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.

Top 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Verified Quotes

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.