“Act with courage, and may the Lord be with those who do well.”

—2 Chronicles 19:11

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Sister loved all animals—not only dogs and cats and birds and bunnies, but lizards and frogs and worms and bugs as well. She knew they were all God’s creatures, and she liked to play with them. That’s what caused the trouble with Too-Tall.

Too-Tall Grizzly and his gang were the official bullies of Bear Country School. They thought it was fun to push other cubs around, and they had many nasty ways to have fun.

One of their favorites was to bump into a cub on purpose and then make him apologize for being so clumsy.

Of course, they teased anyone anytime about pretty much anything at all. That’s what happened to Sister Bear one morning in the schoolyard.

Sister was standing in line, waiting for the school bell to ring, when a cute little ladybug landed right on her shoulder.

She held out her finger so the ladybug could crawl onto it, and she chanted a line from an old nursery rhyme.

“Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home!”

As she watched the ladybug whirr away, Sister heard a nasty voice behind her. It was Too-Tall Grizzly.

“Ladybug, ladybug!” mocked Too-Tall. “Does Sister Bear wuv her wittle wadybug fwends?” he said in a silly, baby-talk voice. The rest of his gang laughed, and quite a few other cubs standing in line laughed with them.

Sister felt so embarrassed she froze. She didn’t know what to say or do. She just stood there. Then the school bell rang, and the line began to move. She never got a chance to say or do anything at all.

For the rest of the day, Sister Bear felt terrible. She wished she had stood up against that nasty Too-Tall. She kept thinking of things that she “should have” said. Maybe, she thought, I was just plain scared! She didn’t like the idea of being scared.

By bedtime that evening, Sister had almost stopped worrying about the Too-Tall incident—almost. It was Papa Bear’s turn to read a bedtime story.

“What will it be tonight?” asked Papa as Brother and Sister snuggled down in their bunk beds.

A thought came into Sister’s head. “How about David and Goliath?” she suggested.

“Yes,” agreed Brother, “that’s a good story.”

“All right,” said Papa, “David and Goliath it is.” He got the Big Book of Bible Stories for the cubs down from the bookshelf and settled in to read.

“Long ago in the Holy Land, there lived a young shepherd named David. It was his job to watch over his father’s flock of sheep. He knew that God was with him, so he was not afraid of wolves or lions.

“When wolves came sneaking up to the flock, David drove them away with stones from his sling.

“In those days, a giant warrior named Goliath was threatening those who lived in the Holy Land. Goliath towered over all other warriors. No one was brave enough to fight him.

“David heard about Goliath, but David was not afraid. He knew that God was watching over him. So he took some stones and his sling and went out against Goliath.

“When Goliath saw David, he laughed because David was only a boy He raised his great spear to throw it at David.

“But David quickly put a stone in his sling and swung it around and around his head.

“He let it fly, and it struck Goliath right in the middle of his forehead. Goliath fell to the ground with a crash that shook the earth.

“Little David had struck down the giant warrior! With God’s help, David had shown great courage and saved the land from Goliath.”

The story was done, and Papa tucked Brother and Sister into bed.

“David was very brave, wasn’t he?” asked Brother as Papa kissed them good night.

“He had the bravest heart of all,” nodded Papa. “You know what they say, ‘Little David was small—but, oh, my!’”

“I don’t think I’m brave enough to stand up to someone so much bigger than I am,” said Sister. “I would probably be too scared to even move.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Papa, turning out the light. “I think both of you can be quite brave when you need to be. And remember, God is watching over you just like David. That will give you courage.”

Brother and Sister fell asleep dreaming about the bravery of young David.

The next morning, Brother and Sister set off for school bright and early. As they strolled along the road, they heard laughing and shouting up ahead. They rounded a bend and saw Too-Tall Grizzly and his gang.

“I wonder what they’re up to,” said Brother.

“No good, I’ll bet,” said Sister.

As they came closer, they saw that the gang was throwing rocks up into a tree.

“What’s going on, Too-Tall?” asked Brother.

“You’re just in time for some fun!” Too-Tall laughed. “See that hornets’ nest up there?” He pointed at a huge round nest hanging high in the tree. “We’re going to knock it down and see what happens.”

“Don’t do that!” said Sister. “That nest is the hornets’ home. If you knock it down, they’ll have no place to live.”

“Aaaw!” sneered Too-Tall. “Are those hornets more of your wittle buggy fwends? Why don’t you ‘fly away’ and mind your own business?”

While the gang laughed, Too-Tall drew back his arm to hurl a big rock at the nest. But Sister grabbed onto his arm.

“Hey, you little squirt!” yelled Too-Tall. “Let go!”

The rest of the gang charged at Sister to pull her away, but Brother stepped right in front of them. He glared at them. They didn’t like the look in his eyes but Brother didn’t seem the least bit afraid. They all backed away.

Too-Tall swung Sister around and around like David with his sling. But Sister hung on for all she was worth. Finally, Too-Tall gave a great heave and broke Sister’s grip. The rock flew out of his hand and sailed up into the tree. It smacked right into the hornets’ nest and knocked it open. A big cloud of angry hornets flew out.

Brother and Sister ducked under some bushes. The hornets bunched themselves up into an angry black ball and headed down after Too-Tall and his gang.

“Yeow!” yelled Too-Tall. “Look out!”

“Run!” yelled the gang.

When they were gone, Brother and Sister peeked out from behind the tree.

“That was close!” said Brother.

“Do you think God was watching over us?” wondered Sister.

“No doubt about it!” nodded Brother. With a sigh of relief, they continued on their way to school.

“You were very brave,” said Brother, “going after Too-Tall that way. ‘Little Sister was small—but, oh my!’”

Sister laughed. “You were pretty brave yourself, standing up to the whole gang that way.”

“I guess Papa was right,” said Brother. “Even young cubs like us can be brave when we need to be.”

“Too-Tall wasn’t very brave,” said Sister.

“Let’s be fair,” said Brother. “No one is very brave when it comes to angry hornets.”

“No doubt about it!” agreed Sister, and they walked on to school, arm in arm.

Copyright

ZONDERKIDZ

Berenstain Bears™ and the Gift of Courage

Copyright © 2010 by Berenstain Bears, Inc.

Illustrations © 2010 by Berenstain Bears, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

EPub Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-42348-5

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zonderkidz, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Berenstain, Jan, 1923-

The Berenstain Bears and the gift of courage / Written by Jan and Mike Berenstain.

p.   cm.

Summary: Through the stoy of David and Goliath, Brother and Sister Bear

learn that they can stand up to bullies and be as brave as David, because God is

with them just as he was with David.

ISBN 978-0-310-71256-5

[1. Courage—Fiction. 2. Bullies—Fiction. 3. Christian life—Fiction. 4. Bears–

Fiction.] I. Berenstain, Michael. II. Title.

P27.B44826Be 2010

[E]—dc22

2009000823

All Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers printed in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.

Editor: Mary Hassinger

10 11 12 13 • 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Founded in 1931, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Zondervan, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, is the leading international Christian communications company, producing best-selling Bibles, books, new media products, a growing line of gift products and award-winning children’s products. The world’s largest Bible publisher, Zondervan (www.zondervan.com) holds exclusive publishing rights to the New International Version of the Bible and has distributed more than 150 million copies worldwide. It is also one of the top Christian publishers in the world, selling its award-winning books through Christian retailers, general market bookstores, mass merchandisers, specialty retailers, and the Internet. Zondervan has received a total of 68 Gold Medallion awards for its books, more than any other publisher.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Begin Reading

Copyright

About the Publisher