Humpfrey & the Hug of Bears

By Dee Jay Fowler

Follow Humpfrey and his friends as they encounter situations in their daily lives which reflect one of the Ten Commandments. Meet Robert who was light fingered but was persuaded to turn over a new leaf and stop stealing. Then learn how Victor had a valuable lesson in putting God first before his X-Box and computer. The hug of bears have fun alon

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kingdom Publishers
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781913247270

Book preview

Dee Jay Fowler

Humpfrey and the Hug of Bears

Copyright © Dee Jay Fowler

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced in any form by photocopying or any

electronic or mechanical means, including information

storage or retrieval systems, without permission in

writing from both the copyright owner and the publisher

of the book. The right of Dee Jay Fowler to be identified as

the author of this work has been asserted by him/her in

accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act

1988 and any subsequent amendments thereto.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the

British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-913247-17-1

1st Edition by Kingdom Publishers

Kingdom Publishers

London, UK.

You can purchase copies of this book from any leading bookstore or email

[e-mail]

Contents

Chapter

1      Humpfrey & the Christmas Stocking

2      The Hug’s Good Deed

3      A Question of Priorities

4      Out of the Mouth

5      The Bears have a Rest

6      Listen to Mum!

7      Lessons from a King

8      The Bears’ Shopping Trip

9      Nothing but the Whole Truth

10      Learning to be Thankful

To my wonderful sister for her support, my lovely bears who provide such antics but most of all to my precious Lord and Saviour without Whose encouragement, nudging and inspiration I would not have dared to come this far.

CHAPTER 1

Humpfrey & the Christmas Stocking

Beep, beep, beep, beep', the Mum woke with a start – 'that's the burglar alarm' she thought panicking, 'who on earth is in the house?'  Hurrying out of bed, she rushed to the top of the stairs and saw Humpfrey rushing back along the hallway, dragging his blanket with him.

Looking up at her he said 'He's been, Mummy, he's been' then turning around dashed back to the lounge like a little hurricane.

'Who's been', she said.

'Father Christmas!' Humpfrey ran back into the hall and getting tangled, fell over and peering out from under the blanket said 'Father Christmas has been'.

Conscious of the alarm continuing to sound, the Mum turned around looking at the other bears who had assembled at the top of the stairs and realising that no-one was going back to bed after this, she picked up the smallest ones, headed down the stairs stopping to silence the alarm on the way.

After helping to get Humpf back on his feet and untangle himself from the blanket, they headed to the lounge, bears trailing behind all looking very excited.  Father Christmas had been to their house! 

'Look, Mummy, all the stockings are full' Humpfrey pointed to the row of Christmas stockings hanging up around the mantelpiece, 'and he's eaten the biscuits and had a drink'.

Monty ambled over to the empty plate looking forlornly at the few crumbs left.  'It must have been the chocolate on the top that he liked' he said looking very dejected as Monty did enjoy a biscuit – or two or three if he had a chance!  and he had been hoping that Father Christmas wouldn't eat all the cookies.  Then he brightened up 'I wonder if he left any in my stocking' he said.

All the bears gathered around the fireplace, gazing up at the stockings trying to decide what was inside each one. Humpfrey rushed from the room and started to drag the kitchen steps towards the lounge. Wincing at the noise, the Mum put the small bears down then went into the kitchen.  She picked up the steps and placed them underneath the stockings.  Humpfrey immediately put his paw on the bottom step, but she stopped him.

'Humpfrey' she said sternly 'I will help you get up on there, but you MUST stay very still and not fidget'.  Nodding his agreement, Humpf waited until she had put him on the top step making sure he was settled before taking her hands away. She shook her head and smiled to herself.  It was the same every year, Humpfrey loved Christmas!  He liked the presents and got excited about the lights and decorations, but most of all he loved the Christmas services, carols, candles and all the family being together as Aunty Betty and Uncle Ted would be joining them for lunch and the afternoon.  Everything was just a joy to him and as he kept telling the others, 'Jesus is the Reason for the Season!'

Eagerly he looked along the line of stockings.  'Which one is mine?' he said, 'can I please have mine first?'  He peered intently at the names on

the closest ones but couldn't really see what was written there.  The stockings were the first items the bears had but it was just for starters as the main presents would be given out after lunch.

'Actually, Humpf' the Mum said 'I was hoping that you would help me by being Father Christmas and handing out the stockings.’

'Oh, that's a lovely idea, thank you Mummy' he said 'In that case, I'd better get down, can you please help me?'  Placing him on the floor and taking the steps away, the Mum went back into the room.

'Right then, we'll start with the smallest one' she said 'here you are, Pudge, here's yours' and giving it to Humpfrey, he took the stocking over to Pudge who was jumping up and down in great excitement, almost falling over in his haste to look inside.

'Oh, I wonder what I've got,' he said as he started delving into his stocking which was much bigger than he was.  As the bears watched, he disappeared inside the stocking.  'This all looks interesting' his muffled voice came back out. The bears all chuckled and shook their heads as Pudge's shape continued to move down the stocking.

The Mum then handed Humpf the next one, which was Ginger's.

'Here you are, Ging' said Humpf passing him the stocking, 'this is yours,' and then he turned back and took Fraser's from the Mum and passed it over to him.

'Here, Fraser, I'm sure there is a book in there somewhere for you as this is heavy and whatever it is, is big!' he said as he came back for Monty's stocking.

'Do you think I've got some biscuits in there?'  Monty eagerly took his stocking from Humpfrey.  'I do hope there are some chocolate biscuits.'

'Well, Father Christmas knows how much you love biscuits and chocolate' said the Mum as she gave the next one to Humpf.  'So I'm sure there might be something for you.  This one is for Kingston, darling'.  She waited while Humpf passed Kingston's stocking to him then gave him Victor's.

'Perhaps there's a new game or some videos in there, Vic' Humpf said giving the stocking to the computer mad bear.

Finally, there were only two stockings left, one of which was Humpfrey's.

'Mine's next, is it, Mummy?' said Humpf excitedly.

'It is indeed, little bear.  Here you are'.  The Mum gave Humpfrey the stocking and sat down with the bears as they opened their gifts.

'Thank you' Humpf sat down as well looking inside.  All the bears were exploring the goodies amid exclamations of excitement and wonder with lots of ooohhs and aaaahhhs.

'Look' said Ginger, their plane crazy bear 'look, look, I've got a toy plane – how wonderful - now I can go off on adventures to foreign lands!'

'See what I've got here' said Pudge crawling out of his stocking and holding up knee and elbow pads 'this should stop me getting bruised'.  Pudge was very adventurous and regularly got into scrapes, which usually ended with bruises and grazes.

Fraser was wrestling with his stocking, trying to get his gift out.  Eventually, he got the edges untangled and looked at it.  'Oh, lovely' said Fraser 'I have got a new book, it's got pictures as well.'

'Wow' said the bears crowding round 'that is a big book.  What is it about?' 

'It's 365 Bedtime Stories – that's one story every night of the year' said Fraser looking through the pages.

'Oh goody,' said Humpf 'you'll have to read them to us before we go to bed at night.'

'Hey everyone, lookie here!'  Betsy pulled out her toy car excitedly.  Betsy loved cars and bikes.  She was always in the middle of any activity with the others, bit of a tomboy really.  'This is the newest racer and in my  favourite  red colour'.

'Can we have a go with it sometime?' asked the others.

'Yes, if you ask nicely,' she grinned at them.

All of a sudden, a bright light shone in everyone's faces and they all