“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.
105“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 106puddingstick 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.”
107the 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.
108“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.”
109“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:
110“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.
