STORY XXXI NEDDIE AND BECKIE IN THE CHIMNEY

 “Neddie, what makes you act so queerly²?” asked Beckie Stubtail, the little bear, one morning when she and her brother were on their way to school.

“Queer¹! Do I act queer?” asked Neddie, as he turned around to see if any snowballs were growing on the end of his tail. None were, I’m glad to say.

“Queer! I really think you do act strange,” said Beckie, as politely as she could, while eating a bun Aunt Piffy had given her.

“What do I do that’s queer?” asked Neddie, curious-like.

“Why, you go around looking up in the air all the while, and listening, and then looking up again. I should think you would get a stiff³ neck,” said Beckie. “Why do you do it, Neddie?”

“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Neddie, sort of 247confused like. “I—er—I guess I’m looking up to see if it’s going to snow any more for Christmas.”

“Neddie Stubtail!” exclaimed Beckie, shaking her paw at him. “That isn’t it at all! You’re looking for something in the air and I know it. And, besides, you talked in your sleep last night!”

“Did I?” asked Neddie, sort of anxious-like. “What did I say, Beckie?”

“Well, I couldn’t understand it all. But it was something about a tree, and getting caught in it, and then you hollered out: ‘I won’t tell, Sandy!’ That’s what you talked.”

“Did I say Sandy?” asked Neddie.

“Well, it sounded like that,” answered Beckie. “But I won’t be sure.” Then she looked at her brother. Neddie was all sort of red back of his ears, and his little stubby tail was going wiggle-waggle-wog. Then Beckie suspected something.

“Neddie Stubtail!” she cried. “I believe you know something about Santa Claus! That’s it! It was Santa—not Sandy. Oh! Neddie, do you—really? Tell me, please! I won’t tell. Come on, do, it’s so near Christmas!”

Beckie took hold of Neddie’s paw and kissed him on the nose.

“Aw, quit!” he cried. “I’m not a girl!”

248“I know, Neddie, dear,” said Beckie softly. “But I love you!”

“Huh! Yes! I guess you want me to tell you the secret, don’t you?” he asked, and really Neddie did not speak as politely as he might have done. But he did not mean to be unkind.

“Oh, a secret!” cried Beckie, clapping her paws. “Do tell me, Neddie, dear.”

“I promised not to,” said the little boy bear, looking at his toes.

“Oh, if you will,” said Beckie, “I’ve got a honey cake, and I’ll give it to you. Do tell me!”

“Well,” said Neddie, slowly, as he ate the cake his sister gave him, “It happened last night. I promised not to tell, but then you’re my sister and it’s almost Christmas, anyhow. I guess he won’t care.”

And then, because he loved his little sister bear, Neddie told all about having helped Santa Claus, who got caught in the tree top with his airship, as I told you in the story before this one.

“Oh, how perfectly⁴ lovely!” cried Beckie, clapping her paws. “Neddie, if I had another honey cake I’d give it to you. Just to think! You really saw Santa Claus!”

“But it’s a secret!” said Neddie, quickly.

“Of course—I know,” said Beckie, sticking 249up her nose just the little tiniest bit. “I won’t tell a single soul.”

And then they were at school. They studied their lessons and then, as it was recess⁵, all the animal children went out in the yard to play. And, of course, Beckie had to go and tell that she had a secret.

And, of course, all the girls wanted to know what the secret was. And, of course, Beckie said she couldn’t tell, but the girls, like Alice and Lulu Wibblewobble, the ducks, and Kittie Kat, and Brighteyes, the guinea pig girl, all begged and teased⁶, and well——

“Now promise, cross your heart and twist your paws you’ll never, never tell if I tell you,” asked Beckie.

“Oh, we promise,” said all the animal girls.

Well, you can easily guess what happened. Beckie told how her brother Neddie had helped Santa Claus out of the tree in his airship. And, of course, all the girls promised not to even whisper it. And then, somehow, all the boys had heard of what happened to Neddie. And, in a short time, everybody in the school knew all about the little boy bear having seen Santa Claus.

“Well, it’s very queer!” exclaimed Beckie when Neddie spoke⁷ to her about it. “I only 250just told a few girls—only a very few, and they all promised not to tell!”

“Huh!” exclaimed Neddie. And then, as he saw that his little sister felt badly, he added: “Never mind, Beckie. You didn’t mean to, and I guess Santa Claus won’t care, anyhow.”

And Neddie let Beckie kiss him again, which was very nice of him, I think.

Then, when recess was almost over, Jackie Bow Bow, the puppy⁸ dog boy, said:

“Pooh! I don’t believe Santa Claus comes down the chimney the way they say he does.”

“You don’t believe that?” cried Neddie Stubtail, surprised-like.

