barn. They wished they could kiss George, the big, kind bear, good-by,
but it was impossible—which means you can’t do it.
Oh! how fast Neddie and Beckie ran. Over the fields and through the
woods they went, until the circus barn was left far, far behind. And
finally, just as night was coming on, the two little children bears
reached the cave in the side of the hill where they lived, and they were
safe home again, and oh! how glad their papa and mamma and Aunt Piffy,
the fat bear lady, were to see them. And of course Mr. Whitewash, the
Polar bear, and Uncle Wigwag, the trick-playing bear, were glad also.
And oh! such a good supper as Neddie and Beckie had.
“We’re never going to run away again!” they said.
So that’s all to this story, but in the next one, if the dog barking at
the moon in our backyard doesn’t take off his collar and tie it on my
pussy cat’s neck, I’ll tell you about Neddie Stubtail and little Wuzzy
Fuzzytail.
STORY XIII
NEDDIE AND WUZZY FUZZYTAIL
“Come, children, it’s time to get up!” called Mrs. Stubtail, the bear
lady, as she stood at the foot of the stairs in the cave-house, on the
side of the green hill, one morning. “Come, Neddie! Come, Beckie!”
Up out of their beds in the soft, brown autumn leaves jumped Neddie and
Beckie.
“Oh, is that the Professor man, going to make us do our trick of
see-sawing on the elephant’s back?” cried Beckie, rubbing her eyes.
“Or maybe it’s George, the tame bear, calling us,” said Neddie. Then he
and his sister looked at each other, and they both laughed.
“Why, we’re in our own home!” exclaimed Beckie, looking around.
“So we are! And not in the circus barn at all!” added Neddie, as he
noticed his own room in the cave. Then he and his sister laughed again,
jumped into their little bear suits, and slid down the stair rail to
breakfast.
[Illustration]
“Well, isn’t it good to be home again?” asked Mrs. Stubtail, as she put
some more corn griddle cakes on the stove to cook.
“Indeed, it is!” said Beckie.
“And I guess you didn’t get any nice sweet maple syrup honey like this
when you ran away from home, to go with the Professor man, and George,
the trick bear; did you?” asked Aunt Piffy, the fat old lady bear.
“Indeed, we didn’t!” exclaimed Beckie, as she took another cake. “And
when you called us to breakfast just now, mamma, we thought we were back
in the barn again, with all the circus animals.”
“Well, what are we going to do to-day?” asked Neddie, as he pushed back
his chair. And, just as he did it, Uncle Wigwag, the old gentleman bear,
who was always playing tricks on the animal children, tipped Neddie over
backward.
“Oh, my!” cried the bear boy.
“Don’t be frightened!” called Uncle Wigwag with a laugh. “I’m not going
to let you fall!” And with that he caught Neddie, chair and all, up in
his big paws and gave him a bear hug; he was so glad to see his little
nephew back home again.
“Well, I know what I’m going to do,” said Beckie, “I’m going to give my
doll, Mary Ann Puddingstick Clothespin, a nice bath, and put a clean
dress on her.” For, you see, the rubber doll had got rather mussed up
traveling around through the woods.
“I know what you are both going to do,” said Mrs. Stubtail, with a
smile. “You are both going to school. You have missed enough lessons as
it is, running off the way you did.
“I’ll not punish you, although you did give us a bad fright, but you
really must go back to school.”
“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Neddie, scratching his nose with his claws.
“That’s what I say!” spoke Beckie. You see, she and Neddie had been out
of school nearly a week now, and it was rather hard to go back again.
But they were pretty good little bear children—not too goody-goody, you
know, but good enough—and so they went to school.
And something happened soon after they reached their classes. Neddie
talked in school. You see, the way it was, Joie Kat leaned over and
asked him:
“Where have you been all this while?”
And Neddie answered back:
“Oh, in a circus. I’ll tell you all about it at recess.”
The teacher heard them whispering, and kept both the little bear boy and
the kitten chap in after school. Joie Kat got out first, because he
finished his punish-lesson sooner than Neddie.
