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STORY XXI NEDDIE AND THE TOOTING HORN
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 “Mamma, can’t Beckie come out and play?” asked Neddie, the little bear boy, as he ran home from school one afternoon. “I came home early on purpose. It was such a nice, sunny day that teacher said I might come out before the others, to amuse Beckie.”
“That was very kind of you,” spoke1 Mrs. Stubtail, “and I think I will let Beckie out a little while. But you must look after her, and see that she does not stay late, for it gets cold after the sun goes down, and you know she is hardly over her cough yet.”
“Oh, I’ll be careful of her,” said Neddie, and he was so glad he could take out his little sick sister, that he stood up on the end of his short, stubby tail.
That is, Neddie tried to stand on the end of his tail, but the truth of the matter is, my dear little friends, that Neddie was getting to be such a fat, heavy little chap of a bear cub2 that his tail would not hold him any more.
168So over he fell, ker-thump-o! But he landed in a pile of leaves so he was not hurt at all.
“Don’t let Beckie try that, Neddie,” said Mrs. Stubtail, with a laugh. “She is only just out of a sick bed, you know.”
“I won’t!” laughed Neddie, as he picked himself up and brushed off the leaves. You know I told you, in the story before this one, how Beckie had to take some pink, bitter medicine for her cough that Dr. Possum gave her. Hold on, I don’t mean that Dr. Possum gave her the cough—no, he gave her the medicine to cure it. And a bad lion got in after Beckie, and he swallowed the whole bottle of medicine and that gave him such a conniption fit that he was glad to leave the little girl bear alone.
So while Neddie waited outside the bear cave, Mrs. Stubtail went inside to get Beckie ready to take a little walk in the woods.
“Oh, it is just lovely to get out again, after being in the house so long!” sighed Beckie, as she walked along with her brother Neddie, holding his paw.
Neddie was as nice as could be, and he walked slowly with his sister who had been ill, taking good care that she did not stumble3 over a stick or a stone.
On and on they went, and pretty soon, when 169Neddie was thinking it was about time to start for home with his sister, all of a sudden they heard a tooting horn in the woods.
“Hark! what’s that?” cried Beckie, giving a jump.
“I don’t know,” answered Neddie, and he looked all around, ready to run in case there should be danger.
“Maybe it’s a hunter and his dogs,” suggested Beckie. “Oh, Neddie, I’m so frightened!”
“Don’t be frightened, Beckie,” he said gently. “I’ll take care of you. Maybe, after all, it’s only the nice trained bear, George, and the professor man who toots on his brass4 horn.”
“Oh, but if it’s he maybe he’ll want to take us back to the circus barn,” went on Beckie. “I wouldn’t like that.”
“Nor I,” said Neddie. “But I don’t believe it is. Let’s take a look.”
So the two bear children looked all around, and then they heard the tooting horn again. And this time they saw who was blowing it. It was a hunter man, and he had his gun and his dog with him.
“Quick! Jump behind this big tree!” cried Neddie, and he helped Beckie to hide herself. They were only just in time, too, for just then the 170hunter looked around, and he might have seen the bear children, except for the tree.
Then the hunter blew his horn again, and, not seeing anything to shoot, he whistled to his dog, put his gun over his shoulder and slinging5 the horn by his side, down the hill he went, leaving Beckie and Neddie alone. And, oh, how happy they were!
“Well, I’m glad that’s over,” said Beckie, with a long breath. “We won’t come to these woods again.”
“I guess not,” said Neddie. “Let’s hurry home.”
“What kind of a horn was it that the hunter man had?” asked Beckie, as she and her brother took hold of paws again, and started for home. “It wasn’t at all like the one the professor man blew on. His was brass.”
“I know it,” answered Neddie, “and this one was made of birch bark, rolled up like a cornucopia6 such as come on Christmas trees. Only those are filled with candy, and this one had nothing but air in it.”
“I see,” said Beckie. “And can you blow on a birch bark horn, Neddie?”
“I can blow a little bit on that kind of a horn,” said Neddie. “But we’d better not stop now to try it. Let’s hurry home.”
171So the two little bear children went on, over hills and dales, and through the woods.
Now, whether they were not careful to take the right path, or whether the hunter and his dog and gun had so scared them that they didn’t know what they were doing, I can’t begin to say. It might have been one thing, and then, again, on the other hand, it might have been something else. And I don’t want to make a mistake.
Anyhow, the first thing Beckie and Neddie realized was that they were lost. They didn’t know where they were, nor how to get home. All they knew was that they were in the woods, some distance from home, and night was coming on.
“Oh, dear!” cried Beckie, when she saw that Neddie did not know his way home. “Oh, dear me!”
“Don’t worry, sister dear,” he said. “I’ll take care of you,” and he put his paws about her.
“Oh, I know you will,” said Beckie, “and you are as kind as you can be; but, still, and with all that, if I stay out after dark my cold may get worse again, and I’ll have to take more of that bitter medicine.”
“You can’t!” exclaimed Neddie. “The bad lion swallowed it all for you!”
“Oh, but Dr. Possum can make plenty more, 172and maybe worse than that!” cried Beckie. “Oh, dear! Where is our home? It’s lost!”
“No, it’s we who are lost,” said Neddie, with a laugh. “Our house is just where it always was.” And he giggled7 again. He didn’t feel very much like laughing, you know, but he did it to cheer up his little sister. It’s a good thing to laugh, sometimes, even when you don’t feel like it.
