“That is so I will not get lost,” said the other. “You see I am a tame bear, and do tricks, and my master has this ring in my nose, and leads me around by it so I will not go away. And he feeds me buns and popcorn. Oh, it’s nice to be a trained bear!”
“A trained bear, eh?” said Neddie. “Are you like a train of cars that I got for Christmas?”
“No, I am trained to do tricks,” said the tame bear. “See, I will show you,” and he stood on his head and turned a somersault, and then waltzed around in a circle. “Would you not like to learn to do those things?” he asked Neddie.
“Maybe,” said the little bear boy, who was not quite sure.
“Then come with me,” invited the tame bear.
But just then there was a rustling in the bushes and out came a real man with a long pole and a brass horn. And he took hold of the tame bear’s nose chain and looked at Neddie, the man did. And as Neddie had been taught to be always afraid of men, the bear boy ran home through the woods as fast as he could, and told all that had happened to him.
“It was a narrow escape for you,” said his papa. Then supper was ready and Neddie and Beckie, his sister, ate as much as was good for them, and not a bit more, I do assure you.
And in the next story, if the raisins in the rice pudding don’t all hop out and leave it as full of holes as a Swiss cheese sandwich, I’ll tell you about the little Stubtails running away.
STORY VI
THE STUBTAILS RUN AWAY
“What are you thinking of, Neddie?” asked Beckie Stubtail, the little bear girl, one Saturday morning when there was no school and when she and her brother were out in front of the cave-house brushing up the dried leaves to make a bonfire.