“Oh, maybe the bear bit the policeman,” half whispered Rose.

“No, my dears,” said Aunt Jo, who, with Mother Bunker, had come out to see what the excitement was about and why the six little Bunkers had run so fast around the side of the house.  “Nothing much at all happened, my dears,” said Aunt Jo.  “But in this part of Boston, at least, they don’t allow performing bears in the streets.  That is why the policeman is taking this one away.  The man, who is an Italian, led his tame bear along the street and started to have the animal do tricks.  But we don’t allow that in this Back Bay section.”

“Will he shoot the bear?” asked Mun Bun breathlessly.

“Oh, no,” said Aunt Jo with a laugh.  “The poor bear has done nothing, and his master did not know any better than to bring him here.  They will just make them go to another part of the city, where, perhaps, performing bears are not objected to.  Whether they allow them anywhere in Boston or not, I can’t say.  But he will be taken away from here.”

The automobile patrol, with the bear and man in charge of the policeman, rumbled away.  The crowd waited a little while, and then, as nothing more seemed likely to happen, it began to scatter.

“I’m glad we saw it,” said Russ, as he turned back into the yard.

“So’m I,” added Laddie.  “It’s ’most as much fun as digging for gold.  Say, Russ, I hope we find some, don’t you?”

“I sure do!  I wish we were at Cousin Tom’s right now.  I want to start digging for that treasure.”

“Don’t be too sure of finding any,” said Mother Bunker, who heard what her two little boys were saying.  “Many persons dig for gold but never get any.”

“Oh, we’ll get some,” declared Russ, and if you read this book through you will find out that what Russ said came true.

After supper that evening, when they had finished talking about the bear that had been arrested, Laddie and Vi wanted to go out into the yard and start digging.

“Oh, no,” said their mother.  “You have been washed and dressed, and digging will get you dirty again.  Better wait until to-morrow.”

“I thought we were going to start to pack to-morrow to go to Cousin Tom’s,” remarked Rose.

“So we are, but I guess you’ll have time to dig for a little gold,” returned Mother Bunker with a laugh.  “Though that doesn’t mean you will find any,” she went on with another laugh.

The next day Laddie and Vi did start to dig in a place where Aunt Jo said it would do no harm to turn over the ground.

“Though if there is a golden treasure in my yard I never knew it,” she said.  “But dig as much as you like.”

“I—­I just thought of a riddle,” said Laddie, as he and Vi started out.

“Let me hear it,” suggested Aunt Jo.

“What is it that’s so big you can’t put it in anything?” he asked.  “That’s the riddle.  What is it that’s so big you can’t put it in anything in this world?”