The New Girl in Town

by Stan

  Contents

  1. Something in the Air

  2. An Ancient Feud

  3. New Girl

  4. Bonnie to the Rescue?

  5. A Friendship Torn Apart

  6. A Fight Breaks Out

  7. Choosing a Play

  8. The Blushing Champion of Bear Country

  9. What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks?

  10. The Party

  About the Authors

  The Berenstain Bears and the Love Match

  Chapter 1: Massive Milton

  Copyright

  Back Ad

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  Something in the Air

  There was no question about it. A new season had come to Bear Country. Its signs were everywhere as Brother Bear, Sister Bear, and Cousin Freddy walked home from school. Flowers covered the lawns. Trees were in bloom. Birds were building their nests. And many of the boy and girl cubs were walking along in pairs. Some of them were even holding hands! Yes, spring had sprung in Bear Country. Romance was in the air!

  “Romance,” said Brother Bear. He looked at two older cubs holding hands and made a face. “Disgusting.”

  “Sickening,” said Cousin Freddy.

  Sister looked up at the boys and rolled her eyes. She thought romance was great! Just to bug her brother and cousin, she started singing a well-known song:

  “Beeswax!” said Brother.

  “You don’t understand,” teased Sister. “It’s love that makes the world go round.”

  “Double beeswax!” Brother shouted.

  Freddy, who liked reading the encyclopedia for fun, also disagreed with Sister. “What makes the world go around,” he said, “is the inertial effect on our solar system of the energy generated by the Big Bang. At least, that’s the latest theory.”

  “What I get a big bang out of,” said Sister, “is you two. You’re scared of girls! Why don’t you take it easy and go with the flow?”

  “I’m not scared of girls!” said Brother. “Some of my best friends are girls.”

  Just then they heard a girl’s voice calling out, “Brother, oh, Bro-ther! Wait up.”

  “I think it’s one of your best friends,” said Sister.

  Brother turned and saw Babs Bruno and some other girls from his class. They were hurrying to catch up with him. Babs’s friends were giggling.

  “Hi, Babs,” said Brother.

  Babs looked up at him. She smiled sweetly. “I could use some help with tonight’s math homework,” she purred. “Could you come over?”

  Brother started to blush, “I—uh—I’ll call you…” Heat was creeping up from under his collar. “Maybe we can do it by phone,” he said. Brother felt his ears catch fire. He knew what that meant. He was blushing like crazy.

  “I’ll be wait-ing,” sang Babs. Then she and her giggling friends ran off.

  “Don’t say a word!” Brother warned Sister.

  Sister opened her mouth and took hold of the tip of her tongue.

  “What in the world are you doing?” said Freddy.

  “Holding my tongue,” mumbled Sister. Then she let go and laughed. “Really, Brother, everyone knows Babs Bruno has a major crush on you. Why not give her a break?”

  “Why don’t you give me a break?” said Brother. “Look, I like Babs. She’s nice. But I just don’t go for all this cub romance stuff. It’s phony baloney. It’s just a bunch of silly cubs trying to act grown up.”

  “For example,” said Freddy. He pointed ahead.

  “Well, well,” said Sister. “Looks like the on-again, off-again thing between Too-Tall Grizzly and Queenie McBear is on again.”

  Freddy shook his head. “Just look at them.”

  “No, thanks,” said Brother.

  It looked as if the Too-Tall and Queenie thing was really on again. They weren’t just holding hands. They were hanging all over each other.

  Suddenly a strange and disturbing thing happened. A truck pulled to a stop next to Queenie and Too-Tall. Two-Ton Grizzly, Too-Tall’s dad, climbed out. He grabbed Too-Tall and pulled him into the truck. Then he drove quickly away. Brother, Sister, and Freddy ran over to Queenie.

  “What was that all about?” asked Brother.

  “I d-don’t know!” said Queenie.

  “Did Two-Ton say anything?” Sister asked.

  “Yes…but it didn’t make any sense.”

  “What did he say?” Freddy asked.