And when Neddie Stubtail finally got out of school there was none of the
other animal boys to be seen. Every one, from Sammie Littletail, the
rabbit, to Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck, and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow,
the puppy dog boys, had all run off to play.
“Well,” said Neddie, “I guess I’ll have to go home alone. Never mind,
maybe I’ll have an adventure.” An adventure, you know, is something that
happens; like when you drop your candy-penny down a crack in the
boardwalk.
Well, Neddie was walking along through the woods, and wishing he could
find a lollypop, or maybe some honey cakes, when, all of a sudden, he
heard a little crying voice down under a pile of leaves. And it was such
a sad, baby sort of crying voice that Neddie was not at all frightened.
He just looked around to see who it was, thinking perhaps it might be
Jillie Longtail, the little mousie girl.
But instead he saw a big tail sticking out from under the leaves, and
when Neddie had poked them away with his paw there he saw only Wuzzy
Fuzzytail, the tiny little fox boy.
“Oh, hello, Wuzzy!” cried Neddie. “What are you doing here?”
“I—I’m lost!” sobbed Wuzzy Fuzzytail. “I’m lost and I don’t know where
my home is—boo-hoo!”
“Oh, never mind! Don’t cry!” said Neddie. “I’ll take you home. Why did
you hide under the leaves?”
“Well,” said Wuzzy, “when I heard you coming along through the woods, I
didn’t know who it was. I thought maybe it was a bad bear, so I hid
under the leaves. Boo-hoo!”
“Don’t cry!” said Neddie again. “I’ll take care of you.”
“Oh, boo-hoo!” still sobbed Wuzzy.
“Don’t say boo-hoo!” spoke Neddie. “Just say it backward for a
change—say ‘Hoo-boo!’ Maybe that will make you stop crying.”
“Hoo-boo!” said Wuzzy Fuzzytail, the little fox boy, and, surely enough,
when he said that he stopped crying at once.
Then Neddie took the paw of the little fox boy in his own big one, and
away they went through the woods together toward the hollow log where
Wuzzy lived with his papa and mamma.
“I’m awful glad you found me, Neddie,” said Wuzzy Fuzzytail to the bear
boy. “I wish I could do you a favor for being so kind to me.”
“Oh, that’s all right!” said Neddie, sort of careless-like. “Maybe you
can, some day.”
Well, they were going along through the woods, when, all of a sudden,
they saw right in front of them the bad old skillery-scalery alligator.
“Ah, ha!” cried the unpleasant creature with the hump nose, “at last I
have you, Neddie Stubtail! And a little fox, too. Better and better!
Well, I’ll take the bear first and the fox boy afterward,” and with that
he grabbed Neddie.
“Oh, dear!” cried the bear boy. “Now I am caught. This comes of being
kept in after school.”
He tried to get away from the alligator, but could not, and he felt very
sad. Poor little Wuzzy did not know what to do, so he just stood there
shivering and wondering who would take him home in case the alligator
carried Neddie away.
But foxes are very smart, even when they are small, and Wuzzy was a
bright little chap. So, when he saw the alligator taking Neddie away,
Wuzzy said to himself:
“I wonder if I can’t help him? He helped me, so it is only fair that I
should help him. What can I do?”
He thought a minute and then he said:
“Ah, ha! I have it. I’ll bite the alligator’s tail. He will be so
surprised that he will give a jump, and then maybe Neddie can get away.”
So, going softly up behind the alligator, who did not see him, Wuzzy
nipped the alligator on the little end of his tail. And Wuzzy Fuzzytail
had very sharp teeth, let me tell you, as all foxes have. He gave the
’gator a good, hard nip.
“Ouch! Wow! Horsecars and mustard seed!” cried the alligator, and he
jumped around so suddenly, to see who was biting him, that he let go of
Neddie.
“Now’s your chance, Neddie! Run!” cried Wuzzy. And how Neddie did run!
Wuzzy ran after him, and soon they were so far away that the alligator
could not catch them. Then Neddie took Wuzzy home, and Mrs. Fuzzytail
thanked the bear boy very much and gave him a piece of cake.
Then Neddie went home himself and he didn’t whisper in school any more
that day. So that’s all to this story.
