Dido, the Dancing Bear: His Many Adventures

by Richard Barnum

Dido smelled the water. He lapped up some with his red tongue, and, though it was not quite as nice as the water of the blue lake high up in the mountains, still it was very good.

“Wuff!” cried Dido, which was his way of saying “Fine!” and then [into the tub of water he jumped with a splash]. Oh! how good it felt to be washed!

“Now come out in the sun and dry yourself,” said the big man, and he led Dido out of the barn by the chain. It was the first time Dido had been out in the open air since he had been caught. He could feel the warm wind blowing on him, he could see the sun and the green trees, for there were trees near the trainer’s barn, though not so many as in the woods.

Dido felt so jolly at being out in the air that he almost thought he was back in his own forest again, and as he remembered Gruffo and Muffo, and his father and mother, he wanted so much to see them that he started to run.

“Oh, ho! You mustn’t do that!” said the big man, kindly. “I don’t want you to run away from me!”

And Dido could not run away, for he was held fast by the collar about his neck and the chain fastened to the collar. Dido ran as far as the chain would let him, and then he came to such a sudden stop that he turned a somersault, head over heels, as he used to do in front of the rocky den, when his mother would laugh at him.

The man had fastened the chain to a post in the barnyard and Dido could not get away. He felt a little choked and out of breath as he got up from having turned the somersault, and he looked at the man in a queer way, with his eyes partly shut.

“There, you see,” spoke the keeper. “You can’t get away, Dido, and you might as well learn that first as last. I don’t want you to go away, and I will be kind and good to you. I will feed you all you want to eat, and you will have a nice place to sleep—just as nice as you had in the woods. And when you learn to dance you and I will travel all around the country, and the people will give me pennies to see you do your tricks. So be a good little bear, and do not try to run away.”