The Bears on Hemlock Mountain

Summary

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain is a short chapter book about Jonathan, an eight-year-old boy who lives with his mother and father in a stone farmhouse at the foot of Hemlock Mountain in Pennsylvania, long ago. The mountain is really a big hill, and everyone tells Jonathan that there are no bears on it. Late in the winter, with snow still on the ground, his mother is getting ready to cook for a large crowd of aunts, uncles and cousins, and she needs a bigger iron pot than she owns. She sends Jonathan alone over the mountain to borrow one from his Aunt Emma. Jonathan is proud to be trusted, but he is not quite sure about the bears, so he walks along saying the family's rhyme that there are no bears on Hemlock Mountain. He carries food for the birds and small animals and stops to feed them in the snow. At Aunt Emma's warm house he eats her cookies, talks politely, and falls asleep in a chair. He sets off home without the pot, has to go back for it, and so starts the climb late, carrying the heavy pot as the light fades. Near the top he hears something large moving in the dark. Jonathan turns the iron pot upside down and crawls under it, and he stays there while bears come close, sniffing and scraping at the snow around it. At last he hears his father calling. His father and the uncles have come looking for him with their guns, and the bears go away. His father carries the pot and walks him home to his worried mother, while the uncles go on after the bears; a shot rings out, and his father says there may be bear meat for dinner. Jonathan has learned that grown-ups are not always right. Published by Scribner's in 1952 with illustrations by Helen Sewell, the story is drawn, the author's note says, from a Pennsylvania tall tale, and it was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1953.

Plot or Argument

• The errand

  Jonathan's mother needs a big iron pot to feed the relatives who are coming, and she sends him over Hemlock Mountain to Aunt Emma's house to borrow one. She reminds him that there are no bears on the mountain, and that bears sleep through the winter anyway.

• Over the mountain

  Jonathan climbs through the snow saying his rhyme about the bears to keep his courage up. He stops to scatter food for the birds and other small animals he meets, and he reaches the far side safely.

• At Aunt Emma's

  Aunt Emma gives him cookies and he stays to talk and rest by the fire. He falls asleep, starts for home without the pot, and must turn back for it, so the day is getting late when he begins the climb again with his heavy load.

• Under the iron pot

  In the dusk Jonathan hears large creatures coming toward him. He turns the pot over, hides under it, and keeps very still while the bears sniff and scrape around it in the snow.

• Home again

  His father's voice calls through the dark, the bears go away, and his father and uncles arrive with guns. His father carries the pot and takes Jonathan home to his mother; a shot from the uncles promises bear meat, and Jonathan knows now that there are bears on Hemlock Mountain.

Characters

• Jonathan, protagonist

  Eight-year-old farm boy sent alone over the mountain on an errand for his mother.

• Jonathan's mother, mother

  Busy farm wife cooking for a crowd of relatives, who trusts her son with the errand and tells him not to fear bears.

• Jonathan's father, father

  Comes looking for Jonathan after dark and finds him under the pot.

• Aunt Emma, aunt

  Lives on the far side of Hemlock Mountain, lends the iron pot and feeds Jonathan cookies.

• The uncles, relatives

  Jonathan's many uncles, who join the search with their guns and go after the bears.

• The bears, danger

  The creatures nobody believed in, which come sniffing around the overturned pot.

Lessons

• Doing a big job while afraid

  Jonathan is not sure about the bears, but he goes because his mother needs the pot and has trusted him to bring it. When the bears really come, he does not drop the pot and run; he uses it to hide and stays still until help arrives. The book shows a small boy being brave by doing the job in front of him.

  • Why did Jonathan's mother need the big iron pot?
  • What did Jonathan do when he heard the bears coming?
  • What is a job you were a little afraid to do, and how did you do it anyway?

• Dawdling has a cost

  Jonathan enjoys Aunt Emma's cookies and her warm chair so much that he falls asleep, and then he forgets the very thing he came for. Because he starts home late, he has to cross the mountain in the dark. The story makes the lesson gently and without scolding: finish the errand before you rest.

  • What two things made Jonathan late going home?
  • What might have happened differently if he had left Aunt Emma's house earlier?

• Grown-ups are not always right

  Everyone has told Jonathan that there are no bears on Hemlock Mountain, and the rhyme he says over and over makes the same promise. The bears are real. Jonathan learns that the people who love him can still be mistaken, and that he must keep his own eyes and ears open.

  • What did everybody tell Jonathan about bears on the mountain?
  • How do you think Jonathan felt when he found out the bears were real?
  • Is it all right for a child to know something a grown-up does not? What should he do then?

• A father who comes looking

  When Jonathan does not come home, his father and uncles go up the mountain in the dark to find him. Jonathan is alone under the pot, but he is not forgotten. The rescue shows a family that watches over its children and comes for them.

  • Who came to find Jonathan, and what did they bring?
  • How did Jonathan know help had come?

Context

The story is set on a Pennsylvania farm in an earlier time, when families cooked over wood fires in heavy iron pots, borrowed big kitchen things from relatives for large gatherings, and walked across the hills to visit one another. Black bears were then common in the Pennsylvania hill country, and bears waking hungry at the end of winter were a real danger to anyone out after dark.

