Before too long, the crew stopped dead in their tracks. Albert Ross, the sea gull had been resting his wings and walking up front with Jo-Jo and Baff. The trio came to a halt and did not move.
“Problems up ahead?” Mr. Jingeling shouted from the rear of the line of explorers.
“There’s a giant white wall in front of us,” shouted Jo-Jo, “and it’s got teeth.”
Two giant polar bears began to growl in a very mean way.
“Get back!” Albert shouted to his two friends and swooped into the air, ready to dive down upon the polar bears with his sharp beak to protect his buddies.
Shaker and Tom ran up from the rear of the line and got in front of the gopher and the beaver.
“Stay behind us,” ordered Shaker Snowglobe.
“We’ll protect you,” added Tom, the handyman. He held out his arms, shielding the two furry fellows behind him.
“We don’t want any trouble here.” The Commander stated calmly as he walked to the front of the line.
“Yes,” added Mr. Jingeling. “We’re only on our way to the talking door.”
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place.” The first bear began to smile, while the second pointed a paw behind him. “It’s that way another mile or two.”
“Then why were you growling so much when we first arrived?” Mr. Jingeling was curious.
“Because,” started the first bear, “you are standing right in the middle of our vegetable garden. And it’s hard to make salads without some nice tomatoes.”
The Commander apologized, then asked the bears for their recipe on salads and wondered aloud how vegetables could grow up at the North Pole.
“We have special soil that the snow doesn’t affect.” The second bear answered the question then pulled out a blue ribbon. “See, we won a blue ribbon at the Arctic county fair.”
Mr. Jingeling then reminded everyone that they were in a hurry, so thanked the bears for the directions and hurried along on their way.
“Too bad they couldn’t stay for our special lunch salad,” added the first bear as he waved goodbye to the crew of explorers.
“Yes,” added the second bear, “they would have loved our “iceberg” lettuce.”