in very tight to tease the
performer, who would sometimes growl and box the bottle with his paw,
to the great delight of the children.

At first the bear did not like beer, but he soon learned, and would
drink it down the same as any toper.

Peanuts, pop-corn, corn-cake and candy he also learned to like, and his
manner of eating these delicacies always amused the children.

Sometimes when he had been doing tricks in a village for hours he would
get very tired and lie down and sulk, when Pedro would beat and prod
him cruelly.

If the passers-by remonstrated with the Italian for treating his good
bear in this manner, Pedro would make the excuse for cruelty so often
heard in Italy, where very little consideration is shown animals.

"Huh, lady," he would say, "he no Christian, he just brute. Pedro,
Christian, bear, brute, devil."

Whenever Pedro and his companion entered a village, they were always
followed by an admiring crowd of children. As many as could, would
climb upon Black Bruin's back, and ride in triumph through the street,
while dozens, who were less fortunate, followed behind, shouting
approval.

Although it was quite a hardship for the bear to carry such a load, yet
the petting of the children was a great pleasure to him in these days
of tribulation. It reminded him of the children at the farmhouse where
every one had been so good to him. For, brute that he was, he was
still amenable to kindness, and brutalized by brutality.

CHAPTER VII

THE VAGABONDS

Pedro and Black Bruin were vagabonds, going up and down the country as
the spirit moved them, living like two tramps without home, shelter or
friends, save as they made them by the way.

Some nights they slept in haystacks, or in old barns. Sometimes they
crawled into wagon sheds and slept upon loads of grain or produce that
had been gotten ready for the morrow's marketing. More frequently they
bivouacked in the open, under the blue canopy of heaven, merely
sheltered a little by a friendly spruce or pine, with the silver moon
for a lamp, and the bright stars for candles. The great shaggy beast
and the little dark man slept in one bed, as it were. Pedro usually
pillowed his head upon Black Bruin and so the bear had to lie very
still and not disturb his master, for he got a pounding if he did.

Out here in the open all the night sounds came to them with startling
distinctness;--the cry of the nighthawk and the chirping of a cricket,