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Dido, the Dancing Bear: His Many Adventures

<h2>CHAPTER III DIDO IS TRAINED</h2> For a moment Dido was so frightened that he did not know what to do. His heart beat very fast, just as you can feel your kittie’s heart beat fast after a dog has chased her. The little bear cub stopped eating the honey, good as it was, and he looked carefully around him. “I wonder what has happened to me?” mused Dido. He soon guessed. For when he tried to get out the same way he had come in, he found he could not. A heavy door of logs had fallen down, and push as hard as he could, Dido could not open it. “Oh dear!” whined the little bear cub. “I guess I am in one of those traps papa told about. This must be a box trap. But how did the honey get here? That is caught, too.” Thinking of the honey made Dido hungry for some more, so he ate a little. Then Dido tried again to get out, scratching with his strong little claws on the log sides of the big box. But Dido could not get out that[29] way any more than he could break through the thick door. Soon the little bear cub was very much frightened, and he cared no more for the honey, though there was some left. “Oh dear! Oh dear!” thought Dido. “I have done something very wrong. I ought not to have gone off in the woods by myself. Papa said there might be traps, but I did not think this was one. I did not sniff the man-smell, I only smelled the honey.” Poor, foolish Dido! That was why the man who had set the trap had put the honey in it—so the bear, if one came along, would smell that sweet stuff and not notice the man-odor. With his heart beating faster than ever, Dido now ran around all sides of the box-trap, trying to find a way out. But there was none. He could look through the cracks between the logs, and see the green woods where he had walked along so freely only a little while before. But now Dido could not get out to climb a tree or do anything else. “Oh, what will happen to me?” he asked himself. “I must get out! I must get out!” But Dido could not. He grew tired of running around the cage, and pushing on the sides and doors. His paws ached. His tongue was hanging out like a dog’s, and his breath came fast. [30] “I’ll lie down and rest,” said Dido. “Perhaps by then my papa or mamma will come and look for me and let me out.” So Dido rested and then he ate a little more of the honey. It did not taste as nice now, for he was in trouble, and when even a bear is in trouble he can not eat well. Dido waited and waited, but no papa or mamma bear came for him. It is true that Mr. Bear and Mrs. Bear soon missed their little cub, and they went looking for him, but I will tell you about that part later on. All at once Dido, in the trap, heard the voices of some men talking. He knew they must be men, for he had heard his father tell about them. And Dido also noticed the man-smell coming to him through the cracks in the trap. He could smell that queer smell now, even though he was close to the honey. “Ha!” cried one man. “The trap is closed! There must be a bear in it!” “Don’t be too sure,” said another man. “Maybe he got out.” “Oh dear, if I only could get out,” thought Dido, though he did not know what the men said. Later on he was to learn to know man-talk, though he could never speak it himself. Just as your dog knows what you say when you call him to come to you, or to run home, though[31] your dog can not speak to you, except by barking, which, I suppose, is a sort of dog language. Anyhow, Dido heard the men talking, even if he did not know what they said. They hurried up to the trap, as Dido could see, and one looked in through a crack. “We’ve caught a bear!” cried the first man. “We really have!” “Have we?” asked the other. “That’s good.” “But he’s an awful little one,” said the first man. “Never mind, he’ll grow fast enough,” the second man said. “And they are easier to train to dance when they are little.” “What funny things those men are saying,” thought Dido. “I wonder if they are talking about me? Maybe they will let me out.” But the men did not seem to be going to do that. They walked all around the trap, looking carefully at it. “He can’t get out,” said the big man, for Dido could see that one man was tall, and the other short, just as Dido’s father was larger than he. “He can’t get out of the trap,” said the big man, “and we can pick it up, with him in it, and carry it away. If we had caught a bigger bear we could not do that.” “That honey you put in the trap made good bait,” said the short man. [32] “I thought it would,” replied the other. “Bears will go almost anywhere to get honey. And as soon as this one went in and began eating, he loosened the rope that held up the door, and it fell down. That’s how he was caught.” Dido did not understand all this talk, but he wished, with all his heart, that he had not gone in to eat the honey. “Come on,” said the big man, “we’ll carry the cage-trap out to the road and put it on the wagon. Then, in a few days, I will begin to teach this bear to dance.” Dido ran around in the cage or trap once more, trying to get out, but he could not. And the next thing he knew he felt himself being lifted up and carried along. This frightened him more than ever, but there was nothing he could do, for he could not get out. He could smell the man-smell very plainly now, for the men were walking along close to the trap, carrying it. Pretty soon Dido could see, through the cracks, that the woods were not as thick as they had