And to-morrow night if the poll-parrot doesn’t call the poodle dog funny
names and bite a hole in the firecracker, I’ll tell you about Beckie
making a doll’s dress.
STORY XIV
BECKIE MAKES A DOLL’S DRESS
“Beckie! Beckie, where are you?” called Neddie Stubtail, the little boy
bear, one morning after breakfast. “Come along! You’ll be late for
school. I’m not going to wait for you.”
“I’m coming,” answered Beckie from inside the cave-house on the side of
the hill. “I’m coming! Wait a minute!”
“I’m not going to wait, and be late!” said Neddie, and he was not quite
as polite as he might have been.
“Oh, Neddie!” exclaimed Aunt Piffy, the fat old lady bear, puffing and
blowing, for she had been down cellar after some potatoes, and when she
came up stairs she always puffed and blew.
“Why, Neddie!” she went on, “you should (puff) wait for (puff) your
little (puff) sister. She doesn’t very often (puff) ask you to (puff) do
it. More times she has to (puff) wait for you!”
“Oh, well, I’ll wait,” said Neddie, and he felt the least little bit
ashamed of himself for having talked that way to his sister. “But I
don’t want to be late,” he added.
“You won’t be late—I’m coming!” called Beckie. “I just wanted to find my
needle and thread.”
“Needle and thread!” cried Neddie. “You don’t mean to tell me, do you
Beckie, that you’ve torn your dress and have to stop and sew it? And the
last bell will ring in a few minutes! Oh, I’m not going to wait at all
any longer! I’m going!” And off the little bear boy started, holding out
his little stubby tail as stiff and straight as he could. But at that it
wasn’t much larger than your thumb, and you could hardly notice it.
“No, indeed, I haven’t torn my dress, and I don’t have to stop to sew it
up,” said Beckie, as she came running out of the cave-house. “Wait a
minute, won’t you please, Neddie? I’m just taking my needle and thread
and some pieces of silk to school with me so I can make my new doll,
Sarah Janet Picklefeather, a new dress.”
“What, make your doll a dress in school?” cried Neddie, stopping and
turning around. “Teacher never will let you, Beckie Stubtail—never! And
you know it!”
“Oh, but I’m not going to sew in school,” said Beckie, sweetly. “I’m
taking my lunch with me, and I’m not coming home to dinner, and I’m
going to sew on my doll’s dress during the noon recess. And I’ve got
some honey cakes for my lunch, too!”
“Oh, wow!” cried Neddie. “So that’s how it is, eh? Then I’m going to
take my lunch, too, and stay at school and have some fun. May I have
some honey cakes, mamma?”
“Oh, yes, I guess so,” answered Mrs. Stubtail, who, with Aunt Piffy, had
come to the door to see the children start for school.
Then Neddie ran back to get his lunch put up. And such a busy time as
there was, for a few minutes. Mrs. Stubtail and Aunt Piffy both tried to
put the lunch up, so Neddie would not be late, and Mrs. Stubtail dropped
the bread, butter side down, and Aunt Piffy lost her breath and could
hardly find it again. Then Uncle Wigwag, the bear gentleman, who was
always playing tricks, sat down in the fly paper by mistake, and Mr.
Whitewash, the polar bear gentleman, had to pull the sticky stuff off
his friend, Uncle Wigwag.
And that wasn’t all. For Mr. Whitewash was shaving his whiskers, and
when he wasn’t looking, Mrs. Stubtail knocked over the molasses pitcher
into his cup, full of soap-suds lather, and when Mr. Whitewash went to
lather his face again he was almost as badly stuck up as Uncle Wigwag
was with the fly paper.
Oh, my! Such goings on!
But, finally, Neddie’s lunch was put up and all this while Beckie waited
for him, and she never once said “hurry up!” or “I’m going on, we’ll be
late!” Not once did she say it, though she might well have done so,
since the last bell had been ringing for some time.
But finally Beckie and Neddie got to school and they were only about one
forty-’leventh part of a second late, and that didn’t count.
