“mamma, can’t beckie come out and play?” asked neddie, the little bear boy, as he ran home from school one afternoon. “i came home early on purpose. it was such a nice, sunny day that teacher said i might come out before the others, to amuse beckie.”
“that was very kind of you,” spoke mrs. stubtail, “and i think i will let beckie out a little while. but you must look after her, and see that she does not stay late, for it gets cold after the sun goes down, and you know she is hardly over her cough yet.”
“oh, i’ll be careful of her,” said neddie, and he was so glad he could take out his little sick sister, that he stood up on the end of his short, stubby tail.
that is, neddie tried to stand on the end of his tail, but the truth of the matter is, my dear little friends, that neddie was getting to be such a fat, heavy little chap of a bear cub that his tail would not hold him any more.
168so over he fell, ker-thump-o! but he landed in a pile of leaves so he was not hurt at all.
“don’t let beckie try that, neddie,” said mrs. stubtail, with a laugh. “she is only just out of a sick bed, you know.”
“i won’t!” laughed neddie, as he picked himself up and brushed off the leaves. you know i told you, in the story before this one, how beckie had to take some pink, bitter medicine for her cough that dr. possum gave her. hold on, i don’t mean that dr. possum gave her the cough—no, he gave her the medicine to cure it. and a bad lion got in after beckie, and he swallowed the whole bottle of medicine and that gave him such a conniption fit that he was glad to leave the little girl bear alone.
so while neddie waited outside the bear cave, mrs. stubtail went inside to get beckie ready to take a little walk in the woods.
“oh, it is just lovely to get out again, after being in the house so long!” sighed beckie, as she walked along with her brother neddie, holding his paw.
neddie was as nice as could be, and he walked slowly with his sister who had been ill, taking good care that she did not stumble over a stick or a stone.
on and on they went, and pretty soon, when 169neddie was thinking it was about time to start for home with his sister, all of a sudden they heard a tooting horn in the woods.
“hark! what’s that?” cried beckie, giving a jump.
“i don’t know,” answered neddie, and he looked all around, ready to run in case there should be danger.
“maybe it’s a hunter and his dogs,” suggested beckie. “oh, neddie, i’m so frightened!”
“don’t be frightened, beckie,” he said gently. “i’ll take care of you. maybe, after all, it’s only the nice trained bear, george, and the professor man who toots on his brass horn.”
“oh, but if it’s he maybe he’ll want to take us back to the circus barn,” went on beckie. “i wouldn’t like that.”
“nor i,” said neddie. “but i don’t believe it is. let’s take a look.”
so the two bear children looked all around, and then they heard the tooting horn again. and this time they saw who was blowing it. it was a hunter man, and he had his gun and his dog with him.
“quick! jump behind this big tree!” cried neddie, and he helped beckie to hide herself. they were only just in time, too, for just then the 170hunter looked around, and he might have seen the bear children, except for the tree.
then the hunter blew his horn again, and, not seeing anything to shoot, he whistled to his dog, put his gun over his shoulder and slinging the horn by his side, down the hill he went, leaving beckie and neddie alone. and, oh, how happy they were!
“well, i’m glad that’s over,” said beckie, with a long breath. “we won’t come to these woods again.”
“i guess not,” said neddie. “let’s hurry home.”
“what kind of a horn was it that the hunter man had?” asked beckie, as she and her brother took hold of paws again, and started for home. “it wasn’t at all like the one the professor man blew on. his was brass.”
“i know it,” answered neddie, “and this one was made of birch bark, rolled up like a cornucopia such as come on christmas trees. only those are filled with candy, and this one had nothing but air in it.”
“i see,” said beckie. “and can you blow on a birch bark horn, neddie?”
“i can blow a little bit on that kind of a horn,” said neddie. “but we’d better not stop now to try it. let’s hurry home.”
171so the two little bear children went on, over hills and dales, and through the woods.
now, whether they were not careful to take the right path, or whether the hunter and his dog and gun had so scared them that they didn’t know what they were doing, i can’t begin to say. it might have been one thing, and then, again, on the other hand, it might have been something else. and i don’t want to make a mistake.
anyhow, the first thing beckie and neddie realized was that they were lost. they didn’t know where they were, nor how to get home. all they knew was that they were in the woods, some distance from home, and night was coming on.
“oh, dear!” cried beckie, when she saw that neddie did not know his way home. “oh, dear me!”
“don’t worry, sister dear,” he said. “i’ll take care of you,” and he put his paws about her.
“oh, i know you will,” said beckie, “and you are as kind as you can be; but, still, and with all that, if i stay out after dark my cold may get worse again, and i’ll have to take more of that bitter medicine.”
“you can’t!” exclaimed neddie. “the bad lion swallowed it all for you!”
“oh, but dr. possum can make plenty more, 172and maybe worse than that!” cried beckie. “oh, dear! where is our home? it’s lost!”
“no, it’s we who are lost,” said neddie, with a laugh. “our house is just where it always was.” and he giggled again. he didn’t feel very much like laughing, you know, but he did it to cheer up his little sister. it’s a good thing to laugh, sometimes, even when you don’t feel like it.
well, it kept getting darker and darker, and beckie was more and more frightened, even though neddie was as jolly as he could be. finally he said:
“we’ll just call for help. mr. whitewash, the polar bear, or our papa, or uncle wigwag might be roaming through these woods, and they’d hear us and take us home.”
“oh, then, holler as loudly as you can,” said beckie. “perhaps mamma, or aunt piffy, is out looking for us.”
so the two little bear children called as loudly as they could. again and again they shouted, but only the echoes answered them.
“it’s of no use!” said beckie, and she was almost ready to cry, for her cough was hurting her again. then neddie thought of something.
“i have it!” he cried. “i’ll make a tooting horn out of birch bark, like the one the hunter 173man had. i’ll blow on the horn, and surely some one will hear that.”
“oh, goodie!” cried beckie, clapping her paws. then she felt better.
neddie with his sharp claws quickly stripped off some white birch bark from a tree. he rolled the bark into a sort of cornucopia, large at one end and small at the other. he put the small end to his mouth.
“toot! toot! toot!” went the little bear boy on the birch bark horn. again and again he blew it. finally beckie said:
“i hear some one coming!”
surely enough there was a sound in the bushes.
“come and get us!” cried neddie.
“i’m coming,” said a voice, and then, instead of their papa or uncle bear, out jumped the bad old skillery-scalery alligator.
“now i have you!” he cried, snapping his teeth.
“oh, no, you haven’t!” said neddie. and with that he blew such a blast from the tooting horn in the face of the ’gator that the bad creature turned a somersault and a peppersault mixed together and away he ran back to the drug store, where he belonged. then neddie blew some more tunes on the tooting horn, and this time his papa, who was searching in the woods, heard 174him and came to get his little boy and girl bear.
so neddie and beckie weren’t lost any more, and soon they were safely home, and i’m glad to say that beckie’s cough got no worse. and they had hot mush for supper with sweet molasses on.
and in the next story, if the lady downstairs doesn’t come up and take my typewriter to get her baby asleep with, i’ll tell you about beckie and the hand-organ man.
