"Why should the child be afraid?" asked the bear, speaking in a low, soft tone that reminded her of the purring of a kitten. "No one ever heard of a Dancing Bear hurting anybody. We're about the most harmless things in the world."
TWINKLE AND THE BEAR CONTINUE THEIR WALK
"Are you really a Dancing Bear?" asked Twinkle, curiously.
"I am, my dear," he replied, bowing low and then folding his arms proudly as he leaned against a big rock that was near. "I wish there was some one here who could tell you what a fine dancer I am. It wouldn't be modest for me to praise myself, you know."
"
I s'pose not," said Twinkle. "But if you're a Dancing Bear, why don't you dance?"
"There it is again!" cried the Rolling Stone. "This girl Twinkle wants to keep every body moving. She wouldn't believe, at first, that I was a Rolling Stone, because I was lying quiet just then. And now she won't believe you're a Dancing Bear, because you don't eternally keep dancing."
"Well, there's some sense in that, after all," declared the Bear. "I'm only a Dancing Bear while I'm dancing, to speak the exact truth; and you're only a Rolling Stone while you're rolling."
"I beg to disagree with you," returned the Stone, in a cold voice.