“No, I don’t,” said Jackie. “Maybe he has an airship, for you saw that, but nobody ever saw him come down the chimney.”

“The idea!” cried Beckie. “What a funny boy! Of course he comes down the chimney.”

“How can he with a pack on his back? Answer me that!” cried Jackie. Neddie and Beckie looked at one another. They both thought of the same thing. Then Neddie said:

“Of course Santa Claus comes down the chimney. What if he is big? I’m bigger than Sammy Littletail, the rabbit, and I can go down a chimney.”

“So can I!” cried Beckie.

251“And we’ll do it, too!” added Neddie. “We have a few minutes of recess yet. Beckie and I will go down the school chimney to show them all that Santa Claus can do the same thing.”

Then, while all the other animal children looked on in wonder, Beckie and Neddie scrambled⁹ up on the roof of the schoolhouse. They could easily do this as there was a tree growing near it. Then Neddie got in the chimney first. It was a large, wide one.

“You’ll get all black soot¹⁰,” said Beckie.

“Never mind, it will all wash off,” spoke Neddie. “Come on in, Beckie. There’s lots of room.”

So Beckie got in the chimney, too. Just then the school bell rang. Recess was over. All the animal children had to run in.

“Oh, you’ll get a bad mark!” they cried to Neddie and Beckie. “You’ll be late!”

“Hurry up! Slide down the chimney and go to school that way!” cried Beckie to Neddie.

“I can’t! I’m stuck fast!” he said.

“I’ll give you a push!” she cried. And she did. She pushed so hard that both she and Neddie fell right on down through the hole in the chimney, into the fireplace in the school room. But, luckily, there was no fire on the hearth¹¹, so they were not burned. Which shows 252you that Santa Claus can come down a chimney, and which also shows you that you should not have a fire in the grate on Christmas eve.

Well, of course, Neddie and Beckie coming down the chimney made quite some excitement in the school, but all the animal children laughed, and the professor-teacher laughed, too, and then, as it was so near Christmas, he said there would be no more lessons that day. So Neddie and Beckie, having proved that Santa Claus could come down a chimney, went home to wash off the soot.

What’s that? How does Santa Claus get the black soot off him when he comes down a chimney? Why, he always has a whiskbroom with him, you know, and every time he comes down a chimney he brushes himself off. See?

And now we have come to the end of this book, for you can easily tell, by looking, that there isn’t room for another story in it.

I’ll just say, though, that Neddie and Beckie had the finest Christmas that ever you can imagine. And such presents as they received! And the candy and nuts and oranges and honey cakes—Oh, my! It makes me hungry just to write about it.

And the two little bear children, and their papa and mamma, and Aunt Piffy, the fat bear, 253and Uncle Wigwag, and Mr. Whitewash¹² lived happily for ever after—for many years after. And every time he got a chance Uncle Wigwag would play a joke. And Mr. Whitewash would always sit on a cake of ice when he could find one.

But if I can’t get any more stories in this book, I can put them in another. And I will. That book will be called “Bully and Bawly No-Tail,” and they will be stories about the two little frog boys, who lived in a pond, and could swim as good as a gold fish. They had no tails, except when they were baby tadpoles¹³, but those tails soon fell off. So their names were “No-Tail” you see, just as Buddy¹⁴ and Brighteyes, the guinea pigs, had no tail.

So I’ll say good-bye now, for a little while, as I have to write the new book for you.
 

THE END

1 queer   

adj.奇怪的，异常的，不舒服的，眩晕的

参考例句：

• I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
• She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。

2 queerly   

adv.奇妙地，奇怪地

参考例句：

• He looked at me queerly. 他异样地望着我。
• He looked at her queerly. 他怀疑地望着她。 来自辞典例句

3 stiff   

adj.严厉的，激烈的，硬的，僵直的，不灵活的

参考例句：

• There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。
• You have to push on the handle to turn it,becanse it's very stiff.手柄很不灵活，你必须用力推才能转动它。

4 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

5 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

6 teased   

v.取笑，戏弄( tease的过去式和过去分词 )；梳理（羊毛等）

参考例句：

• He took a screwdriver and teased out the remaining screws. 他拿出螺丝刀把其余的螺丝卸了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt annoyance at being teased. 我恼恨别人取笑我。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 spoke   

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。

8 puppy   

n.小狗，幼犬

参考例句：

• You must school your puppy to obey you.你要训练你的小狗服从你。
• Their lively puppy frisks all over the house.他们的小狗在屋里到处欢快地蹦跳。

9 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

11 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

12 whitewash   

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。

13 tadpoles   

n.蝌蚪( tadpole的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pond teemed with tadpoles. 池子里有很多蝌蚪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Both fish and tadpoles have gills. 鱼和蝌蚪都有鳃。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

14 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！