Alligators and Bears

by John Comer

Eight-year-old Scott Calloway lives in a little Arkansas town with the strange name of Smackover. Others lived there long before him.

When the French fur trappers arrived, having traveled up the rivers from New Orleans, they settled in the area where Scott now lives. It was so thickly covered with sumac trees, they called it Sumac Couvert. The English speaking farmers who came later found it easier to say Smackover.

As these early trappers hunted in the woods and waterways, a few of them probably inadvertently served as delicious French dinners for an occasional hungry bear or alligator. By the time young Scott’s ancestors cleared land for farms here, mostly from the 1840s and afterwards, they would have worked hard at also clearing out dangerous wild animals. And thereby hangs a tale. And a tail. Several tails, actually.

One of Scott’s favorite activities is to drive out with his dad to the old family farm to help tend the cattle. One of the favorite activities for the cattle is to wade out into the farm pond.

But Scott’s dad discovered some of the calves were missing their tails. Quite a mystery, until it was also discovered there were alligators in the pond whose favorite activity is nipping calves’ tails. About this same time they discovered a baby bear, which meant there was a mama bear somewhere nearby, who was not likely to be friendly to little boys. Thus ended, at least for the time being, Scott’s trips to the farm.

I don’t think there are any alligator stories in the Bible. But there’s one that involves bears and boys. The prophet Elisha was walking along when some youths jeered at him, “Go on up, you bald head.” Elisha called down a curse upon them, and two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. Even I, well into my own bald-headedness, think Elisha reacted just a bit extremely.

So what do we learn here? We could use the story to scare little boys so they won’t say naughty things about people. Better still, we could all learn not to be quite so hair-trigger sensitive, as Elisha was.

Either way, Scott will do well to stay off the farm for awhile. Alligators and mama bears don’t need excuses to act ugly.