Neddie Stubtail, the little bear boy, hurried along, kicking his paws through the snow, and thinking what fun he would have with his sister Beckie on their way to school next morning.
“I’ll get out my sled and pull Beckie,” thought Neddie. He would do this, you see, because Beckie could not come to the magic lantern show.
Well, Neddie was walking along, and he was putting out his tongue and letting the snowflakes melt on it, sort of tickling himself like, when, all of a sudden, Neddie heard a roaring sound, and a voice cried:
“Ah, ha! Now I’ve got you. You shan’t fool me this time by covering yourself with flour and making believe you’re a Polar bear. I’m after you!” And out from behind a snowbank rushed the bad old circus lion who had chased Neddie and Beckie the night before, when they were on their way home from the Kat party.
“Oh, my!” exclaimed Neddie. “I guess I’d better run!” And run he did, through the snow, as fast as he could. But the lion ran, too, and he was almost catching up to Neddie, when, all at once, the little bear came to the edge of a hill.
He came to it so suddenly that he couldn’t stop himself, and the first thing the little bear knew he slid over the top of the hill. Down he fell, right into the middle of a big bank of snow, on the other side.
Now a snowbank isn’t hard like the iron bank in which you put your pennies, and so Neddie wasn’t hurt the least mite, I’m glad to say. Gracious, if he had fallen on a hard iron bank, I don’t know what might have happened. I guess maybe he’d have broken his toothache anyhow. I’m not saying for sure, but maybe.
Anyhow, Neddie fell “ker-flop!” into the soft snow, and the fluffy flakes closed up over his head, not leaving any hole to show where he had gone in. So that when the bad lion came to the edge of the hill and looked down, expecting to see the little bear boy, he couldn’t see him at all, at all. For Neddie was hidden by the kind snowbank.
“My, that’s rather queer,” said the lion, sort of roaring to himself and scratching his nose with his tail. “Very strange to be sure! I’m positive that bear boy is around here somewhere. I’ll just call and make him come out.”
“Hey, you, Neddie Stubtail! Come out of where ever you are and let me bite you!”