Page 70 - Writes of Passage

from A BEAR CALLED PADDINGTON
“But whatever did you do for food?” asked Mr Brown. “You must be
starving.”
Bending down, the bear unlocked the suitcase with a small key, which it also had round its neck, and brought out an almost empty glass jar. “I ate marmalade,” he said, rather proudly. “Bears like marmalade. And I lived in a lifeboat.”
“But what are you going to do now?” said Mr Brown. “You can’t just sit on Paddington station waiting for something to happen.”
“Oh I shall be all right . . . I expect.” The bear bent down to do up its case again. As he did so Mrs Brown caught a glimpse of the writing on the label. It said, simply, PLEASE LOOK AFTER THIS BEAR. THANK YOU.
Michael Bond
This is the heartwarming moment in Michael Bond’s novel, A Bear Called Paddington, first published in 1958, when the Brown family decides to take in a refugee, the bear Paddington. It is inspired by events during the Second World War: by the Kindertransport, a passage out of Germany that rescued Jewish children from Hitler’s murderously anti-Semitic regime, and by British evacuees who left their homes in cities to be taken to the country to be safe from bombing. Paddington is a model of politeness, and the Browns of compassion.
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