Carpenter Bear Cubs

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, Grandpa James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.

  Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing and shouldn't be hard to look after. Chance climbs way up high on things and can't get down. Then he makes little squawky noises. He makes little squawky noises 'cuz he's afraid. I look after Chance. He's a handful!

Know what? We're helper cubs, today. We're helping Uncle Darryl. He's doing carpenter work. We're cutting wood to make a nice new floor. We use a saw to cut wood. Saws are very sharp, so Uncle Darryl is careful. A saw can hurt. If Chance got cut in two Uncle Darryl says he'd be my half brother! I don't want that! Chance is a handful already. We have to be careful when we use tools. Tools are not something to play with, you know.

Chance isn't really helping 'cuz he's too little but he thinks he's helping. He makes little squeaky noises when he's happy. Can you hear him? He's a happy helper carpenter.

I'm a real helper. My job is to hold the wood so it doesn't wiggle. If it wiggles then the saw can't cut a straight line. Then the wood won't fit and we have to start over.

Oh! I have another job. I hold the dustpan when Grandpa James sweeps the floor. There's lots and lots of sawdust when we cut wood. Sawdust is soft. Chance likes to play in the sawdust. It gets all over him and  he gets it everywhere. He's a messy little cubby when he's all covered with sawdust. He tries to eat sawdust. Bear cubs don't eat wood. It's not in Canada's Food Guide. Chance really is a handful!

 Know what? I could be a carpenter when I grow up. Carpenters make things out of wood. I know where wood comes from.  Wood comes from Home Hardware. That's a store. James says that wood grows on trees. I think he's telling a really tall story. He makes things up, you know. The people who help at Home Hardware are the ones who wear red shirts. They're very nice. They helped get Chance down when he climbed way up on top of the ladder. I had to say, "My son! Come down from there this instant! I could work at Home Hardware, you know.  I could wear a red shirt. I can say, "Saws are in Aisle Four."

Wood is good for making things like floors and tables and doors and chairs and desks. Oh! I could make a whole treehouse! Chance would climb all over it! Oh! Wait! I could make an airplane and fly away way up high. I'd be a pilot. I would take Chance with me. He could be my co-pilot.

 Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? Grandpa James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed.

 This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Help your buddies and friends. Good citizens are helpful and then they get to eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and help us! We can build things together! Okay! Over and out!"