One time Little Bear went to a picnic to which he was not invited. It happened this way. On a lovely summer morning five big girls had a picnic, and left their baby brothers and sisters at home. The babies didn't cry, because they were all taking naps when the big sisters packed their picnic baskets and walked to the forest.

"I almost wish that I had brought my little sister," said one of the girls on reaching the woods.

"So do I," said another. "I feel lonesome without my little, laughing sister."

"And my baby brother," added another girl. "I thought he would be too much bother, but if he were only here, how happy he would be! I am lonely, too!"

"If we had brought our little brothers and sisters," said the fourth big girl, "we would have our picnic on the edge of the woods, without going a step farther!"

"They might have taken naps under the trees after dinner," agreed the fifth big sister.

Then, instead of spreading their tablecloth on the green grass on the edge of the forest, the five big girls walked on and on until they reached a beautiful clearing where sunshine streamed in and drove the shadows back among the trees. The girls didn't know that the beautiful clearing was Little Bear's favorite playground. They didn't know that a vine-covered path led from the clearing straight to the home of the Three Bears.

Quickly the big girls unpacked their picnic baskets. They spread a white tablecloth on the pine needles. One girl ran to the brook and filled a pail with clear, cold water. The others filled a wooden plate with sandwiches, and placed it on the table—ham sandwiches, jelly sandwiches, and peanut-butter sandwiches. On other wooden plates were cookies, doughnuts, chocolate cake, cream cake, and maple-sugar cake. One girl had brought a dish of honey, another a can of jelly, while the biggest girl untied a box of chocolates and put it on the table beside a saucer of fudge.

Then the girls gathered bunches of fringed gentians to decorate the white cloth. Birds were singing and butterflies were flitting about when the five big girls sat in a circle around their picnic dinner.

But before a girl had taken a bite of anything, somebody came to the picnic who hadn't been invited! That somebody was Little Bear. He walked across the clearing slowly and politely. Little Bear wasn't a bit afraid of five pretty girls sitting in a circle on his playground; he knew they wouldn't do him any harm!