It was late at night, and the little bear was lying on the bed tossing and unable to sleep.
The moon outside the window was so bright, the little bear turned over and couldn’t sleep.
The singing of crickets (xī shuài) in the yard was so loud, the little bear rubbed his eyes and couldn’t sleep.
There was a whistling train whistle in the distance. The people on the train must be in a hurry to go home. Little Bear thought about it, but still couldn’t sleep.
“Child, go to bed quickly, and get up early to go to school tomorrow.” The mother bear beside the bear was almost asleep, she said to the bear in a daze.
“But mother, I can’t sleep.” Little Xiong said.
“If you can’t sleep, just count, count and fall asleep.” Mother Bear was too sleepy, she fell asleep as soon as she talked.
The bear starts counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…
He first counts the fingers on his fat palms, and after counting the fingers, he then counts the toes on the fat palms: 11, 12, 13, 14…
After counting the fingers and toes, the little bear counted the cricket’s singing again. Every time the cricket sang a song, he counted: 21, 22, 23…
Alas, cricket’s song is good, but it takes too long to sing a song. Every time the bear has to wait for a while, and there are several times, the bear is almost asleep waiting for it.
Later, the cricket finished singing and went home to sleep. But the little bear was energetic. He heard the whistle of the train and he was right in his ears (pàn): “Woo——Woo——Woo——” This sound is so good, and the little bear counted excitedly: 31, 32, 33…
On the train there are tall giraffes, fat pigs, skinny monkeys, and hippos with glasses. They waved to say hello to the little bear, and the little bear waved to them happily. Cub followed the train for a while, but the train ran so fast that Cub could not catch up. Later the train also went home to sleep. The little bear rubbed (róu) his eyes and saw the moon in the sky.
I want to count the moon: 41.
But there was only one moon in the sky, and the little bear looked for a long time with his neck up but couldn’t find a second moon.
“Child, although there is only one moon, there are many stars!” The moon said to the bear.
right! Count the stars: 42, 43, 44…
But the stars are so many and chaotic, the little bear counts and counts it wrong, so he goes back and counts again: 42, 43, 44…Oh, it’s wrong again!
I don’t know how long it took, the horizon gradually brightened. The star said to Little Bear, “Little Bear, it’s dawn, we are going home to sleep, goodbye.”
The stars were gone, and the little bear looked around lonely. At this moment, he heard the sound of water flowing-there was a river in front of him. Little Bear ran over quickly. Wow, there are so many fishes playing in the river. Little Bear happily counts: 98, 99, 100…
A fish jumped (bènɡ) to the little bear, and the little bear held both hands and caught the little fish. The little fish said: “Little Bear, get up, get up!” After that, he jumped back into the river.
“Wait for me, I haven’t finished counting yet, I want to play with you!” Cub cried, but before he reached the river, everything in front of him disappeared–
“Little Bear, get up, where are you going to play? Get up!” It was the voice of Mother Bear.
Little Bear opened his eyes. Ah, it turned out to be a dream! Little Bear counted and counted in his dream, and he didn’t know where the dream started! Little Bear got up from the bed and stretched his waist.
Where did you count just now? Little Bear couldn’t think of it anymore.
