STORY XXII
BECKIE AND THE HAND-ORGAN MAN
“Beckie,” said Mrs. Stubtail, the lady bear, as she came into the sitting-room in the cave-house where the little cub girl was playing with her rubber doll; “Beckie, I wonder if you are well enough to go to the store for me?”
“Of course I am, mamma,” answered Beckie. “My cold and cough is all cured now. I can go to school next week, I think.”
“I hope so,” said Mrs. Stubtail, “for you have been very ill.”
I told you, you know, about how Beckie had to take some very bitter, sour medicine, and how she fooled the bad lion with it.
And, since her illness, Beckie had not been to school. But she was better now, and that’s why Mrs. Stubtail thought perhaps the little bear girl could go to school.
“Well, as long as you think you are able to be out,” went on the mamma bear, “I’d like you to bring me a cake of yeast. I want to bake some bread.
“I would go to the store for it myself,” went on Mrs. Stubtail, “only I have to stay in the house, since Aunt Piffy is visiting over at Mrs. Wibblewobble’s duck pond, and I expect Mrs. Bow Wow the dog lady might call this afternoon. That’s why I asked you to go for the yeast, Beckie.”
“Oh, mamma, I don’t in the least mind,” said Beckie, politely. “I think the walk will do me good. It is a nice day, though it does look as though it were going to snow. And I’ll take my doll, Isabella Trolleycar Jamkitchen, along with me. She needs the air, too.”