I wish I could tell you all that happened in school that day—how Neddie
went to the blackboard, and wrote a fine story of a poodle dog that
could stand on its head. And how Joie Kat drew such a real-like picture
of a mouse that Tommie Kat, Joie’s brother, wanted to chase it, and it
was all his sister Kittie Kat could do to stop him.
But I haven’t room to tell you any of those things now. I must tell you
about Beckie making her doll’s dress. Now, hold on, boys, if you please.
You might think this is a girl’s story, but it isn’t—that is not all of
it, even if it is partly about a doll’s dress.
If you just listen you’ll see that Beckie did a very brave thing, which
shows you that girls can do things as well as boys can, and lots of
times better. Take, for instance, braiding hair—a boy couldn’t braid his
hair to save him, but look how easily a girl can do it, and chew gum,
and read a book and talk, all at the same time. Well, I guess!
Anyhow, pretty soon it was recess time, and all the animal children
could come out of school. Some went home to their dinner, and others,
who had brought their lunch, found nice cozy places where they could eat
it.
Neddie went off with Tommie and Joie Kat, and with Jackie and Peetie Bow
Wow, the puppy dog boys. And as soon as Beckie had finished her lunch
she got out her needle and thread and thimble and the pieces of silk,
and began to make a dress for her doll, Sarah Janet Picklefeather.
First she sewed in some—tuckers, I think they’re called, or maybe it was
puckers. Anyhow, she sewed them in the dress, Beckie did, to make it
look nice.
Then the little bear girl made a few frills around the neck and down the
side she sewed in some rosettes. Around the middle she gathered some
insertions, and then on the bottom—let me see now, what did she put on
the bottom? Oh, I know, it was a ruffle. (You boys may skip this part if
you like. I wouldn’t write it only I have to put in something about the
dress, or the girls wouldn’t read the story.)
Where were we? Oh, I remember. We’d gotten to the bottom part of the
dress. And that reminds me, if we’re at the bottom of the dress that’s
all there is to it, and I can stop, and so I’m at the end of that part,
and don’t have to write any more, thank goodness!
Anyhow, Beckie was sitting on the steps of the school, in the warm
sunshine, sewing away on Miss Picklefeather’s dress, making her needle
go in and out, when, all of a sudden, along came a bad old, big bear who
didn’t like little bear girls, nor bear boys, either.
“Ah, ha!” growled the bad bear. “This is the time I have caught you!
I’ve been waiting a long time to get you! Now I’m going to carry you
off to my den, and make you wash dishes for ever and ever.
Bur-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!”
Beckie looked up quickly and started to run, but she had no chance. The
bad bear was right in front of her, and the door, before which she was
sitting, was one that was hardly ever used, so it had been locked.
Beckie couldn’t escape that way. She looked all around the school yard,
but none of her friends was in sight. Neither was Neddie, who might have
saved her, and as for the teacher, she had gone home to her dinner.
“Oh, help! Help!” cried poor little Beckie. She didn’t want the bear to
take her away, and, as for washing dishes, she just hated that work,
though she didn’t mind doing them for her mamma.
“Pooh! No one will help you!” cried the bad bear. “So don’t bother to
call. Come along!” And he reached out his paws to grab Beckie. Then he
happened to notice the doll’s dress, and, being a very curious sort of
bear, he asked: “What are you doing?”
“I am making a dress for my doll,” answered Beckie, as politely as she
could, with all her trembling. Then she thought of a trick to play on
that bear. “Would you like to see me sew on the doll’s dress?” Beckie
asked, sweetly.
“Well, you might show me one or two stitches,” said the bear, sort of
careless-like. “But, mind you, I’ll carry you off just the same.”
“All right,” answered Beckie. “Look closely now. You see, I put the
needle in this side of the silk and I push it through with my thimble.”
“Yes,” said the bear, “I see.”
“Now look closely,” said Beckie, and the bear leaned forward and put his
nose and eyes close down. “And then,” said Beckie, “I pull my needle out
this way, and—I stick it in your soft and tender nose—that way!” And
with that she did it, jabbing the needle into the bear’s nose!
