neddie and beckie stubtail, the little children bears, did not sleep very well the first night they ran away from home to become trained animals. there were several reasons for this.
in the first place they had to sleep out of doors, and not in their own nice cave-house. and then, too, their papa and mamma were not with them.
“it—it’s lonesome,” whispered beckie, waking up in the dark and putting out her paw to touch her brother. “oh, neddie, i wish i’d stayed home!”
“hush! go to sleep!” advised neddie, kindly. “you’ll wake up george, the trained bear, and the professor man if you talk.”
“are they asleep?” whispered beckie, feeling down in the leaves to see if her doll, mary ann puddingstick clothespin, was all right.
“sure they’re asleep,” answered neddie. “hear ’em snore?”
66and, truly enough, you could hear that bear george snore as real as anything, honestly you could. what? you didn’t know bears snored? well, did you ever sleep near one? i guess not! so, you see, you can’t tell. but i can.
“and it will soon be morning,” went on neddie, “and then, maybe, we’ll travel on and on, and not have any lessons to do, and we may get buns and popcorn.”
“yes, the trained bear did mention about buns,” said beckie, and then, thinking of sweet buns and crackers she did manage to go to sleep.
but, oh! she did miss her mamma, and aunt piffy, the old bear lady, who was so fat. and more than once neddie wished he might wake up and see uncle wigwag, even if the old bear gentleman did play a trick on him. and as for mr. whitewash, the polar bear, neddie would have given a whole penny to see him again for even a second.
still, he had run away of his own free will, neddie had, and he must make the best of it.
“besides, i like it!” he said to himself. “i’m going to learn to be a trained bear, and, when beckie and i get a lot of money we’ll go back home and make mamma and papa rich.”
neddie thought it would be very easy to do this. in fact, he was a very kind little bear and 67had not meant to do wrong when he asked beckie to run away with him.
but now let us see what happened.
morning came at last. the sun rose from behind the hills, where it had slept all night, and made a bright light through the trees, from which all the leaves now had fallen.
“well, children, did you sleep well?” asked george, the trained bear, as he wet his big paws in a spring of water and washed his face.
“pretty well, thank you,” answered neddie, politely.
“do you think we will get some buns and popcorn to-day, george?” asked beckie, anxiously.
“we might,” said the trained bear. “i’m sorry i made you think we trained bears had that sort of food every day. but if we don’t get it to-day i’m sure we will on thursday, which will be thanksgiving. and, anyhow, to-day we’ll travel on, and you’ll see me do my tricks, and you’ll hear the professor blow his bugle and sing, and you’ll see the people standing around to look at me and wonder. and, who knows? perhaps you may do some tricks yourselves.”
“we can climb a telegraph pole, anyhow,” said beckie, a bit proudly. “even if it did take an alligator to scare us into doing it.”
68“well, we’ll have breakfast and travel on,” said the professor, after a bit. then he reached in the bag again and pulled out some more dried bread.
“only that!” whispered neddie, and he thought of what a nice meal the folks at home were having—huckleberry pancakes, maybe, with maple sugar on, and hot buns and milk sweetened with honey.
“oh, dear!” sighed beckie, but she was a brave little bear girl and made up her mind not to find fault, especially after having run away when she didn’t really have to. so beckie washed the face of her rubber doll, mary ann puddingstick clothespin, and made believe give her some breakfast.
then beckie and neddie ate their dried bread, and so did george, the trained bear, and the professor ate some too. then the professor played a lively tune on his bugle:
“ta-ra! ta-ra-ta! ta-ra-ta! ta-ra-ta! ta! ta!” he blew.
it was quite nice and jolly and made all the bears feel better.
“here we go!” cried the professor. “forward—march! here we go!”
he tossed the long pole to george, who shouldered it just like a gun, and marched on 69with his head high in the air, while beckie and neddie laughed at him, he was so funny.
“oh, i guess we’ll like this after all,” said neddie.
“maybe,” spoke beckie, as she hugged her rubber doll.
but every one was very sad back in the cave-house where the stubtail children lived. as soon as morning had come aunt piffy, going in to call neddie and beckie, saw that they were not in their beds.
“they’re gone!” cried the nice, fat old lady bear.
“they’re up to some trick,” said uncle wigwag, who, always playing tricks himself, thought that other bears would do the same thing.
“we must find them,” said mr. whitewash, the polar bear.
but although they looked all over they could not find neddie and beckie, of course, for the children were with the professor and the trained bear, far, far away. you knew that, didn’t you?
oh! how badly papa and mamma stubtail felt, and they called a nice dog policeman to help find neddie and beckie. but i’ll tell you about that part later. this story is about neddie’s trick.
after breakfast, as i said, the professor, 70george, the trained bear, and neddie and beckie went on and on through the woods.
“soon we will come to a village,” said the professor. “there george will do some of his tricks, and you little bears can climb a telegraph pole, or maybe the church steeple. then the people will laugh and clap their hands and give us things to eat.”
“buns and popcorn balls?” asked beckie, anxiously.
“yes, i think so,” said the professor.
soon they did come to a village, and the professor blew some sweet notes on his bugle. at once a lot of children came running out to watch the bears, and when they saw neddie and beckie the children said:
“oh, aren’t they cute!”
one little girl even touched beckie’s fur, and beckie liked to feel the tiny hand. beckie and neddie were getting so they were not afraid of real folks. then george, the trained bear, did some of his tricks, turning somersaults, playing soldier and the like.
“now you little bears will do a trick,” said the professor. “come, neddie, climb a pole!” and he blew on the bugle.
neddie looked for a pole to climb, but just then he saw a fat woman, almost as fat as aunt 71piffy, coming down the street. the fat woman had a basket of eggs on her arm, and the eggs were very heavy.
“oh, i must help her!” said neddie, politely, for his mamma had always taught him to be polite to ladies, whether they were fat or not.
so neddie waltzed over to take the basket of eggs so that he might help the woman. she saw the bear coming and, not knowing neddie was kind and tame and trained, she screamed and ran. neddie ran after her, and just as he put his paw on the handle of the basket of eggs he slipped on a banana peeling, and so did the fat lady. down they both went, ker-thump, and the basket of eggs fell also—and——
well, you can imagine what happened! neddie and the fat woman were just covered with the whites and yellows of eggs—all stuck up like—and everybody laughed like anything. really they could not help it.
“oh, what a fine trick!” cried the boys and girls, clapping their hands.
“yes, but it is too expensive a trick to do every day,” said the professor. “i shall have to pay for those eggs, i guess.” and the fat woman made him pay almost a dollar, and nobody gave neddie or beckie any buns, or popcorn balls, either.
72“well, we’ll travel on,” said the professor. “we may get some ice cream in the next place.” so on they went after neddie had washed off the sticky eggs from his fur in a brook of water.
and next, if the rubber plant doesn’t stretch itself out and take all the lumps of sugar from the salt cellar, i’ll tell you about the stubtails’ thanksgiving.
