When Big Bear outgrows his old boat, he gives it to Little Bear and builds himself a new one, just like it except bigger, until his friends start making suggestions that result in something very different.
In this allegory, the author's reaction to the Holocaust, the animals of the forest are carried away, one type after another, by the Terrible Things, not realizing that if perhaps they would all stick together and not look the other way, such terrible things might not happen.
