“I never saw anybody so clumsy, Buster,” she said. “No, you can’t help any more. You sit down there in the middle of the floor until I’m through. Then we’ll have breakfast together.”
The moment she uttered these words she stopped. Have breakfast together? How could she arrange that? How, in fact, could she manage to get Buster any breakfast without somebody discovering him in her room?
What did bears eat anyway? And how much? Goodness, from the size of him, he might eat her father out of house and home! The little girl felt terribly distressed all of a sudden. She had saved Buster from his pursuers, but now that she had him what was she going to do with him?
You couldn’t keep bears in a bed-room or closet, nor could you chain them up in the back yard like a dog? Everybody would be afraid to visit the house, and all the servants would leave. What could she do?
“Buster, haven’t you any home you can go to?” she asked suddenly, turning to him. Then she remembered what her father had told her. The train carrying the circus animals had been wrecked, and some of the people and animals killed. Of course, the circus people would like Buster back again, but was he happy there? Or did he run away because they treated him cruelly?
“Buster, do you want to go back to the circus?” she added after a pause. “For if you do I’ll have to tell them you’re here, and if they want you they’ll call for you.”
Now Buster had no desire just then to return to the circus. He thought it would be much nicer to live with the little girl and play with her. So he shook his head vigorously, which made the girl sigh, and say solemnly: “Then you won’t have to go back! I’ll keep you here!”
She cleaned up things in the room, and dressed herself. Her breakfast was waiting for her downstairs, and if she didn’t go soon her father would be up after her.
“Buster,” she said once more, laying a hand on his head, “I’m going down now to get my breakfast, and then I’ll bring you something to eat—some sugar and coffee, and jam and—and—what do you like to eat?”
Buster only grinned and shook his head. The little girl was puzzled. “I know what I’ll do,” she added, smiling. “I’ll ask my father. He’s wise and knows everything, and he’ll tell me what bears eat. I know he’ll like you, Buster.”