“Make way for me. I am strong. I can hold up that pole until you make it fast so it will not fall. I’ll save Neddie.”
And the elephant did. In his strong trunk he held the pole up straight until other elephants nailed it to make it firm and steady. Then Neddie could come safely down. The elephant had saved him. So you see you should always scratch an elephant’s back when you can.
And now about the next story. Let me see. I think, in case the feathers in the lady’s hat do not tickle the milk pitcher so that it falls off the table and spills all the cream, I’ll tell you about Beckie and the monkey.
STORY XI
BECKIE AND THE MONKEY
Many things happened to Neddie and Beckie Stubtail, the little bear boy and girl, while they stayed with the circus man in the barn where they had their Thanksgiving dinner. Oh many, many things happened, but I have only room to tell you of a few of them.
The two little bears cubs had been in the circus barn about a week, and though they liked it very much, and, though George, the tame trained bear, and his master, the Professor, and the other man, and the elephant and the lions and tigers were all very kind to Neddie and Beckie, they began to wish they were home.
“I—I’m sort of sorry we ran away,” said Beckie one morning, as she put a new dress on her rubber doll, Mary Ann Puddingstick Clothespin. It was only her own pocket handkerchief that Beckie used for a doll’s dress, but it did very well for all that.
“I guess I’m a bit sorry, too,” said Neddie. “We have learned some tricks, to be sure, and I can turn a somersault almost as good as George can, but still it isn’t as much fun as I though it would be.”
“I guess running away never is,” said Beckie.
“But we have had some fun,” went on Neddie.