“Ha! You can’t get away like that!” cried the sea lion, and after Neddie he flopped. Well, Neddie ran as fast as he could, and the sea lion flopped as fast as he could, and the bad creature had almost caught the little bear boy when, all at once part of the lemon pie slipped off the bottom crust.
Right through a hole in the bag it went, and into the path it fell, and before the sea lion could stop himself he had slipped on the slippery lemon stuff of the pie and head over flippers he went, slipping and sliding, until he came to the top of a hill, and he fell over that and down into a bramble briar bush, and he didn’t get out for a week and a day.
So Neddie was saved, and he got safely home with the rest of the pie, and only a little bit had fallen off, so there was enough left for him and for Beckie and the company, and even for Uncle Wigwag.
So that’s the story of Neddie and the lemon pie and if the iceman doesn’t take our refrigerator home with him to keep his little pussy cat warm in, I’ll tell you next about Beckie and the cold birdie.
STORY XXIX
BECKIE AND THE COLD BIRDIE
“Oh, see it snow!” exclaimed Neddie Stubtail, the little boy bear, as he looked out of the window of the cave-house. “Look, Beckie!”
“I can’t, Neddie, dear,” said the little girl bear. “I am making a new dress for my wax doll, Clarabelle Sarahjane Peartree, and if I look up I may drop a stitch or two.”
“Oh, if you drop them I’ll pick them up,” said Neddie most politely.
Beckie laughed.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “When you are sewing and drop a stitch it means you let it slip out of the cloth. It doesn’t drop on the floor.”