A few days after this Dido’s keeper gave him a nice dinner of bread, fish and sweet buns. Dido saw that the man had a big bundle strapped over his back, while on one shoulder was the shiny tooting horn. In one hand the man had a long stick, with which Dido marched when he did his shoulder trick.
“Come, Dido!” called the man, “we are now going to start on our travels. We will march through my country until we come to the ocean, and there we will take a ship. And on the way you shall do your tricks, and the people will give us money so we can buy things to eat.”
So Dido and his master started down the mountain. At first the bear cub, who had grown much larger, felt sad at going away from the woods where he had always lived. He could look back and see them and he knew the blue lake was there, and perhaps his brothers and father and mother were swimming in it.
“Oh, I wonder if I will ever see them again?” thought Dido.
He never did, but then Dido had so many adventures, and saw so many new and strange sights, that he soon forgot all about his bear-folks. That’s the way it is with wild animals, you know. And I must tell you that Dido’s father and mother, and his brothers Gruffo and Muffo, tried very hard to find him.
They went looking for him that same day Dido went off to search for the honey-tree. But all Mr. Bear could find was the place where the trap had been set, with the honey in it.
“I guess poor Dido is gone,” said Mr. Bear to his wife.
“Oh dear!” cried Dido’s mother. “Do you think a man will eat him?”
“Let us hope not,” said Mr. Bear. “Dido was caught in a trap. Well, I told him to be careful of them, but he did not mind. It is too late now. Perhaps he is happier where he is.”
And Dido was quite happy. His father and mother, soon after that, had to find another den to live in, because the animal trappers began searching through the mountains for wild creatures, and in a little while Dido was forgotten by his folks, who had troubles of their own to keep away from the hunters.