ONCE upon a time there were Three Bears,1 who lived together in a house of their own,2 in a wood. One of them was a Little, Small, Wee Bear;3 and one was a Middle-sized Bear,4 and the other was a Great, Huge Bear.5 They each had a pot for their porridge,6 a little pot for the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and a middle-sized pot for the Middle Bear, and a great pot for the Great, Huge Bear. And they each had a chair to sit in; a little chair for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized chair for the Middle Bear; and a great chair for the Great, Huge Bear. And they each had a bed to sleep in; a little bed for the Little, Small, Wee Bear; and a middle-sized bed for the Middle Bear; and a great bed for the Great, Huge Bear.One day, after they had made the porridge for their breakfast, and poured it into their porridge-pots, they walked out into the wood while the porridge was cooling, that they might not burn their mouths,7 by beginning too soon to eat it. And while they were walking, a little Girl named Goldilocks8 came to the house. She could not have been a good, honest little Girl;9 for first she looked in at the window, and then she peeped in at the keyhole; and seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch.10 The door was not fastened, because the Bears were good Bears, who did nobody any harm, and never suspected that anybody would harm them.11 So Goldilocks opened the door, and went in;12 and well pleased she was when she saw the porridge on the table. If she had been a good little Girl, she would have waited till the Bears came home, and then, perhaps, they would have asked her to breakfast; for they were good Bears — a little rough or so, as the manner of Bears is, but for all that very good-natured and hospitable. But she was an impudent, bad little Girl, and set about helping herself.So first she tasted the porridge of the Great, Huge Bear, and that was too hot for her;13 and she said a bad word about that.14 And then she tasted the porridge of the Middle Bear, and that was too cold for her; and she said a bad word about that, too. And then she went to the porridge of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and tasted that; and that was neither too hot nor too cold, but just right; and she liked it so well that she ate it all up:15 but then Goldilocks said a bad word about the little porridge-pot, because it did not hold enough for her.Then Goldilocks sat down in the chair of the Great, Huge Bear, and that was too hard for her. And then she sat down in the chair of the Middle Bear, and that was too soft for her. And then she sat down in the chair of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and that was neither too hard, nor too soft, but just right. So she seated herself in it, and there she sat till the bottom of the chair came out, and down she came, plump upon the ground. And Goldilocks said a wicked word about that, too.Then Goldilocks went upstairs into the bed-chamber in which the three Bears slept. And first she lay down upon the bed of the Great, Huge Bear; but that was too high at the head for her. And next she lay down upon the bed of the Middle Bear, and that was too high at the foot for her. And then she lay down upon the bed of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and that was neither too high at the head nor at the foot, but just right. So she covered herself up comfortably, and lay there till she fell fast asleep.16By this time the Three Bears thought their porridge would be cool enough, so they came home to breakfast. Now Goldilocks had left the spoon of the Great, Huge Bear, standing in his porridge.'Somebody has been at my porridge!'17said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice. And when the Middle Bear looked at his, he saw that the spoon was standing in it, too. They were wooden spoons; if they had been silver ones, Goldilocks would have put them in her pocket.18 'Somebody has been at my porridge!' said the Middle Bear in his middle voice.Then the Little, Small, Wee Bear looked at his, and there was the spoon in the porridge-pot, but the porridge was all gone. 'Somebody has been at my porridge, and has eaten it all up!' said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.Upon this the Three Bears, seeing that someone had entered their house, and eaten up the Little, Small, Wee Bear's breakfast, began to look about them. Now Goldilocks had not put the hard cushion straight when she rose from the chair of the Great, Huge Bear. 'Somebody has been sitting in my chair!' said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice.And Goldilocks had squatted down the soft cushion of the Middle Bear. 'Somebody has been sitting in my chair!' said the Middle Bear, in his middle voice.And you know what Goldilocks had done to the third chair. 'Somebody has been sitting in my chair and has sat the bottom out of it!' said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.Then the three Bears thought it necessary that they should make further search; so they went upstairs into their bed-chamber.19 Now Goldilocks had pulled the pillow of the Great, Huge Bear out of its place. 'Somebody has been lying in my bed!' said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice.And Goldilocks had pulled the bolster of the Middle Bear out of its place. 'Somebody has been lying in my bed!'said the Middle Bear, in his middle voice.And when the Little, Small, Wee Bear came to look at his bed, there was the bolster in its right place, and the pillow in its place upon the bolster; and upon the pillow was Goldilocks' ugly, dirty head - which was not in its place, for she had no business there. 'Somebody has been lying in my bed - and here she is!'20 said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.Goldilocks had heard in her sleep the great, rough, gruff voice of the Great, Huge Bear; but she was so fast asleep that it was no more to her than the roaring of wind or the rumbling of thunder. And she had heard the middle voice of the Middle Bear, but it was only as if she had heard someone speaking in a dream. But when she heard the little, small, wee voice of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, it was so sharp, and so shrill, that it awakened her at once. Up she started; and when she saw the Three Bears on one side of the bed, she tumbled herself out at the other, and ran to the window. Now the window was open, because the Bears, like good, tidy Bears as they were, always opened their bed-chamber window when they got up in the morning. Out Goldilocks jumped;21 and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out of the wood, and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was,22 I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her.231. Three Bears: The three bears have shared various relationships as the story has evolved. In Southey's early version, the one we read here, the bears are not described as a traditional family of father, mother, and child. Although they share a home, they may not be related.The Three Bears are the joint protagonist of the story. They are introduced and described in the story before Goldilocks arrives. Many versions of the story are simply titled The Three Bears, with no mention of Goldilocks. Over time, as Goldilocks has gained recognition with the story, her name has been included in the title. In these earliest versions, all three of the bears are male, referenced by masculine pronouns.

Return to place in story.2. Who lived together in a house of their own: Note that these bears do not live in caves or any place normally associated with bears. From their first moment on the page, these bears are the epitome of civilized, human society. These bears live in a house, the symbol of community, not barbarism.

Return to place in story.3. Little, Small, Wee Bear: Although Goldilocks (or one of her predecessors) is the only human in the story, the smallest bear often becomes the sympathetic protagonist for tellers, writers, illustrators, readers, and listeners of the story, especially children. As the three bears changed familial status through various retellings, the smallest bear became 'Baby Bear,' the child of the two bigger bears. Most often the baby bear is male, but sometimes it's gender is not designated. The youngest bear is rarely portrayed as female.

Return to place in story.4. Middle-sized Bear: As the three bears transformed into a nuclear family through various retellings, the middle-sized bear acquired feminine traits and became the mother/wife in the family.

Return to place in story.
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