DIDO THE DANCING BEAR

HIS MANY ADVENTURES

BY

RICHARD BARNUM

Author of “Squinty, the Comical Pig,” “Mappo, the Merry Monkey,” “Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant,” “Blackie, a Lost Cat,” “Flop Ear, the Funny Rabbit,” etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY

C. P. BLUEMLEIN

PUBLISHERS BARSE & HOPKINS NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J.

KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES

By Richard Barnum

Illustrated.

(Other volumes in preparation)

BARSE & HOPKINS Publishers New York

Copyright, 1916 by Barse & Hopkins

Dido, the Dancing Bear

MADE IN U. S. A.

ILLUSTRATIONS

[7]

DIDO, THE DANCING BEAR

CHAPTER I DIDO CUTS UP

In the woods, on top of a mountain, in a far-off country there once lived a family of nice bears. I call them nice bears for they were. Of course they had long claws, and sharp teeth, but they never bit any one, or scratched any one, because there were no boys or girls, or men or women, living in that part of the woods.

I suppose, though, if a boy went on top of the mountain, and began throwing stones or sticks at the nice bears, they might have run out and scratched him to make him go away. Mind, I’m not saying for sure, but maybe. But, as I have said, there were no boys in the woods to bother the bears who lived all by themselves in a den among the rocks.

A bear’s house is called a den, because it is such a nice, cozy, warm place, just as your father or[8] brother may have a room of his own, all fixed up with the things he likes best, and he calls that his den.

Well, in this den in the woods on top of the mountain lived the five bears. There was Mr. Bear, the papa, and Mrs. Bear, the mother, and there were three little bears, called cubs, just as little dogs are called puppies.

One little bear was named Gruffo, because he had such a deep, gruff voice, though it was not at all cross. And another bear was named Muffo, because he had such big, soft furry paws that when he folded them together it looked just as if he were carrying a muff.

And besides Gruffo and Muffo there was another bear, the smallest of the three, called Dido. Now I am going to tell you some of the many adventures Dido had. Adventures, you know, are what happen to you.

“Gruffo and Muffo, you must take good care of your little brother Dido when you go off playing in the woods,” said Mrs. Bear, for though the bears could not speak in our language they had talk of their own which was just as plain to them as our A B and C talk is to us.

“Take good care of Dido,” Mrs. Bear would say. “Don’t run away from him, or he might be lost. And don’t climb big trees and leave him on the ground, or something might happen[9] to him. And never take him too far out in the water of the lake when you go swimming, or he might be drowned.”

“We won’t, Mother,” said Gruffo and Muffo. “We’ll take good care of Dido.”

“Oh, I guess I can take care of myself,” said Dido, making a funny face with his queer, black, rubbery nose.

“Now that wasn’t a nice thing to say,” said Mrs. Bear, holding up her paw and gently shaking it at Dido. “You ought to be glad your bigger brothers will look after you.”

“Oh, so I am, Mother,” answered Dido. “I’m sorry I spoke that way. May they take me swimming now, down to the lake?”

“I guess so,” answered Mrs. Bear. “Run along, little cubs. I have to go out and see if I can find some berries or sweet roots for your dinner.”

Bears, you know, like to eat berries and the sweet roots of some trees and bushes. Bears also like fish, and honey. Say! if ever you have a pet bear, which might some day happen, you know, and you want to give him a special extra treat, just bring him some honey. He will love it so much that he will eat every bit of it up, box and all!

So while Dido, with his brothers Gruffo and Muffo, walked on along the mountain path to the[10] lake, Mrs. Bear went off in the woods to find some roots and berries for dinner. Of course the little bears might have been able to find some for themselves, but you know how it is with children. Even though they know where the things are to eat they like their mother to get a meal for them.

“I can run faster than you can!” cried Dido to his two brothers, as they went along through the woods. “Look!” And off he started, swinging from side to side, brushing the bushes out of his way as he went.

“Pooh! I can go faster than that!” called Gruffo in his deep voice. “Watch me!”

Then he began to run, and, as he was bigger than Dido, of course he ran faster, and soon passed him.

“I can beat you, Gruffo!” cried Muffo. “See!” Then Muffo ran, and of course he easily ran ahead of the other two bear cubs.

“Let’s have another race,” said Dido, a little later. “I think I can beat you both then,” and slipping up behind Gruffo he began tickling him in his ear with a piece of tree branch.

“Ouch! What’s that, a bee?” cried Gruffo, brushing his ear with his paw, for his ear tickled. He did not see what Dido was doing.

