“Aren’t these buns fine?” asked Dido, as he reached for another, which had a big raisin on the top, something like the kind the farmer’s wife made.
“They are very good,” said Jacko, the hand-organ monkey. “I don’t know when I have had better buns. I’m glad we came in here.”
“So am I,” replied Dido. “Have you tried one of these sugar cookies?”
“No,” answered Jacko, “I haven’t. I’ve been so busy eating buns—”
“Oh, do try a cookie,” and the dancing bear, with his big paw, like a hand, held something out to the monkey.
“Aren’t they good?” asked Dido, after Jacko had taken a taste of the cookie.
“Indeed, yes. I’ll have another.”
So the bear and the monkey ate cookies and buns, and then Jacko found a little cake, with sugar on the top.
“Oh, Dido!” he chattered. “These cakes are the best yet. Try one.”
[93]
So Dido did, and he liked it very much.
By this time the crowd of persons who had gathered about to watch the dancing bear and the monkey saw the two animals over in the bakery. But the three men—that is, the two who owned the dancing bear, and the one who had the hand-organ—were still so busy talking that they did not notice what was going on.
“Oh, look! The bear and monkey are eating everything in the bakery!” cried a little girl. The boy who had been left in charge of the shop heard this and back across the street he rushed. He did not wish for a hand-organ any more.
The people stood in a crowd outside the bakery. The boy who should have been in the shop, but who had run out, cried:
“Let me get in there! Let me in! I must drive out that bear and monkey, or the baker will say it is my fault for letting them in!”
“You’d better not go in,” said a man. “The monkey would not hurt you, but the bear might. Call the bear’s keepers.”
“Yes, that’s the best thing to do,” said a woman.
But before the boy could do this Jacko and Dido were eating more cakes from the windows. Then they found some pies, and they liked those so much they ate three, Dido taking two because he was largest, and needed more.
[94]
“What are all the people watching us for?” asked Jacko, as he looked to see what next he would take.
“Oh, I guess they think we are doing tricks,” said Dido. “But we are only eating because we are hungry.”
“And when our masters get through talking they will pay for what we have had,” said Jacko.
Just then the baker, who had been down in the cellar of his shop, making bread and cake, came up into the store, thinking, of course, that the boy he had left in charge, to wait on customers, would be there. Instead of that the baker saw the bear and monkey eating things from his show window.
“Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!” cried the baker, three times, just like that, he was so surprised. “Oh! Oh! Oh!”
Then he ran back down in the cellar and locked the door after him. But he need not have been afraid, for neither Dido nor Jacko would have harmed him in the least.
By this time George, Tom and the hand-organ man saw what was happening. They looked across the street and saw the crowd in front of the bakery, and also saw Dido and Jacko still eating cake.
“Oh, my!” cried George. “We shall have to pay a lot of money for what our bear has eaten.”
[95]
 
Jacko and Dido were eating cakes from the window.
[96]
“And I will have to pay for what my monkey took,” said the hand-organ man.
“But they knew no better,” said George, kindly. “They were hungry, I guess. But now they must have had enough.”
And Dido and Jacko did have enough. Never before had they had such a fine feast. I forget just how much money the bear men and the hand-organ man had to pay, but it was quite a sum, for the monkey and bear had eaten many buns, pies, cookies and cakes. A bear is very big, and when he is hungry he can eat much.
“You will have to do a lot of dancing and tricks to make up for all the bakery things you took,” said George to Dido. But the ............