Labour Day

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, 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. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! 

Know what? Today is a holiday. It's Labour Day. I know what labour is. It's work. There's many different kinds of work, you know. A captain pilots a ship. A fire fighter gets kittens and cubs out of trees. A farmer grows tomatoes. A nurse looks after sick people. The bus driver takes us to the shopping centre. Chance and me work. We have jobs. We help take out the trash and put it in the blue dumpster. We help our buddy James cook food. After our bath, we help clean out the bathtub. James says we're pretty good helpers.

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? 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 James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed. 

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Say 'thank you' to all the nice people who work for you. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us!  Okay! Over and out!"

Nurse Charles & the Steadyscope

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I'm five. live on Sparkle Road with my buddy,  James. We're a family. Now we're a family of three 'cuz I found a wee little cubby in a basket on our doorstep the other day. We can keep him. He's my baby brother. His name is Chance.

Know why his name is Chance? 'Cuz every time I would ask  James if we could get a baby brother, he'd say, "Fat chance, Charles. You're a handful, already." So, cubby's name is Chance.

I could be a nurse, you know. Nurses make us well. Nurse Blanche let me use her steadyscope to listen Chance's heart. I know what a steadyscope is. It's headphones but not for music. It's for listening to the noises our bodies make. I put them on my ears and then I hold the round part to Cubby's chest. I can hear his little heart beating! I say, "Take a deep breath, Chance" and he does. I can hear him breathe, too!

Nurse Blanche is nice. She gives us Band-Aids with Thomas the Tank Engine and Spiderman on them when we get boo-boos. She puts a thermometer in our mouths and takes our temperatures, too. She weighs us. Chance weighs two kilos. That's not very much but he's a newborn cubby. He doesn't even have a tail, yet. Know how much I weigh? I weigh 19 kilos. That's a lot!

Okay. I gotta go, now. Chance and me and  James are gonna make a tent in the living room and play 'cuz it's raining outside.  We get to eat lunch in the tent. We'll eat peanut butter and pineapple licorice sandwiches. We will drink apple juice right out of the box. I have to drink with two paws cuz I don't have thumbs. I hope I grow thumbs when I'm older.

Chance doesn't have any teeth. He drinks condensed owls' milk from his bottle but I will put peanut butter and pineapple licorice in there, too. Then he will grow up to be as big as me! Know what? If you come over to our house, you can help us build a tent and have lunch with us, too! Just tell Mr. Bus Driver to let you off at Mill and Sandwich Street. Yeah! Okay! See you, soon! This is me, Charles the Bear Cub, saying 'over and out!' Oh. Wait. I'm saying 'good-bye-for Chance cuz he can't talk. He just makes little squeaky noises when he's happy.