“Well, I don’t call it a very nice joke,” said Tommie, rubbing his nose. “But, anyhow, I did find some candy. Help me pick it up.”
“I guess that was for us,” said Beckie. “It was one of Uncle Wigwag’s jokes!”
As the bear children and the kitten boy were picking up the scattered sweet stuff, out came Uncle Wigwag from behind his tree.
“Ha! Ha!” he cried to Neddie. “I guess I fooled you after all, didn’t I? And so you were going to fool me, too, eh? But Tommie got my joke instead. Oh, dear!” and he laughed so hard that he got the hiccoughs, and Aunt Piffy had to rush out of the cave-house to pat him on the back.
And then, all of a sudden, the bad bear, in whose nose Beckie had stuck the needle when she was making her doll’s dress, came rushing up, growling and wanting to bite some one. But Neddie Stubtail, brave little chap that he was, threw a hard lollypop at the bad bear, hitting him on his sore nose, making him cry, “Wow!” and run away off in the woods where he belonged.
Then the rest of the candy was picked up, and Beckie and Neddie said they were sorry they had tried to play the ice trick on Uncle Wigwag, and everything was all right.
And on the next page, if the penholder doesn’t let the ink bottle fall out of the window and make a black mark on the sidewalk, I’ll tell you about Mr. Whitewash and the stovepipe.
STORY XVI
MR. WHITEWASH AND THE STOVE PIPE
“Oh, dear!”
“What’s the matter?”