She and Russ, followed by the rest of the six little Bunkers, hurried
out to Aunt Jo's front gate. There they saw just what Sammie had said
they would--a policeman had hold of a long cord which was fastened about
the neck of a bear. And there was an excited man with a red handkerchief
tied about his throat, and he had gold rings in his ears. He was talking
to the policeman, and there was a crowd of men and children and a few
women about the bear, the policeman, and the other man, who seemed to be
the bear's owner.

"What happened?" asked Russ of a boy whom he knew, and who lived a few
doors from Aunt Jo's house.

"I don't know," was the answer. "I guess the bear bit somebody though,
and the policeman arrested it."

"No, that wasn't it," said another boy. "The bear broke into a bake shop
and ate a lot of pies. That's why the policeman is going to take it to
the station house."

"Here comes the patrol wagon!" some one else cried, and up the street
dashed the automobile from the precinct station house, its bell clanging
loudly.

"Get in!" the six little Bunkers heard the policeman say to the man with
the red handkerchief around his neck. "Get in, you and the bear! I'll
teach you to come around here!"

"Oh, maybe the bear bit the policeman," half whispered Rose.

"No, my dears," said Aunt Jo, who, with Mother Bunker, had come out to