Well, it kept getting darker and darker, and Beckie was more and more frightened, even though Neddie was as jolly as he could be. Finally he said:
“We’ll just call for help. Mr. Whitewash8, the polar bear, or our papa, or Uncle Wigwag might be roaming9 through these woods, and they’d hear us and take us home.”
“Oh, then, holler as loudly as you can,” said Beckie. “Perhaps mamma, or Aunt Piffy, is out looking for us.”
So the two little bear children called as loudly as they could. Again and again they shouted, but only the echoes10 answered them.
“It’s of no use!” said Beckie, and she was almost ready to cry, for her cough was hurting her again. Then Neddie thought of something.
“I have it!” he cried. “I’ll make a tooting horn out of birch bark, like the one the hunter 173man had. I’ll blow on the horn, and surely some one will hear that.”
“Oh, goodie!” cried Beckie, clapping her paws. Then she felt better.
Neddie with his sharp claws quickly stripped off some white birch bark from a tree. He rolled the bark into a sort of cornucopia, large at one end and small at the other. He put the small end to his mouth.
“Toot! Toot! Toot!” went the little bear boy on the birch bark horn. Again and again he blew it. Finally Beckie said:
“I hear some one coming!”
Surely enough there was a sound in the bushes.
“Come and get us!” cried Neddie.
“I’m coming,” said a voice, and then, instead of their papa or uncle bear, out jumped the bad old skillery-scalery alligator11.
“Now I have you!” he cried, snapping12 his teeth.
“Oh, no, you haven’t!” said Neddie. And with that he blew such a blast13 from the tooting horn in the face of the ’gator that the bad creature turned a somersault and a peppersault mixed together and away he ran back to the drug store, where he belonged. Then Neddie blew some more tunes14 on the tooting horn, and this time his papa, who was searching in the woods, heard 174him and came to get his little boy and girl bear.
So Neddie and Beckie weren’t lost any more, and soon they were safely home, and I’m glad to say that Beckie’s cough got no worse. And they had hot mush for supper with sweet molasses on.
And in the next story, if the lady downstairs doesn’t come up and take my typewriter to get her baby asleep with, I’ll tell you about Beckie and the hand-organ man.

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1 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
2 cub ny5xt     
n.幼兽,年轻无经验的人
参考例句:
  • The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
  • The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。
3 stumble KG1zX     
n.绊倒,失策;vi.绊倒,失策,踌躇,无意中发现;vt.绊倒,困惑
参考例句:
  • Be grateful to those who have made you stumble,for they have strengthened your ability.感激绊倒你的人,因为他强化了你的能力。
  • You never knew when you might stumble across some new talent.谁也说不准什么时候会碰上一位新的天才。
4 brass DWbzI     
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器
参考例句:
  • Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
  • Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
5 slinging 7ca88eaffd78769411edb23adfefc252     
抛( sling的现在分词 ); 吊挂; 遣送; 押往
参考例句:
  • You're slinging mud at me -- that's a pack of lies! 你血口喷人,不讲道理。
  • The boys were slinging stones into the river. 孩子们当时正往河里投石子。
6 cornucopia SoIzm     
n.象征丰收的羊角
参考例句:
  • The book is a cornucopia of information.书是知识的宝库。
  • Our cornucopia is the human mind and heart.我们富足是由于人类的智慧和热情。
7 giggled 72ecd6e6dbf913b285d28ec3ba1edb12     
v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The girls giggled at the joke. 女孩子们让这笑话逗得咯咯笑。
  • The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 whitewash 3gYwJ     
v.粉刷,掩饰;n.石灰水,粉刷,掩饰
参考例句:
  • They tried hard to whitewash themselves.他们力图粉饰自己。
  • What he said was a load of whitewash.他所说的是一大堆粉饰之词。
9 roaming 9cf70059c922bff064d81e02cd867b25     
随便走( roam的现在分词 ); 漫步; 眼睛或手 (缓慢地)扫遍; 摸遍
参考例句:
  • After roaming around nearly half his life,he finally settled down in Canada. 他过了半辈子的流浪生活,最后在加拿大定居了下来。
  • After roaming around nearly half his life,he finally settled down in Quebec. 他过了半辈子的流浪生活,最后在魁北克定居了下来。
10 echoes 14799bdcba036b954a4d10ef95f3743f     
回声,共鸣( echo的名词复数 ); (言语、作风、思想等的)重复; 重复者; [无线电]回波
参考例句:
  • The sound echoes back from the walls. 这声音从墙壁发出回声。
  • I could hear the echoes in this temple. 我在这座庙里能听到回声。
11 alligator XVgza     
n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)
参考例句:
  • She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
  • Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。
12 snapping d1659d0ba621e2aaf8a8b11f9abca950     
adv.显著地,强烈地,非常地v.猛地咬住( snap的现在分词 );(使某物)发出尖厉声音地突然断裂[打开,关闭];厉声地说;拍照
参考例句:
  • The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away. 细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The fire is snapping. 火劈劈啪啪地响。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
13 blast tR6yh     
v.炸毁,摧毁;n.爆炸,爆破,一阵,汽笛声
参考例句:
  • A huge bomb blast rocked central London last night.昨晚一次剧烈的炸弹爆炸震动了伦敦市中心。
  • Not until last week was the project in full blast.工程直到上星期才全部开工。
14 tunes 175b0afea09410c65d28e4b62c406c21     
n.曲调,曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 );调整;(给收音机、电视等)调谐;使协调
参考例句:
  • a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
  • When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时,她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》


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