Back Aa

Dido, the Dancing Bear: His Many Adventures

Close

<h2>CHAPTER X DIDO SCARES A MAN</h2> “Aren’t these buns fine?” asked Dido, as he reached for another, which had a big raisin on the top, something like the kind the farmer’s wife made. “They are very good,” said Jacko, the hand-organ monkey. “I don’t know when I have had better buns. I’m glad we came in here.” “So am I,” replied Dido. “Have you tried one of these sugar cookies?” “No,” answered Jacko, “I haven’t. I’ve been so busy eating buns—” “Oh, do try a cookie,” and the dancing bear, with his big paw, like a hand, held something out to the monkey. “Aren’t they good?” asked Dido, after Jacko had taken a taste of the cookie. “Indeed, yes. I’ll have another.” So the bear and the monkey ate cookies and buns, and then Jacko found a little cake, with sugar on the top. “Oh, Dido!” he chattered. “These cakes are the best yet. Try one.” [93] So Dido did, and he liked it very much. By this time the crowd of persons who had gathered about to watch the dancing bear and the monkey saw the two animals over in the bakery. But the three men—that is, the two who owned the dancing bear, and the one who had the hand-organ—were still so busy talking that they did not notice what was going on. “Oh, look! The bear and monkey are eating everything in the bakery!” cried a little girl. The boy who had been left in charge of the shop heard this and back across the street he rushed. He did not wish for a hand-organ any more. The people stood in a crowd outside the bakery. The boy who should have been in the shop, but who had run out, cried: “Let me get in there! Let me in! I must drive out that bear and monkey, or the baker will say it is my fault for letting them in!” “You’d better not go in,” said a man. “The monkey would not hurt you, but the bear might. Call the bear’s keepers.” “Yes, that’s the best thing to do,” said a woman. But before the boy could do this Jacko and Dido were eating more cakes from the windows. Then they found some pies, and they liked those so much they ate three, Dido taking two because he was largest, and needed more. [94] “What are all the people watching us for?” asked Jacko, as he looked to see what next he would take. “Oh, I guess they think we are doing tricks,” said Dido. “But we are only eating because we are hungry.” “And when our masters get through talking they will pay for what we have had,” said Jacko. Just then the baker, who had been down in the cellar of his shop, making bread and cake, came up into the store, thinking, of course, that the boy he had left in charge, to wait on customers, would be there. Instead of that the baker saw the bear and monkey eating things from his show window. “Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!” cried the baker, three times, just like that, he was so surprised. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” Then he ran back down in the cellar and locked the door after him. But he need not have been afraid, for neither Dido nor Jacko would have harmed him in the least. By this time George, Tom and the hand-organ man saw what was happening. They looked across the street and saw the crowd in front of the bakery, and also saw Dido and Jacko still eating cake. “Oh, my!” cried George. “We shall have to pay a lot of money for what our bear has eaten.” [95] <div id="i_p095" class="figcenter" style="width: 388px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_p095.jpg" width-obs="388" height-obs="600" alt="" title="" /> <div class="caption">Jacko and Dido were eating cakes from the window.</div> </div> [96] “And I will have to pay for what my monkey took,” said the hand-organ man. “But they knew no better,” said George, kindly. “They were hungry, I guess. But now they must have had enough.” And Dido and Jacko did have enough. Never before had they had such a fine feast. I forget just how much money the bear men and the hand-organ man had to pay, but it was quite a sum, for the monkey and bear had eaten many buns, pies, cookies and cakes. A bear is very big, and when he is hungry he can eat much. “You will have to do a lot of dancing and tricks to make up for all the bakery things you took,” said George to Dido. But the bear did not mind that, for he had had so many good things to eat. For two or three days more Dido traveled on with his masters, going from place to place, in towns and little villages where the bear did his tricks. And the people, especially the boys and girls, liked them so much that they tossed many cents and dimes into the hat of George, so that he had enough to buy things for himself, for Tom and for Dido, and the bear did not have to go in any more bake shops all by himself. Sometimes when Dido was doing his tricks, dogs would gather outside the crowd of people[97] watching, and would bark. For the dogs were a bit afraid of the bear, and did not like him. That is why they barked. Once a dog who did not know that Dido was tame, and was kind and good, tried to bite the dancing bear. Dido was now so large and strong that he might easily have hurt the dog badly by one blow of his big paw. But instead of doing that Dido just gently pushed the dog out of the way, and over into a watering trough, where horses drank. When the people saw this they laughed, and then that dog did not feel much like biting Dido. The dog was ashamed of himself, and away he ran, with his tail tucked between his legs. “Good bear!” said George. “That’s the way to treat barking dogs.” Another time in a small town, where Dido was doing his tricks in the park, a team of horses were driven past. They smelled the wild smell of the bear, which was more plain to them than to the people, and started to run away. A lady and little girl were in the carriage and they might have been hurt had the horses gone far. But Tom, who was getting ready to blow a marching tune on the brass horn, for Dido to do his trick, dropped the horn and sprang for the horses. [98] He caught them by the bridles and held them so they could not run, and the lady and little girl were not hurt. “You are a good man to stop the runaway horses,” said a man in the crowd. “Well, it was the fault of our bear that the team started to run,” said Tom, “so I knew it was my place to stop them.” And when the horses saw that Dido was not going to chase after them, or do them any harm, they were not frightened any more, but stood still, so the lady and little girl in the carriage could watch the tricks which Dido did. That night Dido and his masters slept under a warm stack of hay in a field, and a farmer gave them some good things to eat, because he liked animals. Dido did some tricks that evening in front of the farmhouse, before a crowd of boys and girls. Early the next morning Dido awoke in his warm nest in the hay. He was not tied to any tree now, for there was none in the field, and he could wander about as he pleased. But by this time Dido was so tame that his masters knew he would not run away. “I think I will take a walk before breakfast,” said Dido to himself, “and see if I cannot find a brook with fish in. I should like a fish very much.” [99] Then Dido saw a telegraph pole beside the road near the field. “I think I will climb that pole, and see how sharp my claws are,” said Dido to himself. “I must keep in practice and I have not climbed any poles in two or three days.” So, having eaten all the red berries he wanted, Dido started to climb up the telegraph pole. He had not gone very far up it before he heard some one shouting at him. Looking up Dido saw a man on top of the pole. “Hello!” said Dido to himself; “I did not know men could climb poles like a bear. I wonder who you are and how you did it?” The man worked for a telephone company, and on his boots he had sharp, iron spurs, like a bear’s claws, and by sticking these spurs in the wood of the pole the man could climb up. But the man, who was out early fixing broken wires on the pole, looking down and seeing a bear coming up after him, was much frightened. “I say!” he cried. “Go on back! Don’t come up here after me! Go on down! Get away!” The man shouted loudly, but Dido did not understand why he, himself, should stop climbing a pole on that account, so on he kept going up higher and higher. “Go back! Go back!” yelled the man. But Dido would not. <hr class="chap" /> [100] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2