I visited other large fairs with increased success, so that in the course of a year or two I had gained a great sum of money.
I soon became famous at all the great fairs where, by some, I was called the Whimsical Doctor, on account of my odd dress, face, and voice, all of which people regarded as my make-up. Several wealthy people whom I met at these fairs offered to go into partnership with me. At last I consented. I took as my partner a clever man named Tobias, who was a jeweller. He sold all his jewels, or rather, he turned all his jewels into gingerbread, and we made wagon-loads of gingerbread pills. In making the large quantities of these, however, Tobias talked to me in a way which caused me to feel, for the first time, that this method of dealing with the human race was not honourable. I began to see that human beings were not so wise as I had imagined, and that nobody ought to cheat them. The more my partner talked over our success the more I felt we were rogues. So one morning I told him that I wished to dissolve our partnership. ‘Ah,’ said he, ‘then, as you leave me, of course you will leave with me all the stock in trade, and all the money, too.’ ‘No,’ said I, ‘not all the money. Take all the pills, and welcome; but give me back half the money.’ He refused. We spoke sharply to each other and suddenly he said to me, angrily, ‘You shall have nothing. If you say anything more I will tell what I have found out about you. I know what you are. You are not a man—but a bear!’
I was thunderstruck! I fell back into my infant years as if I had fallen over a cliff. I felt I was a bear! But the next moment I seized Tobias in my arms, and lifted him up in the air, saying in a loud voice: ‘Wicked fellow! what shall I do to you?’ At this moment, however, I recollected my mother’s words. I set him down upon the ground, where he stood quite breathless with fright. Then I said to him, ‘Ungrateful man—dishonest partner,—take my money and go thy ways in peace.’
Not knowing what to do, and certainly not knowing what to think, I wandered about the country. Sometimes I sat under hedges and puzzled my brains to understand what sort of thing human reason was. I never could make it out. However, I knew that I was an imposter,—though an innocent imposter, since I could not help wearing a fur coat and a long nose.
One day when I was seated under a tree, eating a turnip, who should pass by but Tobias, all in rags, and looking very ill. Suddenly, he saw me, uttered a cry, and fell down in a fit. I went to him and placed the cool wet leaves of my turnip across his temples. This seemed to revive him and do him good. When he saw that I had no intention to hurt him he asked me to carry him to the nearest peasant’s cottage. I did so and was going away when he called me back and said, ‘I behaved very badly to you, but I was punished. When you left me nobody would buy the pills. The people called loudly for the Wonderful Doctor with the fur coat and the large nose who talked so oddly. As you were not to be found, they said I was a rascal, and an impostor, and they drove me out of the town. I was quite ruined. They seized all our pills and flung them about and the boys pelted each other with pill-boxes in the streets for at least three hours. The very same wonderful pills the world had just before been running after.’
In a few months after this Tobias had a fortune left him by a relation. He sent for me, begged my pardon for his previous behaviour, set me up in business as a merchant, and took great pains to instruct me. In the winter I dealt in pickles and preserves; and in the summer I carried on a wholesale trade in silks and velvets. He wanted me to sell furs also, but I declined that. These occupations I have followed ever since, with great industry and good success. Meantime, however, at all leisure hours I have tried to improve my mind by various studies, and, among others, I even managed to make some progress in mathematics.”
As Mr. Bear said this, all the children thought directly of Uncle Abraham, the mathematician, and were so sorry he was not present to hear about these studies.
“I should now,” continued the stout gentleman, “consider myself very happy, but for one circumstance. I confess I do not like to mention it.
How can this small heart contain
So large a world of joy and pain;