DON AND THE BEAR
Don did not know very much about parties――especially girls’ parties. On
the farm there had never been any parties, except for boys, and those
were mostly fishing, or nutting parties. Don never wore any ribbons to
those.
This party that Alice gave was quite different. Don was led into the
parlor, and he saw many little girls sitting about, all wearing white
dresses, with sashes of different colored ribbons.
Some of the sashes were almost as large as the little girls themselves.
On the other side of the room were the boys, and they wore black suits
and large white collars.
“Ah ha!” thought Don. “It must be Sunday, the reason they are all
dressed up so nicely. And that’s why I have to wear a red ribbon. Yes,
it must be Sunday.”
On the farm, you see, Don had seen Bob, and the others, put on
different clothes for Sunday, and he thought it was that way now. But
it was only Alice’s party.
“Oh, what a lovely big dog!” cried the girls, as Alice led Don in. “Is
he yours?”
“We found him in the pound,” answered Alice. “And he can do tricks,
too.”
Alice had found this out soon after bringing Don to her home, and she
and her father had put the dog through all the tricks that he could
perform.
“Hello, Don!” cried Rex, who was lying on a blue silk cushion. “You
want to behave your prettiest now, old chap! This is a party, you know.”
“Yes,” said Don, barking softly. He was afraid to bark too loudly, for
fear of knocking down some of the vases from the mantel.
“Now, Don!” said Alice, “show the girls and boys how you stand up on
your hind legs.”
Don kindly did this trick for Alice, as he had been used to doing it
for Bob. Then he did others, and the boys and girls clapped their hands
and laughed.
Then, when Don had finished his trick of marching around like a soldier
dog, with the broom for a gun, a boy, larger than any of the others at
the party, came into the parlor. As soon as Alice saw him she ran up to
him, crying:
[Illustration: “It’s my dog, Don, that ran away from the farm a long
while ago!”]
“Oh, Cousin Bob! I was afraid you couldn’t come, you live so far off in
the country. But I’m awfully glad you came to my party.”
“So am I glad, Cousin Alice,” said the big boy. “I came on the train.
I wouldn’t miss one of your parties for anything! Why you have a new
dog!” he exclaimed, as he saw Don.
“Yes,” answered Alice, “I got him out of the pound, where they had
taken Rex, and――”
Then Alice suddenly stopped talking, for her cousin Bob, who had come
all the way from the country to her birthday party, stood looking at
Don in a queer way. And Don was looking at Bob.
“Why――why――” began Bob. “That dog――he looks just like――why I believe
it’s my dog, Don, that ran away from the farm a long while ago!” he
cried. “It’s Don!”
Don was barking now. He did not care how many vases he jarred from the
mantel.
“Bow wow!” he barked. “Of course I’m Don, and you’re my master Bob. I
know you!”
He sprang toward the boy, and, rising up, put his paws on Bob’s
shoulder, licking his master’s face and hands with his tongue.
“Oh, look!” cried the boys and girls. “It’s another trick!”
“No, this isn’t a trick,” said Bob. “It’s just that Don is glad to see
me again, aren’t you, old fellow?”
Don barked, whined, wagged his tail and tried to do half a dozen things
at once, he was so glad to see Bob again.
And Bob was so glad to get his pet dog back that he put his arms about
his neck and hugged him tightly.
“Oh, Don!” cried Bob. “Where have you been all these weeks?”
Of course Don could not tell, and Bob could only guess.
“And is he really your lost dog?” asked Alice of Bob.
“He certainly is,” answered Bob, laughing. “But it is the strangest
thing to find him at your party. Where did you get him?”
Then Alice told of how her pet Rex had been taken away, and how she had
found him in the pound, and how Rex seemed to want Don to come home
with him.
“And so we brought him, and have kept him ever since,” said Alice. “But
of course you can have him now, Bob.”
“Thank you,” said Bob. So it turned out that Don found his master
again, in a very strange way.
“And to think that I found Don this time!” cried Bob. “We missed him so
at the farm. Squinty, the pig, runs out of his pen very often, and Don
was the only one who could get him back. Yes, we need Don at the farm.”
“Will you be glad to go back there, Don?” asked Rex, for the two dogs
understood something of what was going on.
“Yes, I think I shall be glad to get back,” answered Don. “It was very
nice here, of course,” he said, “and I like you very much, but I need
room to run about. Some day I hope you will come to the country and see
me.”
“Perhaps I shall,” said Rex. “If I come I shall probably come in the
automobile, though, and sleep on my blue silk cushion. I am so used to
that.”
Then the party went on, Don doing more tricks for Bob. And how the
other boys and girls laughed and clapped their hands!
“I wonder how I can get Don home?” said Bob, when the party was over,
after the children had eaten ice cream and cake.
“You can ride to the farm in father’s automobile,” said his cousin
Alice, “and Don can ride with you. That’s how we brought him from the
pound.”
