“I’m thinking of it,” answered Neddie. “And maybe you would like to come, too. Just imagine—sweet buns every day—and popcorn balls, no lessons—and doing tricks, and having that man play on the brass horn for you——”
Now it wasn’t right of Neddie to do this, and try to make Beckie come away with him. It was bad enough for the little boy bear to think of going off by himself. But when he wanted his sister to come, too—well, it wasn’t right; that’s all. Neddie was older than Beckie and he should have known better. But that’s the way it is sometimes, even with boys in real life. Of course I don’t mean any of you, but there are some other children I could name if I wanted to. But I’m not going to.
Well, anyhow, Neddie talked of how nice it would be for him and Beckie to run away, and become trained bears, and do tricks, and have good things to eat and finally Beckie said:
“Well, I’ll run away for a little while with you.”
“Yes, we’ll just try it. If we don’t like it we can run back again,” spoke Neddie.
“Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, once ran away,” said Beckie, “and they were glad enough to run home again.”
“I know, but this is different,” said Neddie; “they went to join a circus. We’ll just go with a kind man. There will be all the difference in the world.”
“All right, we’ll try it,” said Beckie, and she sighed a little at the idea of leaving her mamma and papa and Uncle Wigwag, and Aunt Piffy and Mr. Whitewash, the polar bear gentleman, and her nice cave-house, and all that.
“Could I take any of my dolls with me?” asked Beckie, after a bit.
“Well, maybe one,” said Neddie, “though I never heard of anybody that ran away taking a doll. But maybe one won’t do any harm.”