“Oh, wow!” cried the bad bear, and he was so surprised that he turned a
back somersault and then he ran away off in the woods to get some honey
to put on his sore nose. So he didn’t take Beckie away after all. Which
shows you that it’s a good thing to make a doll’s dress, sometimes.
Then, soon the other children came back to school, and so did the
teacher, and lessons went on and everybody said Beckie was very brave.
And I think so, too, and in the story after this, if the ashman doesn’t
take our furnace out in the yard so that it catches cold and can’t go to
the moving picture show, I’ll tell you about Neddie’s joke on Uncle
Wigwag.
[Illustration]
STORY XV
NEDDIE’S JOKE ON UNCLE WIGWAG
“What is the matter? Why are you laughing so much?” asked Aunt Piffy,
the fat old lady bear, of Uncle Wigwag, the comical old bear gentleman,
one morning at the breakfast table.
“Oh, ho! Ha, ha! I tee-hee—ho—ho! I just can’t help it!” said Uncle
Wigwag, giggling, so that he spilled some honey on the tablecloth. And
Mrs. Stubtail, the mamma bear, said:
“Oh, there you go again!”
“Excuse me!” spoke Uncle Wigwag, and then he laughed some more, and some
milk he was drinking went down his Sunday throat, and, as the day
happened to be Thursday, it was altogether wrong you see, and Uncle
Wigwag choked and sniffed and snuffled and laughed, all at the same
time.
“Well, I do declare!” exclaimed Aunt Piffy, as she patted Uncle Wigwag
on the back, so he wouldn’t lose his breath. And he didn’t, I’m glad to
say, but Aunt Piffy accidentally pounded him so hard that she lost part
of her own breath, and when she talked next time she had to go like
this:
“I never (puff) saw you behave so (puff) at the table before (puff)
Waggie, in all my (puff) life. Never! (puff). What is the (puff) matter,
Waggie?” You see she called Uncle Wigwag by the name of Waggie for
short.
“Oh!” said Uncle Wigwag, when finally he could talk, “I just thought of
something, I did! It made me laugh!”
Mr. Whitewash, the polar bear gentleman, looked at Uncle Wigwag quite
severely, but he said nothing, and only went on eating his breakfast.
“I think I know what made Uncle Wigwag laugh,” said Beckie Stubtail, the
little girl bear, to Neddie, her brother, some time later.
“What?” he asked as he looked for his books to take to school. “What was
it, Beckie?”
“He’s thinking of a joke to play,” said Beckie.
“I believe you’re right,” went on Neddie. “Oh, Beckie, and I’ve just
thought of something, too.”
“What is it?” she asked as she looked to see if her doll, Sarah Janet
Picklefeather, was nicely covered up in the puppy dog’s basket, so she
wouldn’t get cold while Beckie was at school.
“We’ll just play a trick on Uncle Wigwag,” went on Neddie. “He plays so
many on us that it’s about time we played one on him.”
“Oh, yes, let’s do it!” cried Beckie, clapping her little paws. “But it
won’t be a mean or an unkind trick, will it, Neddie? For Uncle Wigwag is
very good to us, and gives us lollypops, even if he does play a joke on
us now and then.”
“Oh, no, it won’t be a bad trick,” said Neddie, laughing. “Only a funny
one.”
So the two little bear children went on to school, talking on the way of
the joke they would play on Uncle Wigwag. In fact, Neddie was thinking
so much about this that he did not pay enough attention to his lessons,
and when the teacher asked him: “Why does a cow eat grass?” Neddie
answered: “Because it’s a joke!”
You see, he was thinking of the one he and Beckie were going to play.
But the teacher didn’t know that, so she made Neddie go down to the foot
of the class for not answering correctly.
Well, when school was out, Neddie and Beckie hurried off by themselves
to play the joke on Uncle Wigwag.
“Have you thought of what to do yet?” asked Beckie.
“Yes,” said Neddie, “you know it was cold last night, and the little
puddle of water near our cave-house is frozen over. It’s as slippery as
glass. Now we’ll cover the puddle over with some sawdust, so you can’t
see the ice. Then we’ll make believe write a letter to Uncle Wigwag and
we’ll put it on the top of the sawdust in the middle of the frozen
puddle.