“Let me alone, bee!” growled Gruffo. “That is, unless you will show me the hollow tree where[11] you have some honey,” went on the bear cub. “If you do that you may tickle me all you please!”

“Ha! Ha!” laughed Muffo at the funny way Dido was tickling Gruffo. “Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!” and he nearly fell down, he laughed so hard.

Of course I don’t mean to say that bears laugh as we do, but they have their own way of making fun and laughing at it. So when I say, in this story, that a bear laughs, or talks or does anything, I mean he does it in a bear’s way, and not in our way.

“Where is that bee?” asked Gruffo. And then, as he heard Muffo laughing, and Dido giggling, Gruffo turned quickly and saw that it was his little brother tickling him in the ear with the stick.

“Here, you stop that!” cried Gruffo, and he reached out his paw to catch Dido. But Dido jumped back, and so quickly that he tripped over a tree root, and down he went, turning a back somersault.

“Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!” laughed Gruffo this time. “That was very funny, Dido. Do it again!”

“No,” answered Dido, “I will not, if you please. I did not do it on purpose, and besides, I bumped my nose when I fell.”

“Oh, that’s too bad!” said Gruffo, for he remembered[12] what his mother had said about looking after little Dido. “I’m sorry you hurt your nose,” went on Gruffo. “Still, if you had not tickled me you would not have fallen. Never mind, here is some soft mud you can hold on your nose, that will make it well.”

From a wet place, near a spring of water, Gruffo took up some soft mud, and put it on his little brother’s nose.

“Does that make the pain better?” asked Gruffo.

“Lots better, thank you,” answered Dido. For it is true that bears and other animals use mud as we do plaster and poultices. If ever your dog gets stung by a bee on the nose, you watch him hunt for some soft mud to put on the stinging place.

“Well, come on if we’re going swimming,” said Muffo, after a bit.

So the three bears went on through the woods on the mountain, until they came to the lake, where the water was blue and clear and cold. Without stopping to take off any clothes (for of course they did not wear any), the three bears plunged into the water and began swimming about. Bears love to play in the water, and that is why, in parks and other places where they keep tame bears, there is always a pool of water for them to splash in. And sometimes there is a[13] wooden ball in the water for the bears to play with, too, for bears love to play.

“Watch me dive!” cried Dido, and down he went under the water. Up he came, a little later, right near Muffo, and with his paw Dido splashed some water in Muffo’s face.

“Say, you’re cutting up a lot to-day, Dido!” cried Muffo. “What makes you do so many tricks?”

“Oh, I just feel happy!” cried Dido, gayly.

Then he swam about some more, splashing in the water of the lake, and lapping some water with his red tongue.

“I wish we could catch some fish,” said Gruffo, after a bit. “I’m hungry.”

“So am I,” said Muffo. “Let’s go fishing.”

“I’m coming, too,” said Dido.

The bears came up out of the water, with their fur dripping wet, and started to go fishing. They did not need poles or lines or hooks. All they had to do was to sit on a log, near the lake, and when, by looking down, they saw a fish swimming along they just put their claws quickly in and pulled the fish out. It was very easy for them, but it would have been hard for you or me.

“Ha! I see a fish!” suddenly cried Dido. “Watch me catch him!”

Down into the water he thrust his paw. But something was wrong. Either Dido did not see[14] the fish, and only thought he did, or he went after it too quickly. For he reached over too far, and the next thing he knew he was splashing in the lake again. He had fallen in.

“Ho! Ho!” laughed Muffo. “That’s a queer way to fish, Dido.”

“I—I didn’t meant to do that!” spluttered Dido, as he crawled out on the bank.

“Try again,” said Gruffo, as he helped his little brother out on the log. “Maybe next time you will catch one. Now you watch how I do it,” for Gruffo knew that Dido was little, and had many things to learn that bears must know if they are to get along in the woods.

Pretty soon Gruffo saw a big fish, and with one scoop of his paw he landed it on the bank.

“Oh, that’s a fine one!” cried Dido. “I wish I could catch one like that.”

“I’ll give you some of this,” said Gruffo kindly. “There is enough for all of us.”

Then he divided the fish with his two brothers, and they ate it, not stopping to cook it as we would have to do. Bears like their meat and fish without being cooked.

After they had eaten the fish, and had swam in the lake to wash their paws and faces, the three bears went back to the den in the rocks.

“Oh, Mother, we had such fun!” cried Dido. Then he saw his father asleep in the sun, and,[15] taking up a leafy branch Dido went softly over and began to tickle Mr. Bear on the nose.

