“come, neddie!” cried mamma stubtail, the lady bear, one day, as she went to the door of the cave-house and looked out in front where neddie, the little boy bear, was playing football. “it’s time to practice your music lesson, neddie.”
“oh, dear!” cried the little bear boy. “i wish i was a player-piano!”
“what a funny wish!” said beckie, who was taking her doll, elizabeth jane huckleberrypie, out for a walk.
“why do you want to be a player-piano, neddie?”
“then i wouldn’t have to practice my music lesson,” said the little bear boy.
however, since his mamma had called him, neddie started to go in. then tommie and joie kat, the kitten boys, and jackie and peetie bow wow, the puppy dog boys, called to him:
“where you going, neddie?”
184“i have to practice my music lesson,” he answered, and he went into the cave-house, but he didn’t feel very happy. he sat down to the piano, and he began to play:
“tinkle-tinkle tinkle-tink!
dum-te dum-dum dum-dum doo!
plinko-plunko smasho-bang!
how i wish that i was through!”
that’s the kind of a tune neddie had to play for his exercise music practice lesson, and really he didn’t do it well at all. for you see he was anxious to go back to play football with the boy animals.
and that’s often the way it is when real boys and girls have to practice music lessons. i wish it were not so, for there is nothing nicer in this world than music, and in order to play it well you have to practice. and some day, if you take music lessons, you’ll be glad that you did run up and down the piano keyboard with your fingers when you had much rather be out having games with your friends. for it is very nice to be able to play tunes.
but neddie didn’t think so as he sat on the piano stool, drumming away, and looking at the clock, every now and then to see when his time 185would be up, so that he could go out and play with his animal friends.
finally the clock struck five and neddie finished his practice with a bang. it wasn’t music at all, but he did not care.
“hurray!” he cried. “practice is over. now i can have some fun!”
out of doors he rushed and more than ever he wished he were a player-piano, so that all he’d have to do would be to jump up and down with his feet when he wanted music. that is a good way to make nice sounds, too, on the player-piano, and i can play one or two pieces myself, that way. but, oh, how i wish i could play by hand!
however, neddie’s friends were glad to see him come out again. they played football and nearly broke the window in mrs. wibblewobble’s duck pen, so that she had to run out and call to them:
“now, boys, you must go right away from here. play football somewhere else.”
so neddie, the little bear boy, and his friends had to move along and look for a vacant lot where they could kick around their football without breaking any windows.
that night, when mr. stubtail, the bear papa, came home, he asked neddie:
186“did everything go all right in school to-day?”
“yes, sir,” answered neddie politely.
“and when you came home did you practice your music lesson?”
“yes, sir,” answered neddie, and he was glad he had not skipped it, as he sometimes did.
“very good,” said mr. stubtail. “then on saturday afternoon i will take you and beckie to a nice moving picture show.”
“oh, joy!” cried beckie, clapping her paws.
“oh, happiness!” said neddie, and he was glad again that he had not missed his music practice.
well, that night, after neddie had finished his home school-work, he wanted to sit up a little longer to read a fairy story. his mamma let him do this, but when it came time for neddie to go to bed, he had not finished the story. so he begged:
“oh, can’t i stay up just a little longer, mamma?”
then, as he had been such a good boy, mrs. stubtail said that he might, so neddie settled down into the deep-cushioned easy chair, and read all about how the pink fairy turned herself into a pumpkin and rolled down hill so the giant couldn’t make a jack-o’-lantern of her.
and then quite a lot of things happened. mrs. 187kat, the mother of tommie and joie and kittie kat, came in to call on mrs. stubtail. and nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy, the muskrat lady, came to ask aunt piffy what the old lady bear did for dyspepsia when she ate cheese for supper. and grandfather goosey gander came in to play a game of scotch checkers with uncle wigwag, while mr. whitewash, the polar bear, went out to look for a cake of ice on which to sleep, for, he always liked things cold, you know.
and there were so many things going on that no one thought anything about neddie. there he sat in the big chair, reading the fairy story until he fell asleep. then, as it happened, all the company went home at once and in a hurry, and when papa and mamma stubtail locked up the cave-house, and put the cat down cellar, no one thought that neddie was asleep in the big chair. his sister beckie had gone up to bed some time ago, and every one thought neddie was in bed also.
so upstairs in the cave-house went all the big folks, not knowing that neddie was in the chair. and there he stayed until it got real late and dark. and, oh, so quiet was it in the house! why, you could have heard a pin drop, if any one had let one fall.
all of a sudden neddie awakened. he sat up 188with a jump, and looked all around in the dark. of course he couldn’t see anything, for it was all black.
then, hardly knowing where he was, neddie rubbed his eyes with his paws, but still he could scarcely see. then he noticed a little light from the street lamp outside, shining in through the window, and he could tell where he was.
“why!” he exclaimed, “i’m home, in my own house! i fell asleep in the big chair. huh! i guess i’d better go up to bed!”
neddie stretched himself, and was wondering if he could find his room in the dark, without waking every one up, including mr. whitewash, who was asleep on a cake of ice, when, all of a sudden, neddie heard a noise. it was right under the window, near which he had been sleeping, and he listened to a voice, saying:
“now we’ll break in through the back door, and we’ll take neddie and beckie and carry them off to our den and never let them out again.”
“yes, that’s just what we’ll do,” answered another voice, and then neddie tiptoed to the window, and looking out he saw two bad old lions that had run away from a circus. they were coming to get neddie and beckie.
“oh, what shall i do?” thought neddie.
189“those lions can easily break into our house. and if i call out to papa and mamma now the lions will hear me and they’ll jump in through the window and get me before i have a chance to run.
“oh, what can i do? how can i scare those lions away?”
just then neddie heard a tiny mousie run up and down on the piano keys, making a little tinkling sound. this made the little bear boy think of something.
“i have it!” he whispered to himself in the darkness. “i’ll go in to the piano, and i’ll play the loudest bang-bang tune i know. maybe the lions will think it’s thunder and lightning and guns shooting off, and they may be afraid and run away!”
so neddie stole into the piano room and, all of a sudden, he banged his paws down on the loud keys as hard as he could. then he played on the tinkle-tinkle keys, and again on the thunder notes. the lions, who were just going to break into the cave-house, heard the noise. they had never heard music in the dark night before, and they thought it was thunder and lightning.
“oh! wow!” cried one lion, “we’re going to be caught in a storm! come on home to our cave!”
“i’m with you!” growled the other lion, shivering, 190and away they ran, as frightened as could be, because neddie remembered enough of his music lesson to make a thunder sound that he had practiced several times.
“and i’m never going to make a fuss about practice again,” he said. “music is a good thing, after all. it scares lions away.”
of course everybody in the cave-house woke up when neddie played the piano, and when he told his papa and mamma why he did it, to drive away the lions, they said he had done just right.
then everything got quiet, and neddie finished his sleep in bed. and nothing more happened. so, pretty soon, if the trolley car doesn’t run off the track and bunk into the dishpan and make a big dent in it, i’ll tell you about neddie and beckie going to a party.
