XVIII In Which the Pretty Lady Carries a Passenger into the Wide Wide World 149 XIX In Which Little Black Bear Spends a Night in the Forest 159 XX In Which Little Black Bear Meets Shagg, the Carpenter 169 XXI In Which Little Black Bear Adds Still More to His Story 181 XXII In Which Dan Meets Beader, of the Jumping Dragoons 192 XXIII In Which Dan Spends a Night in the Valley of Tick Tock 204 XXIV In Which Dan is Presented with the Key to the Valley 216 XXV In Which Dan Hears the Clock Strike One 227 XXVI We Say Goodbye to Diggeldy Dan 239 ILLUSTRATIONS “‘Who—may—you—be?’ exclaimed the four in surprise” _Frontispiece_ In a very twinkling, there appeared the most beautiful circus lady one ever laid eyes upon _Page_ 10 Away they all went, down through the line „ 35 “Then he picked up his left foot and began to use its toes for counters” „ 59 And so this strangest of all circuses began „ 83 “Something came from out the air, and swept me square off my toes” „ 95 Little Black Bear gladly did his tricks over and over again „ 185 At the boom of “One” the mice fairly rained into the Great Room „ 235 THE ADVENTURES OF DIGGELDY DAN CHAPTER I IN WHICH DAN MEETS THE PRETTY LADY WITH THE BLUE-BLUE EYES Had you tiptoed to the very edge of a certain town, on a certain day not so very long ago, you would have come upon a great sprawling cluster of big and little tents. And had you held your breath and walked ever so quietly, you would finally have reached an open space in the very center of the bigger tents, where stood a small white tent that seemed far more interesting than all the rest. Just why it seemed so would have been hard to tell, unless it was because—though there was not so much as a thimbleful of wind astir—a certain spot in its canvas wall kept bulging in and out, after the fashion of a curtain in the breeze. At times, this spot would settle back into place, only to start jiggling a moment later, just as though there were some one inside the tent, clutching at its wall and shaking it, much as a monkey rattles the bars to its cage.