“Wuff! Ker-choo!” sneezed Mr. Bear. “What’s that; a fly?”

“Oh, it’s just Dido,” said Mrs. Bear. “He’s cutting up again. You must not be too funny,” she went on, shaking her paw at her little bear cub, “or some day something may happen to you.”

And one day something did happen to Dido.

[16]

CHAPTER II DIDO IS CAUGHT

One nice, warm sunny day, when it was too hot to stay inside the den among the rocks, the nice bears were all out in front, lying in the shade of the woods.

“Oh, my! How hot it is!” cried Dido, and he opened his mouth wide, and let his red tongue hang out, for animals, such as dogs and bears, cool themselves off that way. You must have seen your dog, when he had run fast, after a cat, perhaps, open his mouth and breathe fast, with his tongue hanging out.

“Let’s go swimming in the lake again!” cried Dido to his brothers.

“All right,” agreed Gruffo.

“We’ll all go,” said Mr. Bear. “Come along.”

So off through the woods walked the family of bears toward the cool, blue lake, high up in the mountains. Dido could hardly wait to get there, and as soon as he saw, through the trees, the sparkle of the water he began to run. He ran so fast that he stumbled over a stone, and fell down.

[17]

“Oh, Dido!” called his mother. “You must be more careful. You must not go so fast. Something will happen to you some day if you do not look where you are going.”

“I didn’t hurt myself that time, anyhow,” answered Dido, as he got up, and jumped into the lake. There he swam about, as did the father and mother bear, and the other two cubs. Dido splashed his brothers every time he came near them, but they did not mind, for he was such a cute little fellow and he meant no harm. Besides, it was so warm that the more water they had on them the better Gruffo and Muffo liked it.

“It makes me hungry to go in swimming,” said Mrs. Bear. “I am going off in the woods to look for some berries.”

“I’m coming, too,” said Dido. “For I am hungry myself.”

Soon Mrs. Bear found a bush on which were growing some big red berries. These she pulled off with her forepaws, which were, to her, almost like our hands are to us, and the mother bear filled her mouth with the fruit. Dido did the same, and soon he was not as hungry as he had been. Then along came Mr. Bear, with Gruffo and Muffo, and they, too, ate the red berries off the bushes.

All at once Mr. Bear stopped eating, and, lifting[18] his nose up in the air, sniffed very hard two or three times.

“What is the matter?” asked Mrs. Bear quickly.

“I think I smell a man,” answered the papa bear. “See if you can smell anything.”

Mrs. Bear lifted her nose up in the air and she, also, sniffed. Bears, you know, as do most wild animals, use their noses as much as they do their eyes to tell when there is danger. And to wild animals a man, nearly always, means danger. If you were out in the woods, and could not see any one, you could not tell, just by smelling the air, whether some person was near you or not—that is, unless they had a lot of perfume on them, and then, if the wind was blowing toward you, why you might smell that.

But bears have much better noses for smelling than have we, and they can smell a man in the woods even if he has no cologne on him.

“Sniff! Sniff!” went Mr. Bear.

“Sniff! Sniff!” went Mrs. Bear.

“Yes, I can surely smell a man,” the papa bear said in a low voice. “It is the first time I have known them to come around here.”

“And so can I smell a man,” added Mrs. Bear. “We had better get away from here.”

Then the bears ran off through the woods to their den. For though big bears are very strong[19] and can fight well, they would much rather run away from a man than fight him, unless they find they can not get away. For when a man goes into the woods where there are bears he nearly always has a gun with him, and while bears know they are stronger than a man they also know that a gun is stronger than a dozen bears.

When Dido, with his brothers and father and mother, got back to the den in the rocks, the little bear cub saw that his father was worried about something. Mr. Bear walked up and down in front of the pile of rocks, sniffing the air, and looking on all sides.

“What is the matter, Papa?” asked Dido, in bear talk, of course.

“It’s that man I smelled in the woods,” said Mr. Bear. “I fear he may find our den.”

“Well, what if he does?” asked Dido.

“Then it would not be safe for us to stay here,” answered Mrs. Bear. “If men are coming into our woods it is time for us to go away.”

“What! go away from our nice den?” asked Gruffo. For though the den was only a hole in the rocks, with a pile of leaves in one corner for a bed, still, to the bears, it was as much a home as your house is to you.