  “He said…he said it wasn’t right for a member of the Grizzly clan to be seen with a member of the Bear clan.”

  The cubs looked at one another. Queenie was right. It didn’t make sense. It seemed that romance wasn’t the only thing in the air. There was something else. Something strange. And it didn’t feel good—it didn’t feel good at all.

  Chapter 2

  An Ancient Feud

  “Babs isn’t the only girl with a crush on Brother, you know,” Sister said to Mama and Papa. Mama was sewing and Papa was resting in his easy chair, while Brother lay on the floor reading a book. “Why, there’s Annie O’Bear, Christine Grizzly, Susie Ursavitch…”

  Brother gave Sister an angry look and went back to his book.

  “Getting to be quite the ladies’ man, eh?” teased Papa with a chuckle. “Must take after your old man. Why, in my day—”

  “Oh, sure,” said Mama. “Before your papa and I were married, he was so shy that I almost had to ask HIM to get married. Really, the two of you should go easy on Brother. He doesn’t have to rush into this boy-girl business if he doesn’t want to.”

  Just then the phone rang. Sister jumped up to answer it. Her eyes lit up when she heard who it was. She gave Brother a teasing you-know-who look. “It’s for you, loverboy,” she said. Then she giggled and handed Brother the phone.

  “Hello? Oh, hi, Babs,” Brother said. He blushed hot pink. “Oh, yeah, the homework. Right. Just a minute.”

  Brother grabbed his homework and returned to the phone. “Number one…let’s see…the answer is forty-two. Yeah, you use length times width—that’s the formula for the area of a rectangle. Do I know the formula for WHAT? For a HEART?”

  Brother’s blush turned deep red. Sister squealed into the sofa cushions. “No, I don’t want to come over and work on it, Babs,” said Brother. “You’re more into that kind of—uh—formula than I am… Gee, it’s getting kind of late, Babs—good night.” He hung up and gave Sister Bear an angry look.

  “One of your fans?” asked Papa on his way to the kitchen.

  “Now, Papa,” said Mama. But before she could get another word out, a loud “Phooey!” rang out from the kitchen.

  “Onions!” yelled Papa. He pointed to the glass of milk in his hand. “Tastes like onions! Ugh!”

  Sister took the glass from Papa and sniffed. “It even SMELLS like onions!”

  Mama was trying to clean up the milk Papa had gotten on his overalls when he spat out the bad-tasting stuff. “Now, what do you think happened to make the milk—” she started to say.

  “I don’t HAVE to think,” said Papa. “It has to do with the clover meadow between Farmer Ben’s farm and Squire Grizzly’s estate. I heard all about it at Zeb’s Hardware today.”

  “The clover meadow?” said Mama. “That’s where Ben grazes his cows in the spring to keep them away from the onion grass.”

  “That’s just it. Squire Grizzly fenced it off. He says it’s Grizzly land—always has been. And he says Farmer Ben has no right to use it. He says no member of the Bear clan has any right to it.” Papa made a face. “I like onions,” he said, “and I like milk. But I do not like ONION MILK! Ugh!”

  “I’ll make you some tea to get the taste out of your mouth,” Mama said. “But I’ll
tell you something. I don’t like all this ‘Grizzly land, Bear clan’ talk. It sounds like feud talk to me. And modern-day Bear Country doesn’t need to have that old feud started up again.”

  “Feud?” said Brother. “What feud?”

  “What is a feud?” asked Sister.

  “Well,” said Papa, “a feud is a fight. But it’s a special kind of fight. It’s usually between families. And most of the time it goes on for years and years. Sometimes it goes way, way back—like this one. It started when Bear Country was first settled. There was trouble between members of those first families. Then, over the years, the trouble built up into a feud.”

  “We’re members of the Bear family, aren’t we, Dad?” asked Brother.

  “That’s right, Son,” said Papa. “You and Sister are…let’s see, now. You are the great-great-great-grandcubs of old Ebenezer Bear, who was the head of the Bear family.”

  “Who was the other family?” asked Sister.