“That will be a good way,” said Bob.
The next day, after Don had said good-by to Rex, he was taken back to
the farm in the automobile.
“Well, this is certainly better than running along on three legs,”
thought Don, whose sore foot was all well now.
When they were half-way to the farm the automobile had to stop, because
all the wind came out of one of the big tires, and James, the chauffeur
man who steered the machine, had to get out to put on a new tire.
While Bob and Alice, who rode with Bob, carrying Rex in her arms, were
waiting under the shade of a tree beside the road, they heard a bugle
horn playing.
“What’s that?” cried Alice. “Soldiers?”
“It sounds more like the horn of a fishman,” said Bob.
But it was neither one. Don smelled a strange, wild-animal smell in the
air, like the one coming from the circus passing along the road, the
day Squinty, the comical pig, had run away. Then, around a bend in the
road came two men, one of them leading a big bear by a chain, and the
other carrying the horn.
“Oh, it’s a bear!” cried Alice. “I’m afraid!”
“Don’t be afraid,” said Bob. “It’s only a tame, trained bear.”
Don and Rex both barked at the bear, but, to their surprise, the bear
spoke to them in animal language.
“Don’t be afraid,” the bear said, kindly. “I won’t hurt any one. I’m
only going to do some tricks.” And when the men spoke to him, he
turned somersaults, marched around like a soldier, with a wooden gun,
and climbed a telegraph pole.
“Isn’t that a pretty good trick?” asked the bear.
“It certainly is,” said Don. “I can do some tricks, but I can’t climb
telegraph poles.”
“Oh, I can do other things, too,” said the bear. “I have lots of fun
going about the country with my masters.”
And, in another book, to be called “Dido, the Dancing Bear,” I shall
tell you what happened to the big, shaggy creature.
Soon the automobile tire was mended, and away went Bob and Alice again,
with Don and Rex, leaving Dido, the bear, sitting on the grass with the
two men, eating a bun.
A little later Don was back on the farm again, and every one was glad
to see him after all his adventures. And, as soon as he could, Don ran
out to see Squinty, the comical pig.
“Where in the world have you been, Don?” asked Squinty.
“Oh, pretty nearly all over,” answered Don. “Has anything happened here
since I’ve been gone?”
“Oh, I was bought by a boy, and I ran away, and I went up in a balloon,
and I had many adventures,” said Squinty. “But I was glad to get back
to the farm again.”
“So am I,” said Don. And then he went to look for a juicy bone. And so
we will say good-by to Don, the runaway dog.
THE END
GOOD STORIES FOR CHILDREN
(From four to nine years old)
THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES
By RICHARD BARNUM
[Illustration]
In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous part; and
the reason is obvious, for nothing entertains a child more than the
antics of an animal. These stories abound in amusing incidents such as
children adore, and the characters are so full of life, so appealing to
a child’s imagination, that none will be satisfied until they have met
all of their favorites――Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, and the rest.
1 Squinty, the Comical Pig.
2 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel.
3 Mappo, the Merry Monkey.
4 Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant.
5 Don, a Runaway Dog.
6 Dido, the Dancing Bear.
7 Blackie, a Lost Cat.
8 Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbit.
9 Tinkle, the Trick Pony.
10 Lightfoot, the Leaping Goat.
11 Chunky, the Happy Hippo.
12 Sharp Eyes, the Silver Fox.
13 Nero, the Circus Lion.
14 Tamba, the Tame Tiger.
15 Toto, the Rustling Beaver.
16 Shaggo, the Mighty Buffalo.
17 Winky, the Wily Woodchuck.
_Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated._
BARSE & HOPKINS
Publishers
Newark, N. J. New York, N. Y.
_Stories of Adventure_
(For children from 5 to 9 years old)
The Traveling Bears Series
By SEYMOUR EATON
[Illustration]
Teddy B and Teddy G are as nearly human as it is possible for bears to
be. They love children and make playmates of them wherever they go.
They never have an idle moment, and their traveling adventures are
amusing as well as instructive.
Snappy, exciting tales, with plenty of action in every chapter and a
laugh on every page. Books which will be read as long as there are
children to read them.
1 THE ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING BEARS.
2 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN THE EAST AND WEST.
3 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN NEW YORK.
4 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN OUT-DOOR SPORTS.
5 THE TRAVELING BEARS AT PLAY.
6 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN ENGLAND.
7 THE TRAVELING BEARS ACROSS THE SEA.
8 THE TRAVELING BEARS IN FAIRYLAND.
9 THE TRAVELING BEAR DETECTIVES.
10 THE TRAVELING BEAR’S BIRTHDAY.
_Boards, Quarto, Illustrated._
BARSE & HOPKINS
_PUBLISHERS_
NEWARK, N. J. NEW YORK, N. Y.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.