“What difference does it make?” said Buddie.
“Not a mite, that I can see,” said the Bear. “I have to grin, and I have to bear it. But to hear Doctor Fox and Doctor Goose go on, you would think it was the most important matter in the world. Here we are.”
The Bear drew aside a bush that screened the entrance to a cave, and called out:
“Sam! O Sam! Where are you, Sam?”
A sound of shuffling feet came from the interior, and presently the Oldest Coon made his appearance, rubbing his eyes as if he had just wakened from a nap. But at sight of the Donkey and Buddie he straightened up and put on an air of great dignity.
“Step this way, please,” he said with a grand bow, and led the way inside.
First was a long and dimly-lighted corridor, which ended, the Bear said, in a reception-room. From this came a clatter of small talk, and Buddie was curious to learn who the talkers were; but before they reached the reception-room, the Oldest Coon bowed them into a smaller apartment that opened off the corridor. This, the Bear informed them, was his den.
“You can hang up your hat and wraps here,” he said to Buddie.
“But I haven’t any hat and wraps,” said she; “and it’s just as well, as I don’t see any place to hang them.” For there wasn’t a stick of furniture in the room or a hook on the wall.