“Oh, dear!” cried Beckie as she thought of going farther and farther away from her home and her mamma. “I wish we’d never run away, Neddie!”
“So do I!” exclaimed Neddie. “But I’ll not let them send us down South! Listen, Beckie, we must run away again, only this time we’ll run back home!”
“Oh, goodie!” cried Beckie, clapping her paws.
“Come on—right away!” said Neddie. “We’ll go before the Professor and the circus man see us!”
So the two little bear children slipped out of the back door of the barn. They wished they could kiss George, the big, kind bear, good-by, but it was impossible—which means you can’t do it.
Oh! how fast Neddie and Beckie ran. Over the fields and through the woods they went, until the circus barn was left far, far behind. And finally, just as night was coming on, the two little children bears reached the cave in the side of the hill where they lived, and they were safe home again, and oh! how glad their papa and mamma and Aunt Piffy, the fat bear lady, were to see them. And of course Mr. Whitewash, the Polar bear, and Uncle Wigwag, the trick-playing bear, were glad also. And oh! such a good supper as Neddie and Beckie had.
“We’re never going to run away again!” they said.
So that’s all to this story, but in the next one, if the dog barking at the moon in our backyard doesn’t take off his collar and tie it on my pussy cat’s neck, I’ll tell you about Neddie Stubtail and little Wuzzy Fuzzytail.
STORY XIII
NEDDIE AND WUZZY FUZZYTAIL
“Come, children, it’s time to get up!” called Mrs. Stubtail, the bear lady, as she stood at the foot of the stairs in the cave-house, on the side of the green hill, one morning. “Come, Neddie! Come, Beckie!”