  “Why, the Grizzly family, of course—headed by old Abner Grizzly.”

  “What did they fight about?” asked Sister.

  “You name it, they fought about it,” said Papa. “They fought over boundaries, pastureland, and water rights. Why, they even fought about what to name the place.”

  “Our family must have won that one, because we’re called Bear Country,” said Brother.

  “That’s right, Son.” Papa pointed toward the window. “But those mountains over there are the Great Grizzly Mountains. And we’ve got Lake Grizzly and the Great Grizzly Forest, too.”

  “So I guess the two families learned to get along,” said Sister.

  “Oh, after some time. New families moved in, Grizzlys and Bears married, and so on. But things were pretty hot and heavy for a while in the beginning.”

  “What started the feud?” Brother asked.

  “I’m glad you asked that question, Son,” said Papa. “What started the whole thing was…um, let’s see…er, way back in the beginning…” Papa frowned. “Mama, do you remember what started it?”

  “Listen to you,” said Mama. “The truth is, cubs, no one—no member of either clan—remembers what started it. And if anything shows how silly the whole thing is, that does.”

  “Now wait just a minute,” said Papa. He puffed his chest out. “I’ll admit that the idea of a war between two clans seems old-fashioned now. But things were different then. Those were special times. Everyone had to protect what they had. And there were heroes on both sides. We had old Ulysses S. Bear on our side. And there was Stonewall Grizzly on the other.” Papa was getting all excited as he went on. “You have to admire their courage. Each clan protected its own. Each clan stood up for itself.”

  “Arguing, fighting, calling names, being mean and nasty,” said Mama. “Special times, indeed!”

  Papa grinned. He looked a little ashamed. “The truth is, your mama’s right,” he said. “It was silly. But don’t worry. No one is going to start it all up again. We’re all civilized now. We can settle our little arguments and differences without fighting.”

  “Fencing off the clover meadow and ruining Farmer Ben’s milk doesn’t sound very civilized to me. It could lead to a fight,” said Brother. He was happy that the family was finally talking about something besides his trouble with girls.

  “You’re right, of course,” said Papa. “What I heard at Zeb’s was probably just gossip. Ben’s a sensible guy. He wouldn’t let some feud from hundreds of years ago start up again. And if there’s any Grizzly we Bears get along with, it’s the Squire.”

  “That’s right,” said Mama. “Just look at all the work Papa’s done for him over the years.”

  “I’ve made all that furniture for his mansion,” said Papa proudly. “Why, there are tons of antiques out in the shed he wants me to refinish. As a matter of fact,” he added, “I should be calling him with a price for the job right now. Maybe I can find out how true this gossip is.” But as he was about to pick up the phone, it rang.

  “Hello?” answered Papa. “Squire! My goodness! I was just about to call you. What I had in mind was—” But Papa never got to say what it was. He never had a chance.

  The Squire started shouting and didn’t stop. Mama and the cubs couldn’t hear what he was saying. But they could hear the angry sound of his voice clear across the room.

  Papa could hear what the Squire was saying, though. And he didn’t like it one bit. At first, Papa was so surprised he couldn’t speak. But by the time his voice came back, he was so angry he was shouting just as loudly as the Squire.

  “Oh, yeah?” shouted Papa. “Well, that goes double for you and all the members of the Grizzly clan!…you…you…you MILK POISONER!”

  The Squire’s shouting ended with a crash. Papa stared at the phone. “He…he…he hung up on me!”

  It was Mama’s turn to be angry. “It’s no wonder, the way you spoke to him,” she said. “You didn’t even find out why he called in the first place.”

  “Oh, yes, I did,” Papa said.

  “Well? What did he say?” said Mama.

  Papa looked even more angry now.

  “He said to forget about all the work I was going to do for him!”

  “Oh, dear!” said Mama.

  “He said that meadow has been Grizzly land for hundreds of years. He called Ben a ‘clover thief’! Then he said there was no way a member of the great Grizzly clan could do business with any member of the lowlife Bear clan. Just like a Grizzly, that no-good snob!”

