“Don’t be afraid of me, little pony. I won’t hurt you!”
“Who are you?” asked Tinkle, wonderingly.
“I am Dido, the dancing bear,” was the answer, “and I have had many adventures that have been put into a book.”
CHAPTER VII
TINKLE DOES SOME TRICKS
For a few seconds Tinkle stood looking at Dido, the dancing bear, not knowing what to do or say. Some ponies would have been afraid of a bear. They would have snorted, stood on their hind legs, and maybe have run away. But Tinkle had never seen a bear before, no one had ever told him about them, and he really did not know enough to be afraid. Besides, Dido seemed such a funny, good-natured and happy bear that I believe no one would have been afraid of him.
“So you are Dido, the dancing bear, are you?” asked Tinkle. “And you say you are in a book. What does that mean?”
“I’ll tell you,” went on Dido, while his master, the man who blew such jolly tunes on the brass horn, was picking up some apples that had fallen from a roadside tree. He let Dido walk on ahead, without even a string tied to him, for he knew that Dido would not run away.
“You see, it’s this way,” went on the dancing bear. “Years ago I used to live in the woods with my father and mother, sisters and brothers.”