THE FIRST PERFORMANCE
"Oh, 'twas down in the woods of the Arkansaw
I met an Old Bear with a very nimble paw;
He could dance and he could fiddle at the only tune he knew,
And he fiddled and he fiddled, but he never played it through."
BO was awake first, and Horatio still lay sound asleep. As the boy paused the Bear opened one eye sleepily and reached lazily toward his fiddle, but dropped asleep again before his paw touched it. They had found a very cosy place in a big heap of dry leaves under some spreading branches, and Horatio, though fond of music, was still more fond of his morning nap. Bosephus looked at him a moment and began singing again, in the same strain:—
"Then there came a little boy who could whistle all the tune,
And he whistled and he sang it by the rising of the moon;
And he whistled and he whistled, and he sang it o'er and o'er,
Till Horatio learned the music he had never learned before."
The Bear opened the other eye, and once more reached for his fiddle. This time he got hold of it, but before his other paw touched the bow he was asleep again. Bo waited a moment. Then he suddenly began singing to the other part of the tune:—
"Yes, he learned it all so neatly and he played it all so sweetly
That he fell in love completely with the boy without a home;