“See how friendly our dogs are with the dancing bear,” said Alice, the girl, to Bob, the boy.
“Our bear is very good and tame, and he likes good dogs,” spoke George.
“Where did you get him?” asked the boy, for the automobile tire was not yet fixed, and they still had to wait beside the country road.
“I caught Dido on top of a mountain, in the woods, in a far country,” said the man. “I put some honey in a box and when he went in to get it the door fell shut and he could not get out. Then I trained him, and brought him to this country. He was a little fellow then, and he used to growl at me, but now he likes me, I think, for I try to be kind to him.”
“Yes, I do like you,” said Dido to himself. “He is good to me,” he added, speaking to the two dogs.
For though Dido, Don and Rex could understand most of the talk that went on, they themselves could not speak to the men, or to the boy
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 or girl. Then the man told the boy and girl how Dido had learned to dance, just as I have told you in the first part of this book.
“Did it all happen that way?” asked Don, of Dido, for the dogs and bear were resting in the shade now.
“That’s just the way it happened,” Dido said. “I lived in the woods with my father and mother, and my brothers Gruffo and Muffo. But I like it here now better than in the woods.”
“And how is Tum Tum, the jolly elephant?” asked Don.
“Very well,” answered Dido, “and as fond of peanuts as ever.”
“Yes, he always did like them,” barked Don, “but, as for me, I never could see much in them. The shells get in my teeth.”
“Tum Tum eats them, shells and all,” Dido said.
“Well, remember me to him when next you see him,” went on the dog who had once run away. “Tell him I would like to see him again.”
“I shall,” Dido promised, “though I don’t know when I may meet him again. He is in the circus, you know, and I am traveling about the country. Still I may see him.”
By this time the automobile tire was mended and the man called to the boy and girl to get in.
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“That means we shall have to go also,” said Don. “Well, good-by, Dido. I am glad to have met you.”
“And so am I,” said Rex, the other dog. Then they rubbed noses together, which is a sort of way animals have of shaking hands, I suppose; and then they parted.
“Don’t forget to tell Tum Tum what I told you!” barked Don, with a wag of his tail, as he jumped up with the boy and girl.
“I’ll not,” promised Dido, waving his paw at the two dogs.
Then the automobile puffed away and Tom and George led Dido down the country road, now and then stopping in front of a house to blow a tune on the brass horn, so Dido could do his tricks.
That night it rained, so the two men with the dancing bear could not sleep out in the woods. They looked around until they found a barn, and they asked the farmer if they might sleep in that.
“If you will kindly let us,” said George, “we will make our bear do tricks for you, and you will not need to give us any money in the hat.”
“Very well,” the farmer said; “you and Dido may sleep on the hay in my barn. And I will give you something to eat, though I do not know what bears like.”
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“He likes buns especially,” said George, “and I have none for him in my bag. He ate the last one this noon, and since then we have not come to a bakery where I could buy more.”
“Likes buns, does he?” asked the farmer’s wife. “Well, I have some, but they have raisins in. Do you think Dido would not like them on that account?”
“Raisins in the buns!” cried George, making a low bow. “Why he will like them all the better on that account. The buns I give him only have little currants in. He will like raisins very much better indeed.”
And Dido did. He thought he had never tasted such good buns as those the farmer’s wife gave him. And Dido did all his tricks in the barn that night, safe and dry from the rain. The farmer and his wife, the hired man and some boys and girls, came from nearby houses to watch Dido do his tricks, and no one had to give a cent because the farmer had been kind to the men, and the farmer’s nice wife had been very good to Dido.
The next morning the sun shone, for the rain had stopped, and after Dido had taken a bath, in the big trough where the farm horses drank, he and his two masters started off down the country road again, having had a good breakfast.
The farmer’s wife gave George more raisin-buns
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 to put in his bag for Dido, and the dancing bear was very glad when he saw them.
“I shall not be hungry to-day,” said Dido to himself.
Tha............