No one noticed as the large black bear walked across the ditch toward the cars The bear spotted a boy leaning out of a car window He had something in his hand and was calling to her Hey bear want some lunch Don’t feed her Cricket yelled out of the truck window Roll up your window quick The boy looked at Cricket in surprise The bear stood up on her back legs She sniffed the air and opened her mouth wide The boy closed his window just in time The mother bear leaned on the car with her front paws and peered in at him She shook her head Then she dropped back to the ground and walked around the car to her cub Together they disappeared into the bushes 6
Cricket took a deep breath Good job Cricket her dad called giving her a thumbs-up Now everyone get moving Come on 7
Chapter Two After dinner that night Cricket told her best friend Shilo about the bear jam And he just stuck his hand out the window to feed the bear Shilo asked shaking her head That’s crazy She walked along the top of Cricket’s backyard fence until she reached the big poplar tree She grabbed a branch and swung up into the tree 8
I bet I could jump onto Mr Tanaka’s roof from here Shilo called down You’re crazy That roof is so old you’d end up in his living room Shilo laughed The tree shook as she jumped from branch to branch on her way down to the ground Dad says the cat at the stable had her kittens Do you want to go see Cricket asked Sure The girls jumped on their bikes and pedaled up the long hill on the only road out of the village As they rounded a corner they both stopped surprised to see a woman crouching in the middle of the road She had a bucket beside her She lifted something from the road and placed it in the bucket 9
