NCERT Book Class 7 English (The Alien Hand) Chapter 5 The Bear Story

The lady in the manor-house had a bear as pet.
It was a most friendly bear, who loved vegetables, apples
and honey.
He roamed freely during the day, but was put on the chain
at night.

THERE was once a lady who lived in an old manor-house on
the border of a big forest. This lady had a pet bear she was
very fond of. It had been found in the forest, half dead of
hunger, so small and helpless that it had to be brought up
on the bottle by the lady and the old cook. This was several
years ago and now it had grown up to a big bear, so big
and strong that he could have slain a cow and carried it
away between his two paws if he had wanted to. But he did
not want to; he was a most amiable bear who did not dream
of harming anybody, man or beast. He used to sit outside
his kennel and look with his small intelligent eyes most
amicably at the cattle grazing in the field near by. The three
shaggy mountain ponies in the stable knew him well and
did not mind in the least when he shuffled into the stable
with his mistress. The children used to ride on his back
and had more than once been found asleep in his kennel
between his two paws. The three dogs loved to play all sorts
of games with him, pull his ears and his stump of a tail