“I’ll have to make believe very, very hard to do that,” said Beckie, smiling the least little bit.
Well, Dr. Possum went away, and Beckie had her first dose of the bitter cough medicine. It was so bad and sour and puckery that she made a terribly funny face when she took it. It was such a funny, queer face that Neddie, her brother, who was watching her take the medicine, had to laugh. And, as he was drinking a glass of water just at that minute, the water spilled all over him, of course.
“Well, Neddie,” said his mamma, “I guess you had better go on to school. This is no place for you.”
So Neddie went to school, and Beckie stayed home with her cough and the pink, bitter cough medicine. For some time she felt quite miserable, and then the medicine made her sleepy.
And Aunt Piffy, who was taking care of Beckie, said to herself:
“Well, now, as long as she’s quiet, I’ll have time to run across the street and get some sugar from Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady. I will make Beckie a little sugar candy to take after her medicine.”
So Aunt Piffy, leaving Beckie asleep, stepped out of the bear cave. And, as it happened, Mrs. Stubtail had gone out, too. She went over to Mrs. Kat’s house to see about getting a thimbleful of thread to sew some shoe buttons on Mr. Stubtail’s coat. That left Beckie sleeping all alone in the house, for Neddie, her brother, had gone to school, and Mr. Whitewash, the polar bear, had gone out hunting after honey, and Uncle Wigwag, the funny bear, was over calling on Grandfather Goosey Gander, the duck gentleman.
And a bad old lion, who used to work in a circus, came along just then. Seeing the door of the bear cave open, as Aunt Piffy had left it when she went out, the lion said:
“Ah, ha! I’m going in here! Perhaps I shall find something good to eat!”
In he went, and he saw Beckie asleep in her bed.