"Climb a pole for the
little children, and they will give us pennies to buy buns."
There was a big pole in the middle of the animal tent, and the bear
trainer led the animal toward it.
"I make him climb dis!" he said.
"Is the pole strong enough to hold him?" asked Grandpa Brown. "The bear
is pretty heavy, I think."
"Oh, dat pole hold him! I make Alonzo climb very easy," the Italian
bear-trainer said. "Up you go, Alonzo!"
The bear stuck his long sharp claws in the pole. It was part of a tree
trunk, for the regular tent pole had been broken when the tent was
carried away in the flood.
Up and up went the bear, until he was half way to the top. The children
looked on with delight and even the old folks said it was a good trick.
And then, all of a sudden, something happened. The big centre pole,
half way up which was the bear, began to tip over. Some of the ropes
that held it began to slip, because they were not tied tightly enough to
hold the pole and the bear too.
"Look out!" called Daddy Brown. "The tent is going to fall! Run out
everybody!"
"They haven't time!" said Grandpa Brown.
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