Then they began to eat, for this Sadie lady was one who loved animal children, and was always giving dinner parties, and affairs like that for them.  Oh!  Such good things as there were to eat, and when it was all over, and the candy and nuts were served, the Sadie lady read some poetry about a funny little lake, all made of sweet ice cream, and every time you fell in it you had a funny dream.

Then, after supper, they all sat about the fire on the hearth—­Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey Gander and all the animal children, and the Sadie lady and Uncle Wiggily told ghost stories, and all sorts of other tales.

And, all of a sudden, just at the most scary part, where the big giant falls down stairs, jumps over the cot bed and scares Cora Janet’s doll and Pocahontas and Ethel Rose—­all of a sudden, I say, just as Uncle Wiggily got to that part, there was a noise out on the porch, and a voice cried: 

“I want to come in!  I must come in!”

“Oh, dear!” gasped Flop Ear.

“Who can that be?” asked Curly Tail, and he shivered so that you would have thought he was eating cold ice cream again, only he wasn’t, for he was chewing on hot marshmallows.

“Let me in!  Let me in!” cried the voice again.

“Oh, it’s the bad skillery sealery alligator!” cried Flop Ear.  “I know it is.”

“Or else the fuzzy fox!” spoke Curly Tail, and just then there was a noise at the window, and they all looked up, and there stood a big black bear, tapping his paws on the glass.

“Oh, wow!” cried Uncle Wiggily.

“Sour milk and maple sugar pancakes!” yelled Grandpa Squealer, and everyone was so frightened that no one knew what to do.  But the Sadie lady cried out: 

“Ha!  I’m not going to have a bad bear break up my dinner party in this way!” so she caught up a box of marshmallows, opened the window, and tossed the white sugar coated candies right in the bear’s face.

All over him they flew, and he was so surprised that he thought it was snowing big white flakes.

“Oh, wow!” the bear cried.  “Winter is here, and I must hurry back to my den before I get snowed in.  I thought I was going to have a good supper, but I guess I was mistaken.  Oh, woe is me!  It’s snowing!  It’s snowing!”

Then he ran down off the porch as fast as he could, and the Sadie lady called up the policeman dog on the telephone, and she hollered like anything because she was so excited.

But there was no need for the police, for the bear was so kerslostrated by the marshmallows and the powdered sugar snow flying all over him that he went and hid in his den for a week and a day, and didn’t bother anyone for sometime.

Then Ethel Rose, one of the real pretty girls at the party, and Pocahontas, the Indian maid, and Cora Janet’s doll and everybody else had more ice cream, and then they went home; and so did Curly Tail and Flop Ear, and the Sadie lady’s dinner party was over, but every one said it was just fine, and they wanted to know when she was going to have another.