Nancy Romand, age 9, of Staten Island, New York, for her question:

Who invented the character Smokey the Bear?

Andy called the Forest Ranger Station about his question. "Smoker's uniform is here," said the Ranger, "and so is his campaign hat. But Smokey the Bear is not here right now." Then that splendid Ranger came right over to Andy's house with lots of pictures and booklets about Smokey.
There are, of course, two characters named Smokey the Bear, and both of them work for the United States Forest Service. The one we know best has his picture on a new poster, almost every year. He points out that forest fire is a dreadful disaster. Most of the cruel forest fires started are the work of very careless people. Naturally, we want to be careful people. Smoker shows just what we can do to be careful instead of careless. Chances are, you have seen pictures of this sensible character at school. Smoker helps the government to plan those wonderful booklets about fire prevention.
This Smokey the Bear character was invented many years ago, when your mother was a young girl. It was war time and the government people wanted to make it easy for everyone to learn about stopping fires. So they asked an advertising council to heap. These advertising experts invented a symbol, a character to stand for fire safety. The symbol they drew was a brave, wise bear dressed in a forester's hat and a forester's working dungarees. This splendid character, of course, was Smoker the Bear.

The other Smokey the Bear character was born early in 1950, when the first Smokey was six years old. His loving Mama was a real live, big brown bear and his wonderful home was the Lincoln National Forest in, New Mexico. The cuddly bear cub played among the shady trees with sassy squirrels, bunnies and frisky frogs and Mama taught him how to grow up to be a proper bear.

But the last shower was long ago and the trees were dry and thirsty. Some visitors came into the forest    and they were careless. Maybe someone dropped a smouldering match or forgot to douse the campfire. The breeze blew the sparks and soon there were greedy flames, gobbling up the bushes and licking at the trees. Mama bear lost her life in this cruel forest fire and the cub and his playmates lost their forest home.

The Rangers found the orphaned cub, clinging in terror to a smouldering tree trunk. They carried him home and bandaged his poor little burned paws. They named him Smokey the Bear after the first Smokey. His sad story was told throughout the land. Later, Smokey went to the Washington Zoo. Children who wanted to help him sent their savings. The money was used to build him a fine new home in the Zoological Gardens. He dines once each day on about three pounds of fish and cereal. He also enjoys several snacks of peanuts.

Standing straight up on his back legs, this Smokey the Bear is about five feet tall. A few years ago, the zoo people found him a wife. Her coat is a lighter shade of brown than Smokey's and her name is Goldie. So far they have had no cubs, but everyone hopes that someday Smokey will become a Papa Bear.

Meantime, the first Smokey is hard at work across the country. The Government gives us his booklets that tell us how to prevent fires. And every sensible person pays attention to what he has to say. The government also lets certain companies use his name. You can buy their Smokey the Bear story books, caps and uniforms and other things that Smokey himself likes to have. Some of the money you pay goes to help the U.S. Forestry Service. Thank you, says Smokey the Bear. Thank you for helping.