When two small bears
Don't get along,
The grownups worry - what went wrong?

Most mornings in Bear Country, the sun rose
to greet the day and the mockingbird sand
its copycat songs outside an upstairs window of
the bears' tree house.
And inside the tree house, =BrotherBear and =SisterBear
would wake up.

=Brother and =Sister usually got along very well.
They took turns nicely with the bathroom.
They said "please" and "thank you" at breakfast.

They often sat together on the school bus.
And after school they worked together happily their on
special project -- their own backyard tree house.

But one gray morning =Brother and =Sister didn't get
along well at all!  Maybe it was the weather -- or maybe
it was because the mockingbird slept late.  But whatever
it was, =Brother and =SisterBear got into a big fight.
=SisterBear opened her eyes and stretched.  Then she sat up
and let her legs dangle over the edge of the bed -- right
in =BrotherBear's face.  She didn't do it to be rude.  It
was just one of those things that happens with bunk beds.

But that morning =Brother was not in a very good mood.
"=Sister," he shouted.  "Get your dopey feet out of my face!"

"My feet aren't dopey, and they're not in your face," she shouted back.
"Get your dopey face out of my face," snarled =Brother.

"You shut up," snapped =Sister and before =Brother could
answer she skipped into the bathroom ahead of him.

She took a very long time brushing her teeth, washing up, and
brushing her fur.
"You'd better come out of that bathroom," shouted =Brother, banging
on the door.

"=BrotherBear," said =Papa coming out of his bedroom, "you know
better than to shout at your sister."
"But she's taking too long in the bathroom," complained =Brother,
"and she's doing it on purpose!"

When =Brother raised his fist to bang on the door again, it
opened and out came =Sister, all spruced up.
"Good morning, =Papa," she said, as nice as you please.
"G-r-r-r," said =Brother.

=Brother and =Sister didn't say "please" and "thank you" that
morning at breakfast -- because they weren't speaking to each other.
And they didn't sit together on the school bus.  =Sister sat in
the front and =Brother sat way in the back.

That afternoon they made a line down the middle of their backyard
tree house to show which half was whose.  It wasn't much fun sitting
up there in their tree house not speaking.

Especially when it began to rain -- hard!

Later they kept on being mean by taking back the things they usually
shared.
=Sister took back here modeling clay -- which =Brother had made into
dinosaurs -- and rolled it into one big lump.
=Brother took back his trucks and planes and put them on the top
shelf where =Sister couldn't reach them.

They got so angry that they forgot they weren't speaking and began
shouting at each other even loader than before.
Then =Papa lost his temper and began shouting at them to stop shouting.

The neighbors didn't know which was worse -- the big storm or the racket
coming from the bears' house.

=Mama had quite enough.  She put two fingers to her mouth and
whistled -- very very loudly.  =Papa and the cubs were so surprised that
they stopped shouting.
"I didn't know you could whistle like that, =Mama," said =Sister.

"Well, I can.  And I can also tell you," said Mama sternly, "that
I've had quite enough of this foolish fighting.  Why I doubt you two
even remember what you're fighting about!"
The cubs tried to remember, but they couldn't.

=Mama took the cubs into her lap.
"Everybody gets into an argument once in a while," she said.  "Even
folks who love each other very much."

"You and I don't have arguments," said =Papa.
"Oh, yes, we do," said =Mama.
"No, we don't," argues =Papa.
"We're having one right now," said =Mama, "about whether or not we
have arguments!"

While =Papa thought that one over, =Mama went on to say that occasional
arguments are part of living together.
"We get angry, even call each other names and say things we really
don't mean -- and after a while it's over."

"Like the storm," asked =Sister?
The rain had almost stopped and the sun was beginning to shine through the clouds.

"Yes," said =Mama. "Like the storm."
"Look," said =Papa.

The sun shining on the last of the rain had made a rainbow.

"A rainbow is something very beautiful that happens after a storm,"
said =Mama, looking at the cubs.
"You mean like making up after a big fight?"
"Sort of," said =Mama.

So =Brother and =SisterBear hugged and made up.
And got along just beautifully -- until the next time, anyway.