"We have done our best," sighed Jackson. "We have tried to save
him
money and trouble. And now all he can do for us in return is to
give us seats for the opening performance."

What the bears cost Herrick he never told. But it was a very
large
sum. As the Countess Zichy pointed out, bears as bears, in a
state
of nature, are cheap. If it were just a bear he wanted, he
himself
could go to Pike County, Pennsylvania, and trap one. What he was
paying for, she explained, was the time she had spent in
educating
the Bruno family, and added to that the time during which she
must
now remain idle while she educated another family.

Herrick knew for what he was paying. It was the pleasure of
rescuing unwilling slaves from bondage. As to their expensive
education, if they returned to a state of ignorance as rapidly as
did most college graduates he knew, he would be satisfied. Two
days
later, when her engagement at the music hall closed, Madame Zichy
reluctantly turned over her pets to their new manager. With Ikey
she was especially loath to part.

"I'll never get one like him," she walled Ikey is the funniest
four-legged clown in America. He's a natural-born comedian. Folks
think I learn him those tricks, but it's all his own stuff. Only