“mamma,” said neddie stubtail, the little boy bear, as he got up from the supper table one evening, “may i go over to sammie littletail’s house to-night?”
“what for?” asked mrs. stubtail.
“oh, we’re going to play with his magic lantern,” answered neddie. “we’re going to show some funny pictures. all the boys are going to be there.”
“oh, i wish i could go,” cried beckie, the little girl bear, as she looked to see if her green hair ribbon had turned pink. but it had not, i am sorry to say.
“pooh! you wouldn’t want to be the only girl there,” spoke neddie.
“oh, yes, i would,” exclaimed beckie. “i like boys better than i do girls,” and she wasn’t at all bashful-like as she said that. some girls are that way, you know.
200“well, maybe i’ll take you some other night,” said neddie. “but may i go over this evening, mamma?”
“well, i guess so,” answered the lady bear, slowly. “but first you must study your school lessons.”
“oh, i’ll do that,” cried neddie eagerly. “i’ll learn my reading lesson and my number work. i haven’t got much. i’ve just got to find out how many apples a man would have left if he bought two peaches for five cents and sold a bushel of potatoes for thirteen musk melons.”
“what a funny thing to want to know,” laughed beckie. “who asked you that question?”
“i don’t know,” replied neddie. “it’s in the book, that’s all i know, and i’ve got to find the answer for myself. i’m not sure, but i think it’s a dozen honey cakes. now please don’t bother me any more, beckie, for i’m going to study.”
“oh, i won’t bother you,” said the little girl bear. “i’ve got to study my own lessons. and after that i’m going to make a sky-blue-pink dress for my new doll, lillian cheesecake clothes-basket.”
neddie hurried with his studying so that he might go over to the house of sammie littletail, 201the rabbit boy, and see the magic lantern show.
a magic lantern, you know, is something like a moving picture show, only different. i guess you’ve seen one, so i don’t need to tell you about it.
well, neddie finished his home school-work, and i guess he did as you boys and girls may often have done—he skipped the hard parts and only took the easy questions, such as how to spell dog, and cat, and rat, and apple, and cake.
then neddie put on his hat and coat, and started to go over to sammie littletail’s house. it was not a great way there through the woods. the moon was shining brightly, just as it was the night before, when neddie and beckie went to kittie kat’s party, and neddie fell into the flour barrel, as i had the pleasure of telling you in the story before this one.
when neddie got to sammie littletail’s house he saw many of his little animal boy friends there, and sammie was all ready to start the magic lantern show.
and, oh! what a nice show it was! a white sheet was tacked on the wall, and on that the pictures were shown. there was one picture of some little dogs in a country called germany, walking around on their hind legs and eating pie with a spoon. then there was another picture 202of a cow blowing her horns to make a nice tune so the grasshoppers could dance.
after that sammie showed a picture of a big lion, roaring in his loudest voice, and, so as to make it seem more like a lion, neddie, the little bear boy, growled as loudly as he could, stooping down under the table to hide himself.
and when that picture was shown, and when neddie growled, jilly longtail, the little mousie boy, was so scared that he cried right out loud:
“i want to go home! i want to go home!”
of course, every one laughed at him, but for all that poor little jilly was quite frightened.
“why, it’s only a picture,” said neddie, as he crawled out from under the table, where he had been trying to roar like a lion. “don’t cry, jilly,” and he wiped away the tears of the little mousie boy on his soft fur.
well, after that more pictures were shown, and then mrs. littletail, the rabbit lady, brought out some nice sweet cakes for the animal boys, and susie littletail, the rabbit girl, who was a sister to sammie, as i guess you know, helped her mamma pass the cakes around to every one.
well, everybody had a good time, and when it came the hour for the boys to go home, which was quite early, sammie looked out of the window and exclaimed:
203“why, it’s snowing hard!”
“snowing lard, did you say?” asked neddie.
“no, not lard, and not butter either,” answered sammie, with a laugh. “i said it was snowing hard—h-a-r-d—not soft, you know.”
“oh, now i see!” cried neddie. “well, i’m glad it’s snowing, for we can have some fun, making snow men, and building forts and sliding down hill.”
“i’m glad, too!” exclaimed tommie kat, the kitten boy, “for it will soon be christmas, and i always like snow at christmas.”
everybody else at the magic lantern show said the same thing, and soon they had started for their homes, because it kept snowing harder all the while, and they did not want to get snowed in.
neddie stubtail, the little bear boy, hurried along, kicking his paws through the snow, and thinking what fun he would have with his sister beckie on their way to school next morning.
“i’ll get out my sled and pull beckie,” thought neddie. he would do this, you see, because beckie could not come to the magic lantern show.
well, neddie was walking along, and he was putting out his tongue and letting the snowflakes melt on it, sort of tickling himself like, when, all 204of a sudden, neddie heard a roaring sound, and a voice cried:
“ah, ha! now i’ve got you. you shan’t fool me this time by covering yourself with flour and making believe you’re a polar bear. i’m after you!” and out from behind a snowbank rushed the bad old circus lion who had chased neddie and beckie the night before, when they were on their way home from the kat party.
“oh, my!” exclaimed neddie. “i guess i’d better run!” and run he did, through the snow, as fast as he could. but the lion ran, too, and he was almost catching up to neddie, when, all at once, the little bear came to the edge of a hill.
he came to it so suddenly that he couldn’t stop himself, and the first thing the little bear knew he slid over the top of the hill. down he fell, right into the middle of a big bank of snow, on the other side.
now a snowbank isn’t hard like the iron bank in which you put your pennies, and so neddie wasn’t hurt the least mite, i’m glad to say. gracious, if he had fallen on a hard iron bank, i don’t know what might have happened. i guess maybe he’d have broken his toothache anyhow. i’m not saying for sure, but maybe.
anyhow, neddie fell “ker-flop!” into the soft snow, and the fluffy flakes closed up over his 205head, not leaving any hole to show where he had gone in. so that when the bad lion came to the edge of the hill and looked down, expecting to see the little bear boy, he couldn’t see him at all, at all. for neddie was hidden by the kind snowbank.
“my, that’s rather queer,” said the lion, sort of roaring to himself and scratching his nose with his tail. “very strange to be sure! i’m positive that bear boy is around here somewhere. i’ll just call and make him come out.”
so the lion called:
“hey, you, neddie stubtail! come out of where ever you are and let me bite you!”
but, of course, neddie was too smart for that. he just stayed hiding under the snowbank, and finally the bad lion went away through the storm, growling to himself and wondering what had happened to neddie.
but neddie stayed in the snowbank for some time, and then finally the little bear chap began wondering how he was ever going to get out to go home. for the snowbank was very big.
and then a funny thing happened. neddie’s warm breath melted a hole in the snowbank and the little bear boy could look out just as if he were looking through a window in a snow house. and in the shining moonlight, for it had stopped 206snowing, he saw, a little way off, the very cave in which he lived. then he scratched hard with his paws and breathed hard with his warm breath and soon he was out of the snowbank. a little later he was safe in his own house. and oh my! how glad his mamma was to see him!
so he had quite an adventure, which goes to show that you can never tell what will happen when a lion chases you. and on the next page, if the popcorn doesn’t go bang up against the ceiling and knock the gas light down cellar, i’ll tell you about neddie and beckie helping uncle wigwag.