“Yes, it would not be safe to stay while men are around,” said Mr. Bear. “That is the first time I have ever smelled them in our woods.[20] Though a friend of mine, Mr. Lion, who lives farther down the mountain, said he has often seen men near his cave. Once some men on elephants chased him, but he got away.”

“Have you ever seen a man?” asked Dido of his father.

“Oh, yes, often, but always afar off. And the men did not see me.”

“What does a man look like?” asked Dido, for he had never seen any, though he had heard of them.

“A man is a queer creature,” said Mr. Bear. “He walks up on his hind feet, as we do sometimes, but when he walks on his four feet he can only go slowly, like a baby. Even you could run away from a man on his four feet, Dido.”

“How queer!” said the little bear.

“But don’t try it,” said Mrs. Bear quickly. “Keep away from men, Dido, for they might shoot you with one of their guns.”

“What else is a man like?” the little bear asked.

“Well, he has a skin that he can take off and put on again,” said Mr. Bear.

“Oh, how very funny!” cried Dido. “Take off his skin? I should think it would hurt!”

“It doesn’t seem to,” said the papa bear. “I don’t understand how they do it, but they do.”

Of course what Mr. Bear thought was skin[21] was a man’s clothes, which he takes off and puts on again. But though bears are very wise and smart in their own way, they don’t know much about men, except to be afraid of them.

“I do not like it that men are coming up in our woods,” said Mr. Bear. “It means danger. So be careful, Dido, and you, too, Gruffo and Muffo, that you do not go too far away. Perhaps the man has come up here to set a trap to catch us.”

“What is a trap?” asked Dido.

“It is something dangerous, to catch bears,” his mother told him. “Some traps are made of iron, and they have sharp teeth in them that catch bears by the leg and hurt very much. Other traps are like a big box, made of logs. If you go in one of these box traps the door will shut and you can not get out.”

“What happens then?” asked Dido.

“Then the man comes and gets you.”

“And what does he do with you?” the little bear cub wanted to know.

“That I can not say,” answered Mrs. Bear. “Perhaps your father knows.”

Mr. Bear shook his head.

“All I know,” he answered, “is that the man takes you away if he finds you in his trap. But where he takes you I do not know, for I was never caught, and I hope I never will be.”

[22]

“I hope so, too,” said Dido, and he sniffed the air to see if he could smell the man, but he could not.

For a number of days after that the bears did not go far from their den in the rocks. They were afraid the man might shoot them.

But, after a while, all the berries and sweet roots close by had been eaten, and the bears had to go farther off. Besides, they wanted some fish, and they must go to the lake or river to catch them. So after Mr. Bear had carefully sniffed the air, and had not smelled the man-smell, the bears started off through the woods again to get something to eat.

Dido ran here and there, sometimes on ahead and again he would stay behind, slipping up back of his brothers to tickle them. Oh, but Dido was a jolly little bear, always looking for fun.

The bears found some more red berries, and a few blue ones, and some sweet roots, and they also caught some fish, which made a good dinner for them. Then they went swimming in the lake again before going back to their den.

In the afternoon, when Gruffo was asleep in the shade, Dido went softly up to him, and poured a paw full of water in his brother’s ear.

[23]

[24]

“Wuff! Ouch! What’s that? Is it raining?” cried Gruffo, suddenly waking up. Then he saw that Dido had played the trick on him, and he ran after the little bear. But Dido climbed up a tree to get away, and he did it in such a funny way, his little short tail going around like a Fourth of July pinwheel, that Gruffo had to sit down and laugh.

“Oh, you are such a funny cut-up bear!” he said, laughing harder than ever, and when a bear laughs he can’t very well climb a tree.

“Come on down, I won’t do anything to you,” said Gruffo, after a while, so Dido came down. Then he turned somersaults on a pile of soft leaves. Next he stood on his hind legs, and began striking at a swinging branch of a tree with his front paws, as you have seen a kitten play with a cord of a window curtain.

“Dido is getting to be a real cute little cub,” said Mrs. Bear.

Then, all of a sudden, Dido struck at the tree branch, but he did not hit it and he fell over backward.

“Look out!” cried Mr. Bear. “You’ll hurt yourself, Dido.”

“I didn’t hurt myself that time,” said the little bear, “for I fell on some soft, green moss.”

“Well, there will not always be moss for you to fall on,” his mother said. “So look out.”

One day, when Mr. Bear came back from a long trip in the woods, he brought some wild[25] honey in his paws. And oh! how good it tasted to Dido and Gruffo and Muffo!

“Show me where the bee-tree is, Papa,” begged Dido. “I want to get some more honey.”