Chapter 11

Hail to the Chief

On the sidelines, the cheerleaders mixed with the happy players. Suddenly the loudspeakers crackled again. Bert Brunowski’s voice boomed across the playing field.

“May I have your attention, please!”

Coach Grizzmeyer waved his arms for quiet.

“The results of yesterday’s election are as follows,” said Brunowski. “Queenie McBear, 56. Brother Bear, 56. Mr. Honeycomb will announce tomorrow how the tie will be broken.”

Sister Bear shook her head in disgust. “A tie—I knew it!”

“But that can’t be!” said Bertha Broom.

“Why not?” Lizzy Bruin asked.

“Because I voted for Brother,” said Bertha.

The cheerleaders let out a gasp. “You what?” they said.

“I voted for Brother,” Bertha repeated.

“But what about your responsibility to all your sisters at Bear Country School?” demanded Queenie.

Bertha draped a heavy arm around Brother’s shoulders. “My first responsibility is to my quarterback—both on the field and off.”

“Wait a minute,” said Freddy. “That means we have to count again. If Bertha voted for Brother, the vote should be 57–55 in favor of Brother!”

“Except for one thing,” Skuzz said out of the side of his mouth. “Too-Tall voted for Queenie.”

“Too-Tall voted for Queenie!” the cubs exclaimed. “Why?”

“Very simple,” muttered Skuzz, with a mocking glance at his gang leader. “He’s crazy about her.”

Too-Tall blushed deeply and dug a toe into the turf. “I guess I’m a traitor for love,” he mumbled as Queenie leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“That Queenie!” whispered Sister to Lizzy. “That’s why she wasn’t worried about a tie! But she didn’t know that Bertha would vote for Brother!”

“So it is a tie, after all,” said Freddy. “I guess we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what’s going to happen.”

But Brother Bear already had a good idea of what was going to happen. Now he was more sure than ever that he couldn’t possibly be president and help the Bear Country Cousins to a winning football season at the same time. After all, the team had barely won just now, even though he had just played the best game of his life. On top of that, Brother knew how much Queenie wanted to be president. And it didn’t seem fair that he should enjoy this moment of football glory and maybe win the election, too.

“We won’t have to wait until tomorrow,” Brother said, stepping forward. “Tell you what, Queenie. I withdraw. That makes you president of the school.”

“You do?” said Queenie with wide-open eyes. “But why?”

Brother shrugged. “I believe in ‘ladies first.’”

“Oh, is that so!” cried Lizzy Bruin.

“Queenie,” said Sister angrily, “are you going to accept the presidency after a male chauvinist remark like that?”

Queenie looked around the group with a sly smile. “You’re darned right I am!” she said.

As things turned out, Queenie made a pretty good president, Brother had a very good year as quarterback, and Bertha Broom proved to be a heckuva fullback.

The mystery of who had stolen Bertha’s pads remained unsolved for some time. But Too-Tall always had a way of finding these things out. After the football season was over, he reported that three of the Beartown Bullies had confessed to the crime.

It seems that the idea of being beaten by a girl filled the three players with such terror that they were moved to commit a crime. And that crime was to be remembered in Bear Country as an especially nasty symbol of male chauvinism.