CHAPTER VIII
TINKLE IS TAKEN AWAY
“That’s fine!” cried George, as Tinkle, after having jumped over the stick, came trotting up to get the sugar. “Soon you’ll be as good as Dido, the dancing bear.”
“Well, I guess I did pretty well for a beginner,” thought Tinkle to himself, as he crunched the sugar in his strong white teeth. “Now I hope they will let me alone, or else drive me hitched to the cart or ride on my back.”
But George and the coachman were not yet through with Tinkle. They wanted to be sure he understood how to do the trick. So they set up the stick again, and George held out more sugar. This time the pony knew what to do at once, and, with a bound, over the stick he went.
“Oh, I want Mabel to see this!” cried George. “Come on out!” he called to his sister. “Come on out and see Tinkle do a trick!”
Mabel was as much pleased as was her brother. She, too, held out the sugar and Tinkle came to her as he had to George, leaping over the stick. Tinkle would do almost anything for lumps of sugar.
“Well, this is enough for the first day,” said the coachman to the children. “We don’t want Tinkle to get tired. Go take him for a drive now, and to-morrow we can teach him other tricks.”
Off in the pony cart rode the two children. Half-way down the street they met Tommie and Nellie Hall, and invited them to have a drive.
“Did you see the trained bear?” asked Tommie of George. “A man was leading him past our house. He did a lot of tricks.”
“We’re going to teach our pony to do tricks like those,” cried Mabel.