“Oh, mamma, I don’t want to!” exclaimed Neddie. “I want to play hide and seek some more. It’s my turn to hide, and I know a dandy place where they can’t find me. Sammie Littletail, the rabbit, has to be it, and he’ll never find me.”
“Well, my dear little bear boy,” spoke Mrs. Stubtail, “I know you like to play, but you must also help me. Bringing in the wood is one of your tasks. So don’t make a fuss about it.”
“All right, mamma, I won’t,” said Neddie, eagerly. “Only do I have to bring in the wood right away?”
“It would be better to get it in before dark,” said Mrs. Stubtail, “but I don’t mind if you wait a little while longer. Only don’t forget it, and don’t be too long. It soon gets dark, you know, and you can’t see to get me nice sticks of wood. But go on and play a while longer.”
Mrs. Stubtail wanted to be kind to Neddie, but she also wished him to feel that he had certain things to do, and must do them.
Well, Neddie went on playing hide and seek, and he hid in the big clothes basket that was in the yard. He pulled a clean sheet from the line over him, and really the basket looked as though it were filled with clothes from the wash.
Of course when Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, who was searching for the other animals this time, passed by the basket, he only saw the sheet, and never thought that Neddie was hiding under it. So Sammie didn’t find Neddie, though he did all the other animal boys, and such fun as Neddie had when he ran in home free.
“I told you that you couldn’t find me!” he said, as he tried to stand on one ear, but he couldn’t because his ear bent double. Then Neddie fell down, and he knocked over Peetie Bow Wow and Peetie bumped up against Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck, and for a time it looked just like an animal circus.
Well, Neddie Stubtail was having so much fun that he forgot all about bringing in the kindling wood for his mamma. Then, all of a sudden it got dark—so dark that the animal boys couldn’t play hide and seek any more—and Neddie remembered the wood.
“Oh, dear!” he exclaimed.