The Little Girl and the Bear

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This is a story that made me thing right away of Goldilocks and the Three Bears except that this is a true story. Sarah Whitcher was four-years=old in June of 1783 living in Warren, New Hampshire. Her parents were going to visit her uncle who lived at the top of a hill behind their house. Her parents told her to stay at home to be taken care of by her older siblings. What actually happened is a story that has become part of New Hampshire folklore. John Whitcher and his wife went on their visit and returned late in the day. They were very surprised when their children inquired why Sarah had not come back with them, Apparently, she had wandered off and her siblings had thought she had gone with her parents. When the Whitcher's realized what had happened they got a search party together and went searching for Sarah all over Warren. It was one the second day that the parents got really bad news, Apparently, searchers had found Sarah's track but also the track's of a bear. It was assumed the little girl was dead attacked by a bear. Four days after Sarah had gone missing an expert woodsman from Plymouth, New Hampshire arrives and set out to search. The townspeople began rejoicing when the woodsman gave three shots from his gun signifying that Sarah had been found safe and sound. The woodsman came into Warren with Sarah in his arms and that is when the little girl told everyone her incredible story. She had gone off to pick some flowers and during the time she was walking her feet had gotten cut and were bleeding. Suddenly she was startled by a bear that had come out of the woods. The bear must have been something out of a fairy tale and sent by Sarah's guardian angels because he did not attack the little girl, Instead, the bear had given Sarah a lick and lay down so she would have a warm and safe place to sleep with the bear/ That bear stayed with Sarah and disappeared into the wood when rescuers came. This story was documented by William Little in his book "History of Warren, A Mountain Hamlet Located Among the White Hills of New Hampshire" Sarah's story is also featured in two children's books - "Sarah Whitcher's Sory" by Elizabeth Yates and Nora Spicer Upwind and "The Bear That Heard Crying" by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock and Helen Kinsey. Google image from the New England Historical Society