been. He was being taken away from his beloved forest where he had lived all his short life. He was being taken away from the den-house, and from his father and mother and brothers. And, even though Dido was only a bear he[33] felt badly, as all animals do when they are taken to a new and strange place. “If ever I get out of this trap,” thought Dido, “I’ll bite and scratch those men until they let me go.” Biting and scratching comes natural to bears, as it does to some cats, you know, and you could hardly find fault with Dido for wanting to get loose. He did not learn, until afterward, that the men were going to be kind to him. Pretty soon Dido felt his trap being lifted up. Then it was set down on a wagon, and horses began to draw it down the mountain to the place where the trappers lived. For the two men were trappers, and they set traps in the woods to catch wild animals, which they trained to do tricks and sold to circuses, or to persons who wanted them. Dido did not learn until afterward what horses were, but he knew they must be strong animals to pull a heavy wagon and the two men and himself in the log-trap. How long he rode on the wagon Dido did not know, but after a while he felt himself being lifted up again and he was carried into a queer place. Though the little bear cub did not know what it was he found out later that it was a barn. It was dark in there, almost as dark as in the woods at night, but Dido was not afraid of the dark. He rather liked it. [34] “Are you going to take the little bear out of the trap?” asked the little man. “Not right away,” answered the big man. “I will first let him get quiet. I want to tame him a bit so he will not bite. I won’t give him anything to eat or drink for a long while, and then he will be so hungry and thirsty that he will not be afraid when I come near to give him something.” And that is just what happened to Dido. The sweet honey had made him thirsty, and he was very warm from having tried so hard to get out of the trap. Oh! how he wanted a drink of water from the cool, blue lake! But there was no water in the cage-trap. Finally Dido fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again he could see a little light shining through the chinks of the trap. Then he smelled the man-smell again, and he heard the big man say: “Well, I wonder how my little bear is to-day?” Dido growled, as all wild bears do when first they know a man is near them. “Not very tame yet, I guess,” the man said. “But you soon will be, when you get hungrier and more thirsty.” Dido thought he never had been so thirsty. His mouth was hot, and his tongue was dry.[35] That was worse than being hungry. All day long he had no water, though he whined for it as he had whined when he was a little baby bear and wanted his mother to feed him. On the second day the big man opened a little hole in the trap. Dido quickly put out his head—that was all he could put out. The man reached his hand toward Dido, who growled good and hard. “Quiet now! Quiet!” said the man. “I won’t hurt you. Here is some water for you to drink.” He put down a basin of water where Dido could reach it, and the smell of that water was so good to Dido that he drank it even while the man was standing near. And as the bear drank the man patted him on the head and spoke softly to him. This time Dido did not growl, for he liked to be petted. But, best of all, he liked the water. Then the hole in the cage was closed again, and Dido was left alone. He was getting quite hungry now, but there was nothing to eat. He had eaten all the honey, and licked clean the boards where it had been. “Oh, how I wish I had some red berries or sweet roots,” thought the little bear cub. And just then he smelled something that made his nose quiver. It was fish. “Oh, I wonder if my father has come for me[36] and brought me a fish from the blue lake?” Dido asked himself. But when the little hole in the trap was opened Dido saw the big man. Dido growled, and then he was sorry, for he saw the man holding out a piece of fish to him. “I guess you’ll soon be tame,” said the man. “Come now, be a nice bear.” Then Dido ate the fish, and had more water to drink. For nearly a week Dido was kept in the cage. Each day the man came to feed and water him, and the man always patted the bear cub on the head and spoke kindly to him. After a while Dido did not mind the man-smell at all. He got rather to like it, and to like the man who fed him. So that, in a few days, when the man opened the big door of the trap, and let Dido come out, the bear cub did not try to run away. For he saw no place to which he could run. There were no woods, just a big barn, the doors of which were closed. Besides, Dido thought if he ran away he would get no more fish or water. “Now I’ll put a collar on you, with a chain, so you won’t get lost, and then I’ll begin to train you to dance,” said the big man. Dido felt something being fastened around his neck. He did not mind very much, for, at the same time, the man gave him something new to[37] eat. It was soft and white and tasted rather sweet, though not as sweet as honey. “Oh, but that is good!” thought Dido. The man had given him a chunk of bread, which bears like very much. When he had eaten the bread Dido looked around for more, and he took another piece from the man’s hand, and did not growl or bite. Dido was getting tame, you see. <hr class="chap" /> [38] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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