“Those are good tricks,” said the strange man. “I will buy your bear and take him to a circus. There I will have him do tricks in the ring. Do you think he will?”
“Oh, yes,” answered George. “He was in a circus once before, but for only a little while. Perhaps he may remember about it.”
The three men went back to the hotel, leaving some buns for Dido to eat. And the dancing bear wondered what was going to happen to him.
Pretty soon George came out to where Dido was chained in the stable. George gave Dido a piece of berry pie, and said:
“Good-by, Dido. Tom and I are going to sell you to this circus man. But he will be good and kind to you, and teach you new tricks. So go with him and be a good bear. Tom and I are going back to the mountains of our own country, and perhaps we will catch more bears. Good-by, Dido.”
Tom came out, and blew a sad little tune on the brass horn. Then he too said good-by to Dido, and the two men who had traveled around with Dido so many months went away. Dido ran after them as far as his chain would let him, and then he lay down and put his head between his paws.
Animals don’t cry, of course, but they can feel sad when their kind masters or mistresses go away, and I am sure Dido felt sad. Dogs sometimes feel so badly at being parted from their masters that they will not eat.
But Dido was not that way. A little later, when the circus man came out to the stable with a nice piece of fish for the dancing bear, Dido ate it and was very glad to get it.
“Now, Dido,” said the man, “you are my bear, and I will be good to you. We are not going about the country any more, to let you go dancing in the streets and fields. You are going to perform in a circus ring, under a tent, something like you did before, and I think you will like it.”