many things happened to neddie and beckie stubtail, the little bear boy and girl, while they stayed with the circus man in the barn where they had their thanksgiving dinner. oh many, many things happened, but i have only room to tell you of a few of them.
the two little bears cubs had been in the circus barn about a week, and though they liked it very much, and, though george, the tame trained bear, and his master, the professor, and the other man, and the elephant and the lions and tigers were all very kind to neddie and beckie, they began to wish they were home.
“i—i’m sort of sorry we ran away,” said beckie one morning, as she put a new dress on her rubber doll, mary ann puddingstick clothespin. it was only her own pocket handkerchief that beckie used for a doll’s dress, but it did very well for all that.
“i guess i’m a bit sorry, too,” said neddie. 90“we have learned some tricks, to be sure, and i can turn a somersault almost as good as george can, but still it isn’t as much fun as i though it would be.”
“i guess running away never is,” said beckie.
“but we have had some fun,” went on neddie.
“do you mean the time you did the trick of climbing the pole here in the barn, and it toppled over with you and the elephant had to hold it up?” asked beckie. “was that fun?”
“i was too scared to think it was funny, but it might have been jolly for the others,” laughed neddie.
then the two little bear children, who had run away from their home in the cave-house on the side of the hill, walked around the circus barn. they listened to the lions having their roaring lessons, in which the seals, who juggled rubber balls on the ends of their noses, also joined. then neddie and beckie looked at the tall giraffes take a lesson in picking oranges off the top rafters of the barn, and at the hippopotamus, who had to have his sore throat looked at by dr. possum, who always attended the sick circus animals.
“my! you have a very sore throat,” said dr. possum to the hippopotamus when he had looked at it. the hippo opened his mouth so wide that 91dr. possum could get right inside, which he did, sitting on the hippo’s tongue in order to see better. “yes, a very sore throat,” went on dr. possum. “you must gargle it.”
so he gave the hippo some medicine, and the hippo gargled his throat and really he made such a funny noise, like thunder, doing it that beckie and neddie had to laugh. and that made the hippo sneeze so that he could not gargle.
“when are we going out traveling around again?” asked neddie of the professor and george. “are we always going to stay here with the circus animals?”
“no, indeed,” answered the professor as he blew a nice tune on his brass horn. “but it is getting too cold for traveling now, and sleeping out in the woods. besides, all the children are saving up their pennies for christmas, and they will not drop any in my cap when i go around after george has done his tricks.
“so i think we will stay with the kind circus man and his pets for some time—at least until it gets warmer. meanwhile, neddie, i want to show you a new trick that you can do with george. i’ll have you ride on his shoulders, carrying a broom, and i think that will make the people laugh, and when people laugh they give you more pennies than otherwise.”
92“oh, goodie! i’m going to learn another trick!” cried neddie in delight. then the professor took the little bear boy off to one side of the barn, near the place where the elephants slept in the hay, and, with the big, kind, tame bear, george, they practiced the new trick, the professor blowing a tooting-toot-toot-tune on his brass horn every once in a while.
this left beckie to play by herself, but she was not lonesome, for she had her rubber doll to take care of, and she could watch the hippo gargle his big red flannel throat, and she looked at the monkeys doing tricks in their cages.
beckie was not very lonesome. but perhaps if she and neddie could have seen what was going on back in their cave-house by the hill, they would have run to their papa and mamma as fast as their legs would take them, for mr. and mrs. stubtail were very lonesome for their children. so was aunt piffy, the fat bear lady, and also uncle wigwag and mr. whitewash, the polar bear.
“if my children do not soon come home to me,” said mrs. stubtail, wiping her eyes on her apron, “i don’t know what i shall do.”
“i know,” said mr. whitewash, “uncle wiggily longears, the rabbit gentleman, and i will start off and find them. if uncle wiggily 93could find his fortune he can find lost children.”
“that is a good idea,” said papa stubtail. “if neddie and beckie do not soon come back i’ll get uncle wiggily after them.”
and, all this while, mind you, neddie and beckie were in the circus barn.
well, after beckie had given her rubber doll a nice wash in the parrot’s bathtub, the little bear girl heard some one crying. at first she thought it might be some bad animal, pretending to be in trouble, so as to catch something for his supper. then beckie remembered that she was safe in the circus barn, where all the animals were her friends.
so she looked around, and there she saw a great big grandfather monkey crying, and holding his face in his paw. he was all hunched up and stooped over as if he hadn’t a friend in the world, and he looked very sorrowful.
“oh, what is the matter?” asked beckie, kindly.
“i have a terrible toothache,” said the monkey gentleman.
“oh, that’s too bad!” exclaimed beckie. she knew what a toothache was, once having had one herself. “why don’t you do something for it?” she asked.
94“i don’t know what to do,” said the grandfather monkey. “that is, unless i have it pulled, and i don’t want to do that.”
“i don’t blame you,” said beckie, “still it might be better to have it out.”
“if they could just pull out the ache, and leave the tooth in, i would not mind it so much,” went on the monkey. “but when they pull the tooth just to get out the ache—that is too much! oh, dear!” and he almost stood up on the end of his tail, the pain was so bad.
beckie glanced about the circus barn. no one seemed to be looking after the toothache monkey. all the other monkeys were practicing on their hand organs, and all the other animals were reciting their different lessons. beckie and the old grandfather monkey were all by themselves.
“i know what i’ll do,” said the little bear girl. “i’ll just slip out and go to dr. possum’s and get some toothache medicine for you. that may stop your pain.”
“oh, will you?” cried the grandpa monkey. “that will be very kind of you.”
so beckie left her rubber doll asleep, and slipped out of the circus barn when no one was looking. she hurried to dr. possum’s office and got some very strong medicine. then, when she 95went back, she put some on some cotton and then she put the cotton in the hole of the monkey’s tooth, and soon it was all better.
then, as beckie had nothing else to do, she thought she would go to sleep with her doll, which she did, lying down in the soft, clean sawdust. beckie slept and slept, and so she did not see the bad old skillery-scalery alligator slip in through the barn door which she had left open when she came in with the toothache medicine.
nearer and nearer came the ’gator to beckie. she did not see him, neither did neddie nor the circus man, nor the professor nor george, the big bear, or they might have driven him away.
“ah, ha! now i’ll get her!” whispered the alligator to himself. “she is asleep and can’t see me. i’ll just carry her off to my den, and then—ah, we shall see what will happen then!”
but beckie was not to be carried off by the ’gator. all of a sudden the grandpa monkey, whose toothache was all better now, saw the skillery-scalery creature.
“wake up, beckie! wake up!” cried the good monkey. “get out of the way, and i’ll attend to that alligator.”
beckie awakened, and rolled out of the way just in time, or the alligator might have grabbed her. then the monkey took four pawfuls of 96sawdust and threw it in the eyes of the alligator and down his throat and into his mouth and nose and ears, making the ’gator sneeze forty-’leven times. and whenever a ’gator sneezes that way he can’t harm anybody.
that’s what happened to this skillery-scalery alligator, and away he went, taking his humpy-bumpy tail with him. so beckie was saved, which shows that you should always stop a monkey’s toothache when you can.
then the bear children and the circus animals had their supper, and there was pickled ice cream for those who wanted it. and, in the next story, if the baby doesn’t sit down in the peach basket so tightly that we have to take the poker to get her out, i’ll tell you about neddie and beckie going back home.
