“Ah, ha!” growled the bad bear. “This is the time I have caught you! I’ve been waiting a long time to get you! Now I’m going to carry you off to my den, and make you wash dishes for ever and ever. Bur-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!”
Beckie looked up quickly and started to run, but she had no chance. The bad bear was right in front of her, and the door, before which she was sitting, was one that was hardly ever used, so it had been locked. Beckie couldn’t escape that way. She looked all around the school yard, but none of her friends was in sight. Neither was Neddie, who might have saved her, and as for the teacher, she had gone home to her dinner.
“Oh, help! Help!” cried poor little Beckie. She didn’t want the bear to take her away, and, as for washing dishes, she just hated that work, though she didn’t mind doing them for her mamma.
“Pooh! No one will help you!” cried the bad bear. “So don’t bother to call. Come along!” And he reached out his paws to grab Beckie. Then he happened to notice the doll’s dress, and, being a very curious sort of bear, he asked: “What are you doing?”
“I am making a dress for my doll,” answered Beckie, as politely as she could, with all her trembling. Then she thought of a trick to play on that bear. “Would you like to see me sew on the doll’s dress?” Beckie asked, sweetly.
“Well, you might show me one or two stitches,” said the bear, sort of careless-like. “But, mind you, I’ll carry you off just the same.”
“All right,” answered Beckie. “Look closely now. You see, I put the needle in this side of the silk and I push it through with my thimble.”
“Yes,” said the bear, “I see.”
“Now look closely,” said Beckie, and the bear leaned forward and put his nose and eyes close down. “And then,” said Beckie, “I pull my needle out this way, and—I stick it in your soft and tender nose—that way!” And with that she did it, jabbing the needle into the bear’s nose!
“Oh, wow!” cried the bad bear, and he was so surprised that he turned a back somersault and then he ran away off in the woods to get some honey to put on his sore nose. So he didn’t take Beckie away after all. Which shows you that it’s a good thing to make a doll’s dress, sometimes.