“I have it!” he whispered to himself in the darkness. “I’ll go in to the piano, and I’ll play the loudest bang-bang tune I know. Maybe the lions will think it’s thunder and lightning and guns shooting off, and they may be afraid and run away!”
So Neddie stole into the piano room and, all of a sudden, he banged his paws down on the loud keys as hard as he could. Then he played on the tinkle-tinkle keys, and again on the thunder notes. The lions, who were just going to break into the cave-house, heard the noise. They had never heard music in the dark night before, and they thought it was thunder and lightning.
“Oh! wow!” cried one lion, “we’re going to be caught in a storm! Come on home to our cave!”
“I’m with you!” growled the other lion, shivering, and away they ran, as frightened as could be, because Neddie remembered enough of his music lesson to make a thunder sound that he had practiced several times.
“And I’m never going to make a fuss about practice again,” he said. “Music is a good thing, after all. It scares lions away.”
Of course everybody in the cave-house woke up when Neddie played the piano, and when he told his papa and mamma why he did it, to drive away the lions, they said he had done just right.
Then everything got quiet, and Neddie finished his sleep in bed. And nothing more happened. So, pretty soon, if the trolley car doesn’t run off the track and bunk into the dishpan and make a big dent in it, I’ll tell you about Neddie and Beckie going to a party.
STORY XXIV
NEDDIE AND BECKIE AT A PARTY
One day, when Neddie and Beckie Stubtail, the little boy and girl bear, came home from school, where they had said their lessons, each one getting a good mark for not whispering—one day, as they ran in the house to get a honey cake, they saw two little white envelopes lying on the dining-room table.
“Hello!” exclaimed Neddie, looking at them. “Here’s some post-office mail mamma has forgotten to open.”