Every day, and sometimes two and three times a day, Dido’s keeper would come out to him with the horn, and make the little bear dance. And sometimes Dido grew tired. Then the man would give him a sweet bun, or a lump of sugar, and Dido could rest in the shade, or take a nice bath in the tub of water.
Dido was growing to like to dance, for it was something like the tricks he and his brothers used to do in the woods, though they never called it dancing. They would find a loose, dangling branch of a tree and stand up on their hind legs to knock it about with their front paws. And sometimes when the branch would sway to and fro the bear cubs would have to jump quickly about to reach it. And that, in a way, was something like dancing.
So, after all, dancing is not so very hard for a bear to learn. They seem to like it, and Dido certainly liked the good things he had to eat after each lesson. So now, whenever he heard the man play a tune on the shiny brass horn, Dido would stand up and dance.
“I think it is time you learned other tricks,” the man said one day. “I must teach you how to climb a tree and how to stand on your head, how to turn somersaults, and how to play soldier. But you can not learn all of them at once. We will begin on climbing a tree, for that will be easy for you.”
Of course the man knew Dido could climb a tree, as all bears can do that just as cats can. Their claws are sharp, though not quite as sharp as are pussies’, and they can stick in the soft bark of a tree. Dogs’ claws are not sharp, so that is why they can not climb trees.
“Come, Dido, go up in the tree,” said the keeper one day, as he fastened a longer chain on the bear’s collar. “Go up in the tree,” and he led Dido to one.
But Dido did not climb up. He would have done so if he had known what the man wanted, but Dido did not know just what the words meant. He saw the tree, and he knew he could climb it, as he had often done in the woods at home, but just then he did not feel like climbing a tree. Perhaps he thought his chain was too short, and he might get a pull that would make him fall.
“Ah, I shall have to give you a little lesson,” said the man. “Here, boy!” he called, and a boy came with a big sweet bun, which he put on a high branch of the tree, climbing up a ladder to do it.
“Now, Dido, go get the bun! Go up in the tree and get the bun,” called the man. Dido could smell the bun, for he had a very sharp nose. And he wanted the bun so much, the little bear cub did, that he climbed right up the tree and got it.