beckie stubtail, the little girl bear, who lived in the cave-house near the nice woods, had more dolls than any real girl i know of, except maybe the daughter of santa claus—that is if he has any children. but, of course, santa claus must have children of his own, or else how could he love so many children that belong to other persons—always giving them nice things at christmas, and all that?
oh, yes, i know, lots of folks say there isn’t any santa claus at all, but you and i know differently, don’t we? and if those persons don’t believe it, i can show them, right on the roof of my house, the very same chimney down which santa claus comes every christmas.
that ought to make them believe, oughtn’t it now? well, i guess yes, and some lollypops besides!
but what i started to say was that beckie stubtail, the little girl bear, had more dolls of 216different sorts than any real child. of course a daughter of santa claus wouldn’t count, for she could go to her papa’s big present-bag and take out as many dolls as she wanted—or rocking horses or jumping-jacks or anything else. so i don’t mean her.
really beckie had the mostest dolls, if you will kindly let me use such a word, which i know isn’t just right. beckie had a rubber doll that would bounce up and down when you dropped her in the bath tub or on the floor. that doll’s name was sallie ann kissmequick.
and then there was a rag doll, with shoe buttons sewed in her face for eyes. and the funny part about that doll was that she always kept looking at her feet. i suppose it was on account of the shoe buttons.
“but best of all,” said beckie, when she was talking about her toys to susie littletail, the rabbit girl, “best of all, i like my sawdust doll, matilda jane shavingstick. she is just lovely!”
“what funny names your dolls have,” said susie.
“yes, some of the names were given them by my uncle wigwag. he’s always playing tricks, and jokes, you know.”
“i know!” exclaimed susie with a laugh, as she remembered how uncle wigwag, the funny 217old bear gentleman, had played one joke too many a few days before and how he had frozen himself fast to a cake of ice that mr. whitewash, the polar bear gentleman, used as an easy chair.
“and i like my clothespin doll, too,” went on beckie, for she did have a doll made of a clothespin, with inky eyes.
“i like my wax doll best of all,” said susie. “my uncle wiggily longears gave her to me last christmas. oh, she’s such a darling! her cheeks are so pink and her eyes are so blue, and she can open and shut them, too, and she can say ‘mamma’ and ‘papa,’ when you push on a spring in her back.”
“oh, i wish i had a wax doll!” exclaimed beckie, the little girl bear, sort of sad-like. “but i don’t s’pose i’ll ever get one, even if christmas is coming.”
now, you boys needn’t go away just because you think there’s nothing but dolls in this story. i’m going to put in a real scary part pretty soon. in fact, it’s coming around the corner of my typewriter now and i’ll be up to it in a minute.
well, susie, the rabbit girl, and beckie, the little bear girl, talked a lot more about dolls. i could write down what they said, but i guess you girls know pretty much what it was, anyhow, and as for the boys—well, i’ll just say that the two 218little animal girls kept on saying such things as, “oh, she’s just too sweet for anything!” “she’s a darling!” “and she blinks her eyes so natural!” all doll-talk, you know.
well, beckie and susie walked on through the woods, and pretty soon they came to a place where there was an old hollow stump. in the summer time a nice family of birds lived in it. they were some relation to dickie chip-chip, the sparrow boy, but now all the birds had flown away down south, where it was nice and warm. for it was winter in bear-land, you know.
all the while beckie stubtail was wishing and wishing she had a wax doll, with real hair, and then, all of sudden, she looked at the old hollow stump, and, my goodness me sakes alive, and some molasses cookies, she saw a lovely wax doll there.
“oh, look!” cried beckie. “what a sweet doll. whose can she be?”
“why, she’s yours, of course,” said susie with a smile, as she wiggled her long rabbit ears.
“oh, i only wish she was!” cried beckie, clapping her paws. “but how do you know?”
“oh, it’s easy enough to tell that,” answered susie. “that doll is yours, beckie. it must be. you see, i have a wax doll, so i don’t need another. you have no wax doll and you want one.”
