After breakfast the next morning, Little Pine headed out to see if the elves needed any help. His mother told him that she had heard the singing during the night, too, and she was humming some of the Festival songs as he left. The whole woods felt happier somehow as he scampered down the trail.
The elves had already gone out to deliver more treats to the tree hollows when Little Pine got to their house. But Jeffrey Gingerman was out in the yard looking at an enormous pile of seeds. “Hi, Jeffrey!” Little Pine said. “Where did you get that all those seeds?”
“Hi, Little Pine. A flock of blackbirds brought them early this morning. They heard we needed more supplies to feed the bears,” Jeffy laughed, “and they scoured all the fields at the west end of the woods and scooped up every seed they could find. I think we’re set for the whole Festival season now!”
“I guess so!” Little Pine laughed. The seed pile was as high as the roof the elves’ house. There would be no hungry bears here! “You and Mother Elf certainly have your work cut out today. Is there anything that I can do to help you? Or do the elf boys need me?”
Jeffrey Gingerman smiled and said he and Mother Elf had a great system going, and were having a ball baking up all the treats. The little elves were happily at work, too, and said a little dancing horse named Penelope had come with a cart to carry more batches of goodies for them. But if Little Pine wanted to take a basket of lunch to them and tell them hello, Jeffrey could pack one in a jiffy.
Little Pine was glad he could do that, and soon he was skipping down the trail in pursuit of the elves and Penelope. He found them, whistling as usual, and they all greeted him with big smiles when they saw him. He was happy to see Penelope again, too. “How nice of you to help!” he told her.
“Thanks, Little Pine,” she said. “I never dreamed that I would get to play with elves! When I get back to the stables after the Festival, the other ponies won’t even believe all the stories I’ll have to tell!”
“And you haven’t even see the best of it yet,” one of the elves chimed in.
It was too early in the day to eat lunch yet, so Little Pine just left the basket with his friends and wished them a happy day. Then he headed down the back trail to the pond’s edge to meet some of the newly arrived bears. Maybe he’d even get to see Sugar Bear, he thought. He wanted to tell her that he had seen her directing the choir.
He was almost to the edge of the encampment when he spotted two little bears sitting in a tree. “Hello,” he said. “I’m Little Pine. Welcome to the Festival!”
The girl bear, who was the bigger of the two, said, “Thank you, Little Pine. I’m Milly Bear, and this is my little brother, Billy.”
Little Pine’s heart was touched by the sight of Billy Bear. He had a big bruise on his forehead and he looked very sad. “What happened to Billy?” he asked.
“Oh, we were playing and he fell out of the tree and bumped his head. He started howling and I was scared. But all of a sudden a bear named Tuffy showed up. She looked at his head and kissed it and gave him a big hug and said he would be perfectly fine in no time at all. Then she gave him an apple. She was sweet.
“He stopped howling after he ate the apple, but he saw his reflection in the pond and now he’s sad because he won’t look pretty for the Festival.”
“Hi, Billy,” Little Pine said gently. “I’m so glad that you could come to our Festival. I’m sorry you took a tumble and banged your head. But everybody has accidents, you know. Especially the most daring and playful among us.”
Little Pine told Billy and Milly how just yesterday two big brown bears had to rescue Atlanta Bear and Marvin Monkey after their sled got stuck in a tree. Billy laughed at the story, despite himself. “ I think your bruise is a sign that you are a bear who knows how to have fun,” Little Pine said. “And merriment is a big part of what our Festival is all about.”
Little Pine’s words cheered Billy so much that he turned a somersault right there in the tree. Then he leaped onto one of Little Pine’s branches and give him a tight, happy hug. It was the first bear hug that Little Pine ever received. And he left the pair hoping that one day he would get many more of them.