With that Ben pulled aside the curtain, and there stood a real, live, truly, big brown bear, and with him was a man wearing a red cap. The man had hold of a chain that was fastened to a leather muzzle on the bear's nose.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried the children.
"Why, he's real!" gasped Sue.
"Of course he's real!" laughed Ben.
"He's just like the bear the man had out in front of grandpa's house last week, doing tricks," said Bunny.
A man had gone past Grandpa Brown's house with a trained bear, and he had stopped to make the big, shaggy animal do some tricks. Bunny and Sue had given the man pennies, and Grandma Brown gave him something to eat. The man gave part of his bread and cake to the bear.
"This is the same man," said Ben. "When I saw him, I thought he and his bear would be just the thing for our circus. So I asked him to come back to-day and give us a little show on his own account. And here he is. He came last night and stayed in the barn so no one would see him until it was time for the circus. I wanted him for a surprise."
"Well, he is a surprise," said Bunny. "I didn't think it was a real bear."
"Let's see him do some tricks!" called a boy.
"All right. He do tricks for you," promised the man with the red cap. "Come, Alonzo. Make fun for the children. Show dem how you laugh!"