he lived with talking to someone inside. "Just listen to that tree tapping on the window," he said. "It's spooky!"

"It's not spooky, it's me!" thought Teddy Bellingham. "How can I show that I'm not a tree?"

It was then that Teddy Bellingham had a really good idea. Instead of just trapping with his twig, he made a pattern of the noise. Da, da, da, da-da-da-da, da, da, da, da-da-da, da, da, da, da-da-da, he tapped. In no time at all the little boy had opened the window and rescued his teddy bear.

"Of course, I could go back and finish climbing that tree today," said Teddy Bellingham to himself the next morning, as he sat comfortably by the window. "But it might become boring if I do it too often...."