WHAT ABOUT BEARS?

Dad asked me if I wanted to go camping with him in the mountains, but I was scared--scared of bears!

"What about bears?" I asked.

"A bear comes out only because it's hungry," said Dad. "Our food will be sealed most of the time, and we'll be near the ranger station. Don't worry."

I worried. All night long I dreamed of big, strong bears. Something woke me in the dark. Was it a bear?

No, it was just my dad, gently shaking me awake.

"Honey, are you ready to go camping?" he asked.

When my dad called me Honey, I worried about bears again. Didn't bears eat honey?

But if I didn't go, I'd miss the surprises, the tents, and roasted marshmallows. I'd miss the fishing and crickets and ...

"I'm coming, Dad," I said.

"We'll have fun," said my dad.

"Just please don't call me Honey on our trip, OK?"

"OK," Dad said, puzzled.

We pulled out of the driveway with all our camping gear in the trunk. The sun was just coming up. We drove all the way into the mountains, far from city noises.

Dad stopped the car in a spot surrounded by trees. The trees were so tall that I felt like an ant.

We set up our tent and stored our food in a heavy chest. Then we went fishing, just Dad and me. When we cooked and ate our fish, they tasted great.

Soon it grew dark. I looked in the night sky. I saw millions of stars. Dad added wood to the campfire. The stars looked like tiny campfires in the sky.

"How many stars are there?" I asked.

"No one knows for sure," he said as he put a marshmallow on a long stick and gave it to me. "We learned in school that even if you counted every single grain of sand in the whole wide world, there would be more stars than sand grains."

I took my marshmallow away from the fire and blew on it. I felt cozy.

But then I remembered. Bears!

"What if bears come?" I asked.

"The only bears we might see are American black bears," he said. "There aren't any grizzly bears around here anymore."

"I'm worried about bears," I said.

"Bears are usually peaceful. But they get angry easily, and they don't have good manners when it comes to food," Dad said.

We sat together, watching the stars and listening to the crickets and owls. After a while, my dad said, "If you look carefully, you can see two bears right now."

I dropped my marshmallow.

My dad laughed and pointed to the night sky. "Look. That's Ursa Major, or the Big Bear, up there. Over here is Ursa Minor, or the Little Bear."

I could see how the stars looked a little like a big bear and a little bear. As I looked around, I didn't feel so scared. These were the only bears around, and they were very far away.

"Dad," I said, "I guess you can call me Honey."

"OK, Honey," he laughed.

Soon I was asleep under the Little Bear and the Big Bear, and when I woke up, it was morning.