Sometimes Mother Bear and Daddy Bear quarreled. They paced up and down the house gloomy and surly as two thunderclouds. When the thunderclouds collided there was thunder and lightning everywhere.
At times like those Little Bear felt scared. He used to run to his room, close the door, crawl under the bed and hug his little green truck. It was scared too.

But as a storm passes away, so did Mother Bear and Daddy Bear make up and everything was the way it has always been. And Little Bear was happily running around the house.
That’s what happened every time…but not today. Daddy Bear put all his clothes in a bag and walked to the door. He said he wouldn’t be coming back. “Coming back?” The Little Bear didn’t understand what he meant.

Mother Bear explained to Little Bear that now only the two of them would live in their house. She said Daddy Bear would have another home. Little Bear couldn’t understand that either.
“Why would he need a new home?”
“Doesn’t he love us any more?”
“Did he leave because of me?” questions like that shot like angry bees through his head.

Mother Bear sat him down in her lap and hugged him.
“Sometimes grown up bears have to split up in order to feel better. Like those flowers in the pot that we moved farther apart so that they don’t hamper each other. It has nothing to do with you. You should know that Daddy and I will always love you no matter what.”

“I don’t want to listen! I want everything to be the way it was before! I don’t want to move further apart from anyone!” There were hornets buzzing in Little Bear’s head now. He jumped off Mother Bear’s lap and ran outside.

He ran and ran like never before and suddenly found himself in front of the cave of the Serpent, the Wizard of the Forest.
The Wizard eyed him thoughtfully, went in the cave and came out carrying some kind of a rag.
“My old shorts!” gasped Little Bear.

The Serpent handed them to him.
“My favorite shorts! But they’re torn now…I tore them when climbing the Tall Tree…The red patch is from the time I was learning to ride a bike and Mummy and Daddy were holding me…And that big stain there happened when Mummy gave me a honey-comb and I put it in my pocket for later… And that colorful paint over there is from the autumn when Daddy and I painted the fence… And now they’re good for nothing!”

“Shall I mend them?” offered the Serpent and took out from his invisible pockets a thread and a needle.
“It won’t do. They tore so badly because they were too small for me… I loved them so much…” sobbed Little Bear and wondered if he was crying because he couldn’t wear again his old shorts or because Mummy and Daddy wouldn’t live together anymore.

The Serpent curled beside Little Bear, took out scissors and to Little Bear’s horror began to cut the shorts. Then the Wizard took the needle and the thread. Little Bear looked in dismay with eyes wet with tears.
“Those are for you,” said the Serpent after a while.
Little Bear rubbed his eyes.

In front of him lay a pouch and a cap.
On the inside of the pouch one could still see the honey-comb stain. The peak of the cap was covered with the colors of the bears’ fence.

“We can’t always mend the tear, but we don’t have to throw it away either,” said the Serpent. “These are yours to keep,” he added and waved good bye from the entrance of his cave.

Little Bear walked home and felt just a little bit better. He put the cap over his eyes and held firmly his pouch.

He understood that things do change, but felt happy that he didn’t have to part with everything that made him happy.