“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. Kat, 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.