The Trippertrots and the Dancing Bears by Howard R. Garis

The three little Trippertrots were in the house one day, looking out of the window. Suzette, the nursemaid, was in the next room, trying to mend a hole that Mary had torn in her red dress. I mean that Mary had torn a hole in her own dress, not in Suzette's, you understand, of course. And the way it happened was this:

They were playing soldiers, the Trippertrot children were, Tommy and Johnny and Mary, and Tommy had a make-believe gun. It was really the poker from the stove, but it looked something like a gun.

And they were having a great battle, making believe shoot off the poker-gun bang-bang, you know, when, all of a sudden, Mary ran past Tommy, and the poker caught in her dress, and tore a hole in the cloth.

"Oh, I'm afraid you can't play soldiers any more," said Mrs. Trippertrot. "It's too rough a game. Please play something gentle, that doesn't make so much noise."

So Mary and Tommy and Johnny played a guessing game; that is, they tried to guess how many people were in the trolley cars that passed the window, or how many letters the postman had in his bag, or how fast the butcher boy could run when a pussy cat chased him, and all guessing games like that. So that's the reason, as I told you at first, why the Trippertrots were looking out of the window of their house.

"Oh, I'm tired of this," said Tommy at last.

"And so am I," said Mary.

"What can we do? " asked Johnny.

"Oh, let's make-believe we're lost again," suggested Mary. "We can pretend that the parlor is away off downtown, and that the dining-room is another city, and the kitchen can be a cave where a fairy lives, and upstairs -- I wonder what upstairs can be?"

"That will be a mountain, of course," said Tommy. "The stairs are high, and so are mountains; and I'm going to climb one, and get lost on the top, and build a campfire, and sleep there all night."

"Pooh! You sleep upstairs all night, anyhow," said Johnny. "Our beds are there."

"Oh, but this is only a make-believe mountain," said Tommy. "Come on! All ready to play this game! We'll see who will be the first one to get lost."

Well, the Trippertrots played that game a long time, and then Suzette had Mary's dress mended, and the nursemaid went to answer the back doorbell, for the butcher boy was there with some meat for supper.

Now in about a minute you will see where the dancing bears appear in this story. I'm almost up to that part, so watch closely.

When Suzette was at the back door, Mrs. Trippertrot happened to think there was no bread in the house for dinner.

"I know what I will do," said the children's mamma. "I will just run next door to Mrs. Johnson's, and borrow a loaf. Now don't you children go outside while I'm gone! " she called to Tommy and Mary and Johnny.

"Not even in case of something most extra-extra-extraordinary happening? " asked Johnny.

"Oh, I suppose if it's something most extraordinary you may go out for a minute," answered Mrs. Trippertrot, "but don't you dare to get lost."

So they promised that they wouldn't, and then they went back to play the game of looking out of the windows, and Mary said:

"Oh, I wish something most extra-extraordinary would come along!"