“He’ll run out to get the letter, when we tell him there is one for him,
and he’ll slip on the ice and go down ‘ko-bunk!’”
“Oh, but won’t he get hurt?” asked Beckie, anxious-like.
“No, for his fur is so thick now that he won’t feel the fall,” said
Neddie. “Come on, we’ll play the joke on him.”
So the two little bear children got some sawdust, and, when no one was
looking, they sprinkled it on the ice so the slippery stuff could not be
seen.
Then they made believe write a letter to Uncle Wigwag, and, putting it
in a large envelope, with his name on the outside, they put this right
in the middle of the frozen puddle, tossing it there so they themselves
would not have to walk on the ice and maybe fall down.
“Now, we’ll hide behind this tree,” said Neddie, “and watch for Uncle
Wigwag to fall down.” They had left word with Mr. Whitewash, the polar
bear, to tell Uncle Wigwag, as soon as he came in, that there was a
letter for him on the sawdust. Mr. Whitewash, not knowing anything of
the joke Neddie was playing, said he would tell Uncle Wigwag of the
letter.
Well, after a while, when Neddie and Beckie had been hiding behind the
tree for some time, out came Uncle Wigwag.
“Now, watch!” whispered Neddie. “See him tumble when he gets on the
ice!”
But, instead of going over and picking up the letter, Uncle Wigwag put a
box down on the ground, near the path by which Neddie and Beckie went to
school, and then the old gentleman bear himself went and hid behind a
tree.
“Oh, what do you know about that!” whispered Neddie. “He is playing a
joke on us, just as I said he would. There’s nothing in that box but a
piece of brick, or maybe a lot of stones. Uncle Wigwag expects we’ll
pick it up, thinking it’s candy, and when we open it he’ll cry ‘April
fool!’ even if it isn’t the month to play those jokes.”
“I believe that’s what he is doing,” said Beckie, laughing.
“Well, we’ll just not be fooled,” went on Neddie. “We’ll leave the
make-believe box of candy alone, and wait until we see Uncle Wigwag go
out on the ice after his letter and fall down.”
So the two little bear children, laughing to themselves at the joke they
were playing on their fun-loving uncle, waited behind the tree. Uncle
Wigwag waited behind his tree, too.
Pretty soon, along came Tommie Kat, the kitten boy. He saw the white box
on the path, and cried:
“Oh, joy! I guess this is something good!”
“Watch him get fooled!” whispered Neddie. But lo and behold! Tommie
opened the box and there it was filled with the nicest kind of candy!
There wasn’t a stone or brick in it.
“Oh, yum-yum!” cried Tommie, as he ate the sweet stuff.
“Oh, dear!” cried Beckie. “It _was_ candy, after all. What kind of a
joke do you call that?”
“I—I don’t know,” answered Neddie, rubbing his nose with his paw. “I
guess Uncle Wigwag played a different one this time.”
“Then we oughtn’t to play a mean joke on him, as long as he played such
a nice candy joke on us,” said the little bear girl.
“I guess you’re right,” agreed Neddie. “We’ll tell him not to go get
that letter.”
But, before they could do this, Tommie Kat saw the white envelope out on
the sawdust-covered ice puddle.
“Oh, joy!” he cried again. “Maybe that’s more candy!” And, before either
Beckie or Neddie could call to him, Tommie rushed out to get the
make-believe letter. And as soon as he got on the ice, which he couldn’t
see because of the sawdust on top, down he went ker-bunko! his feet
sliding out from under him, and the candy scattering all over.
“Oh, dear!” cried Tommie Kat. “I’m all sawdust! And the nice candy! Oh,
dear! It’s all lost!”
Neddie and Beckie rushed out from behind their tree.
“We didn’t mean that you should fall, Tommie,” said Neddie, as he helped
the little kitten boy to stand up. “That was for a joke on Uncle
Wigwag.”
“Well, I don’t call it a very nice joke,” said Tommie, rubbing his nose.
“But, anyhow, I did find some candy. Help me pick it up.”