Goldy Lox/Sulk/Fun/Mummy/Left
This path is narrow and not well used, but it's clear enough for you to walk along. Then you see some smoke going up through the trees ahead and you wonder if you have come to Grandma's cottage by a different way.
You can't see very far ahead as the path twists and turns around some very big trees until all of a sudden you come out into a clearing and see a cottage. It's a lot like Grandma's but different. She has flowers in her front garden and this house just has some grass with a swing hanging from a tree branch. Everything looks neat and tidy though so you think that nice people must live there.
All that walking has made you thirsty, so you swap your basket (which is getting rather heavy) onto the other arm and knock on the door to ask for a drink of water. There is no reply, so you knock harder, and to your surprise the door swings open. "Hello," you call. "Is anyone home?"
The door opens straight into the kitchen and when you hear no reply you assume that they (whoever "they" are) must have gone out. "They won't mind if I help myself to some water," you think. You go over to the kitchen sink and crank the pump handle until a stream of water gushes out. There is a mug upside down on the draining board so you use that to get a drink.
Only now do you look around. There is a scrubbed wooden table with three chairs in the middle of the floor and in front of each chair is a bowl and a wooden spoon. Everything seems to be made to size: there is a big chair in front of a big bowl, a medium chair in front of a medium chair and a small chair with a small bowl. You realise that there is also the most delicious smell coming from the bowls.
You climb up onto the big chair and see that the bowl is full of a yummy stew. It looks so good that you can't resist having a taste, but the big spoon is a bit awkward so you jump down and try the middle sized one. This is easier, but the stew is far too salty, so you try the small one. That is perfect, but there isn't much in the little bowl and before you know it, it's all gone. "I'm sure there's plenty more," you think but as you get up, the leg of the chair, which had been a bit wobbly, bends over and breaks. You feel guilty about that and do your best to straighten it.
"I wonder where the people are," you think, and decide to go exploring to see if they are upstairs. Once again there are three different sized rooms. A big one with a hard bed, a medium one with a soft feather bed (Atishoo) and a small one with a small bed and a pretty cover with a picture of a teddy bear on it. "This bed looks really comfortable," you think and you just have to try it out. Moments later you are fast asleep.
A while later the owners of the cottage come home. Daddy bear (yes, they are a family of bears) is as tall as a man if he stand on his back legs and he is very fit and strong. Mummy bear is a bit fat and smaller, and Baby bear is a cute little boy bear. They all look at the kitchen table where they had left their stew to cool off. "Someone's been in here," Daddy bear says.
"Yes, and they have eaten all my dinner," Baby bear squeaks. "And they broke my chair," He bursts into tears and Mummy bear picks him up and cuddles him.
"Never mind all that, I need a rest," Daddy Bear looks meaningfully at Mummy bear.
"You'd better go up and have a nap too," Mummy bear says to Baby.
Daddy bear is stroking Mummy bear's bottom as they go up the stairs and Baby bear knows exactly what that means, especially when he see them both go into Daddy bear's room. He briefly considers going up into the loft to watch them through a knot hole in the ceiling, but he's seen it all before, so decides that a nap might be a better idea.
*Baby Bear's story *Goldy's story