“Pooh!” said the Donkey. “You’re dressed already. Shall we go in?”
The Oldest Coon was waiting at the entrance to the reception-room to announce them.
“Professor Bray!” he called out pompously, as the Donkey passed in. “Your name, please?”—turning to Buddie.
“Just Buddie,” she replied in a whisper.
“Just Buddie!” announced the Oldest Coon. And Buddie found herself in a large high room, almost round, in which was assembled as queer a company, Little One, as ever you saw in a picture-book, or out. The one familiar face was that of the Rabbit. He wore a white cut-away coat and a large pink cravat, and he was talking to a Little Small Wee Bear, who was dressed in a blue reefer, with a sash of the same color. And Buddie guessed it was the Wee Bear’s birthday party, as all the other guests were grouped about her and paying her many small attentions.
The other guests were a Middle Bear (who, as Buddie afterward learned, was the mother of the Wee Bear and the sister of the Great Huge Bear), a Porcupine, an Owl and a Loon. The Middle Bear wore a long linen duster, which didn’t fit her any too well, and the Owl a snug-fitting jersey of what looked suspiciously like mouse-skin; the Loon wore a tightly-fitting mackintosh, and the Porcupine had decided on an Eton jacket as an appropriate dress for dinner.
“I wonder how he ever got that on over his quills,” Buddie said to herself. She had seen porcupines before. They came lumbering round the log house in the most sociable way, and chewed up ax-handles, barn-doors and other woody delicacies. And Buddie recalled one exciting day when Colonel came home with his nose and mouth filled with quills. How he did howl when her father pulled them out with a pair of pincers!
Buddie wished she might slip into a corner and watch the others; but the Rabbit came hurrying over to introduce her to the company, and presently Buddie found herself telling the Wee Bear she was ever so glad to meet her, and the Wee Bear was telling her, in return, that she was just one year old and was having such a nice birthday party.
“Do you go to kindergarten?” asked the Wee Bear.