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CHAPTER 16 - THE LITTLE PINK BEAR
"
One Person and one Freak," said the big Lavender Bear when he had
carefully examined the strangers.
"
I am sorry to hear you call poor Cayke the Cookie Cook a Freak,"
remonstrated the Frogman.
"
She is the Person," asserted the King. "Unless I am mistaken, it is you who
are the Freak."
The Frogman was silent, for he could not truthfully deny it.
"
Why have you dared intrude in my forest?" demanded the Bear King.
"
We didn't know it was your forest," said Cayke, "and we are on our way to the
far east, where the Emerald City is."
"
Ah, it's a long way from here to the Emerald City," remarked the King. "It is
so far away, indeed, that no bear among us has even been there. But what
errand requires you to travel such a distance?"
"
"
Someone has stolen my diamond-studded gold dishpan," explained Cayke,
and as I cannot be happy without it, I have decided to search the world over
until I find it again. The Frogman, who is very learned and wonderfully wise,
has come with me to give me his assistance. Isn't it kind of him?"
The King looked at the Frogman.
"
"
What makes you so wonderfully wise?" he asked.
I'm not," was the candid reply. "The Cookie Cook and some others in the Yip
Country think because I am a big frog and talk and act like a man that I must
be very wise. I have learned more than a frog usually knows, it is true, but I
am not yet so wise as I hope to become at some future time."
The King nodded, and when he did so, something squeaked in his chest.
"
Did Your Majesty speak?" asked Cayke.
"
Not just then," answered the Lavender Bear, seeming to be somewhat
embarrassed. "I am so built, you must know, that when anything pushes
against my chest, as my chin accidentally did just then, I make that silly
noise. In this city it isn't considered good manners to notice. But I like your
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