Composition

Dalgliesh's note explains that the book grew from a Pennsylvania tall tale of a boy who hid from bears under a kettle. She shaped it for children just beginning to read chapter books, with short sentences, sound words for the snow and a repeated rhyme. Scribner's published it in 1952 with illustrations by Helen Sewell.

Reception

It was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1953, the second of Dalgliesh's three Newbery Honors, and an ALA Notable Book. It has stayed in print and is a common first read-aloud chapter book in the early grades, prized for building suspense through its repeated chant.

Comparisons

• the-courage-of-sarah-noble

  Dalgliesh's other early-grades Newbery Honor story also sends a child alone into the woods with words to repeat: Sarah has her mother's charge to keep up her courage, Jonathan his rhyme about the bears.

• little-house-in-the-big-woods

  Laura's Wisconsin winter also holds real bears near a family farm, and in both books children learn the wilderness through the grown-ups' stories and dangers they must take seriously.

• keep-the-lights-burning-abbie

  Both stories give a child a real task in a winter emergency, Abbie the lighthouse lamps and Jonathan the iron pot, and both end with a parent's return.

• make-way-for-ducklings

  Two classic books for the youngest readers in which an errand through a dangerous place, a busy Boston street or a dark hill, ends safely because grown-ups step in at the right time.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The rhyme about no bears. Listen for each time Jonathan says it, and notice how it changes when he is scared.
• The sounds of the snow under Jonathan's feet. Notice the words Dalgliesh uses for them.
• Aunt Emma's cookies and her warm chair. Watch how they make Jonathan late.
• The big iron pot. See how a thing Jonathan was only carrying for his mother ends up keeping him safe.

Key terms and names

Hemlock Mountain

The big hill behind Jonathan's farmhouse, named for the hemlock trees on it. He has to walk over it to reach Aunt Emma.

Hemlock

A tall evergreen tree with short, soft needles that grows on the hills of Pennsylvania.

Iron pot

A very heavy cooking pot made of iron, big enough to cook for many people. Jonathan hides under it.

Errand

A short trip to do a job for someone. Jonathan's errand is to borrow the pot from Aunt Emma.

Hibernate

To sleep through the winter, as bears do. Jonathan's mother says the bears will be asleep.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Where did Jonathan's mother send him, and what did she want him to bring back?
2. Comprehension What did Jonathan do at Aunt Emma's house that made him late?
3. Comprehension How did Jonathan hide from the bears?
4. Interpretation Why do you think Jonathan kept saying the rhyme about no bears even though he was not sure it was true?
5. Interpretation Jonathan's mother trusted him to go over the mountain alone. How did that make him feel at the start of the story?
6. Interpretation Was Jonathan brave when he hid under the pot, or was he just scared? Could he be both?
7. Big Question Everyone told Jonathan there were no bears, and they were wrong. How can we tell when something we are told is true?

Faith Connections

• 1 Samuel 17:34-37 (Scripture)

  The shepherd boy David tells King Saul that he has fought a lion and a bear to protect his father's sheep, and that the Lord delivered him. Jonathan is another boy who meets a bear while doing a job for his family.

• Psalm 4:8 (Scripture)

  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Jonathan lies still in the dark under the pot until his father comes; children can learn this verse for their own dark nights.

• Luke 15:4-6 (Scripture)

  The shepherd goes out to find the one sheep that did not come home and carries it back rejoicing. Jonathan's father goes up the mountain in the dark to bring his boy home.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Everyone says there are no bears on Hemlock Mountain, and Jonathan wants to believe it. But saying a thing many times does not make it true, and when he is late in the dark the bears come. Jonathan is safe not because the rhyme was right but because he kept his head, hid under the pot and waited for his father. So it is wise to listen to grown-ups, and also wise to be ready in case they are wrong.

Rhetorical device: refrain. The rhyme that there are no bears on Hemlock Mountain returns again and again, so young listeners chant along and feel the suspense grow each time Jonathan says it in the dark.

Debate: Resolved: Jonathan's mother was right to send him over Hemlock Mountain alone.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Tell the story of Jonathan's trip over the mountain in your own words, in four parts: going, at Aunt Emma's, under the pot, and coming home.

Comparison with The Courage of Sarah Noble: Jonathan says a rhyme and Sarah Noble says her mother's words when they are afraid. Tell how each child stayed brave in the woods and which story you liked better.

Medical Lens

No medical content of note. The book is about a child's fear of a real danger and how he keeps calm, by chanting a rhyme and by keeping still under the pot, rather than about illness or medicine.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Read the book aloud and let the children chant Jonathan's rhyme with you every time it comes, getting quieter and faster as the night falls.

• Classroom

  Turn a large pot or basket upside down and let each child take a turn being Jonathan underneath it while the class makes quiet bear sounds; then talk about how he kept still.

• Fiction

  Tell what happened on Hemlock Mountain that night from the bears' point of view: what was that strange iron thing in the snow?

• Dialogue

  Act out Jonathan coming home and telling his mother that there were bears on Hemlock Mountain after all.

Further Reading

• The Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dalgliesh

  Dalgliesh's 1954 Newbery Honor story of a girl in the Connecticut wilderness.

• The Silver Pencil, Alice Dalgliesh

  Her first Newbery Honor Book, for older readers.

• Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

  Frontier winter, family life and bears in the Wisconsin woods.