They had the fair first, because in order to put in the chairs for the audience for the play, it would be necessary to remove the tables.  In just exactly an hour and a half from the time the fair opened, every single thing was sold, cake, ice-cream, lemonade, fancy-work-table things, and all.

“Gee!” said Bobby, preparing to help Sam carry out his table, “I wonder how much we made?”

“Oh, ever so much,” guessed Dot.  “Doctor Maynard bought the pink pincushion, and I didn’t know how much change to give him, an’ he said never mind, he’d forgotten how arithmetic went.  Did you see Miss Mason, Meg?”

“Yes.  And she’s going to stay for the play.  And Mr. Carter, too,” said Meg.  “Maybe we’ll feel funny playing with them watching us.”

“No such thing!” Bobby was positive about it.  “Anyway,” he added, weakening, “we’ll have on our animal cases.”

With much talk and laughter, the room was finally cleared.  Mother Blossom had managed to save some ice-cream for the players, and they had this in great state in the kitchen while Sam was putting in the chairs for the audience.  Then Aunt Polly came out and swept every child who was to take part into the dining-room, and said they must all get into their costumes.

The living-room was long—­it had once been two rooms—­and a part of it had been reserved for the stage.  Aunt Polly didn’t bother with scenery, and yet no one had any difficulty in recognizing the first scene when two of the children jerked back the portiere curtains.

“Well, what do you know about that!” said a surprised father right out loud.

It was the story of the Three Bears they were playing, and there they all were, the Big Bear and the Middle-Sized Bear and the Littlest Bear, with their bowls of porridge and their beds made by putting two chairs together.

“Isn’t that great!” said Miss Mason, when the curtain was pulled together again.  She was so excited she never noticed she had used slang.  “Who was the cunning littlest bear?”

“Dot and Twaddles,” Father Blossom informed her proudly.  “But wait till you see the next.”

“A Day at the Zoo” came next, and Aunt Polly had planned this to give each child a chance to play.  There were six animals on the stage—­five besides the cinnamon bear that was Dot and Twaddles—­a lion, a tiger, a polar bear, a great flapping seal, and a zebra.

Each animal came forward and made a polite little bow, then recited some verses about what he thought of life in the Zoo.

When it came the polar bear’s turn, he ambled to the front of the stage with an easy lope that convulsed the audience and started off bravely with this verse, which you may have heard before.  Perhaps your mother knew it when she was a little girl: 

  “I’m a poor little bear, I belong to the show,
  I stand here and sulk, but it’s naughty, I know. 
  They want me to bow, to behave very nice,
  But I long to go home and sleep on the ice.”