219“indeed i do, very much!” exclaimed beckie.
“then she is yours—take her,” went on the little rabbit girl. “i’m sure she is meant for you.”
“but who could have left her here?” asked beckie wonderingly.
but susie did not know this, nor did beckie. but it would not surprise me the least bit if santa claus himself had dropped that doll in the hollow stump. you know he often comes around a few days before christmas to see how things are getting on and to find out what boys and girls and animal children need. so i think it’s safe to say that santa claus left that doll in the hollow stump for beckie.
anyhow, the little bear girl clasped in her paws the lovely wax doll, and then she and susie looked at her and made her open and shut her eyes, and they felt of the soft wax in the doll’s pink cheeks, and they were both happy, especially beckie.
“let’s go home!” exclaimed susie. “i’ll get my wax doll and we’ll play house.”
“all right, we will!” said beckie.
so she and susie, the little rabbit girl, started back through the woods, beckie carrying her new wax doll. well, they hadn’t gone very far before, all of a sudden, out from behind a tree, sprang the bad old skillery-scalery alligator, and 220he popped out into the path, in front of beckie and susie, and he wound his long double-jointed tail around them so they couldn’t move and there he had them fast.
“ah, ha!” cried the bad old alligator, blinking his fishy eyes, “now i have you both, and a little baby, too.”
you see the alligator thought the doll that beckie carried was a real baby, and honestly it did look like one. of course the alligator didn’t know any better, you see.
“yes, now i’ve got you two animal girls, and also the baby,” went on the bad creature. “oh, ho! this is a lucky day for me!” and he blinked his fishy eyes real sassy-like.
“what—what are you going to do with us?” beckie asked, trying to be brave and not afraid.
“what am i going to do with you?” repeated the alligator. “why, i am going to carry you off to my cave and there i’ll keep you for a year and a day. and after that—ha, hum—let me see. why, i guess i’ll keep you there forever.”
“oh, dear! that will be terrible,” cried susie, as she thought she might never see her little brother sammie any more, nor uncle wiggily, either.
“please let us go!” cried the little rabbit girl.
221“no, i will not!” growled the bad old skillery-scalery alligator.
then susie and beckie tried as hard as they could to get away, but the alligator only wound his double-jointed, stretchy, rubbery tail the more tightly about them. then he began to drag them off to his dark cave, to keep them forever and a day, and then—and then——
all of a sudden something happened. beckie felt her new wax doll wiggling in her arms, and the doll seemed to be trying to get away. beckie held the doll tightly, but the wax creature only wiggled the more.
then all at once that doll grew up into a great big giant lady, as tall as a tree in the woods, taller and bigger and stronger than the old alligator, and then that wax doll just took her two strong arms, and with them she unwound the alligator’s tail from about beckie and susie. and then the doll lady cried:
“there you go, you bad creature, and don’t let me ever catch you bothering susie or beckie again!” and with that the doll lady just tossed the alligator into one peppersault after another over the tree tops, and away he sailed, turning over and over through the air, and if he hasn’t stopped he may be sailing yet for all i know unless he has reached the moon.
222beckie and susie were so surprised that they did not know what to do, but while they looked the doll lady shrank down to her regular wax size again, and she blinked her eyes and said “mamma” and “papa” just like any phonograph doll can do.
“well, what do you know about that?” cried beckie. “what a wonderful doll i have, to be sure!”
but that was the only time beckie’s wax doll turned herself into a giant lady, and she wouldn’t have done it that time only to save beckie and susie from the alligator.
the two little animal girls were very glad indeed to get away from the skillery-scalery alligator, and they hurried home as fast as they could, and played house with the wax doll, and had a lot of fun.
and in the next story, if the baby carriage doesn’t fall down stairs and bump the rubber tires off the wheels, for the puppy dog to chew for gum, i’ll tell you about neddie and the lemon pie.