  Mama sighed. “Oh, dear. The feud is back. And it’s starting to spread.”

  “Mama,” said Brother, “I’m afraid the feud has already spread further than you think.” He told his parents about what had happened to Too-Tall on the way home from school.

  Mama put her hand to her mouth. “Dear me, Two-Ton really grabbed him like that and said those things? This is worse than I thought. What’s next?”

  “I’ll tell you what’s next,” Papa shouted. “From now on, none of us Bears will buy anything at any Grizzly-owned store! We won’t give the Grizzlys ANY business!”

  “But, Papa,” Mama said, “Squire Grizzly owns half of Bear Country! Why, there’s the big Grizzly gas-station chain, the Grizzly Department Store, and all the Grizzburger fast-food restaurants. And we’ll have to take all our savings out of the Great Grizzly National Bank—”

  “First thing tomorrow morning!” shouted Papa. He put on his hat and stomped out the door.

  “Where are you going?” asked Sister.

  “To tell all the Bears to stop buying Grizzly goods!” Papa yelled back.

  The next thing Mama and the cubs heard was Papa’s car starting up. It sputtered to life and roared down the road before fading away into the night.

  “Gosh,” said Brother, “I’ve never seen Papa so angry. May I wait up for him to find out what happens?”

  Mama shook her head. “I don’t think Papa will be in any mood to talk after all that walking.”

  “Walking?” said Sister. “He took the car.”

  “I know,” said Mama. She sounded tired. “But the gas tank is almost empty. And the only gas stations within miles of here belong to Squire You-Know-Who.”

  Chapter 3

  New Girl

  The next morning, Papa sat grumbling at the kitchen table. He was soaking his sore feet in a bucket of hot water.

  “Called Farmer Ben to bring me a can of gas. Had to walk six miles to a phone. But it was worth it. No way was I going to buy gas from a Grizzly. No way!… Yikes! Ouch! Not so hot!” Papa begged as Mama added more water to his footbath.

  Brother looked at Sister and pointed to the side of his head. He made a circling motion. Which wasn’t very nice, but he really felt that Squire Grizzly, Farmer Ben, Too-Tall’s dad, and Papa were acting…well, a little nutty.

  Sister nodded in agreement. They hurried off to school. They didn’t even bother asking Papa if he had really told all the Bears to stop buying Grizzly goods. They just wanted to get away from the pro
blems of the grown-up world. They were happy to get to the schoolyard and wait in peace and quiet for the morning bell.

  At least, that is what they hoped to do. But after a few minutes in the schoolyard, they could tell that something was wrong.

  First there was a nasty spat between Too-Tall Grizzly and Queenie McBear. And to think that just yesterday they had been strolling around arm in arm!

  After that, loud arguments started all over the schoolyard. “Stupid Grizzlys!” shouted groups of Bears. “Double-stupid Bears!” shouted groups of Grizzlys. Soon the name-calling turned to kicking and punching. Teacher Bob had his hands full breaking up one fight after another.

  The fighting was getting worse and worse when all of a sudden, it stopped. All eyes turned toward the gate. Squire Grizzly’s chauffeur-driven limo was coming to a stop. The door opened. Out stepped a girl cub. She was wearing black velvet pants, a lavender top, and gold earrings. She was very pretty.

  Suddenly all the cubs were talking at once.

  “That’s Squire Grizzly’s niece, Bonnie Brown.”

  “Hey, she’s cute!”

  “Her family is living in Squire Grizzly’s mansion.”

  “I think I’ve seen her before.”

  “Of course you have. On TV. In commercials. She’s a model.”

  “WOW!”

  Bonnie Brown made her way across the schoolyard. The boy cubs couldn’t take their eyes off her.

  As Brother Bear watched her, a funny feeling started in his scalp. It ran along his spine, then all the way down to the tips of his toes. Sister was about to ask him what he thought of the new girl in town. But one look at his love-struck face gave her the answer.

  “Hey,” she said. She snapped her fingers to wake him up. “Do you want me to pull out the arrow?”