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diff --git a/old/11156.txt b/old/11156.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efe5db9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11156.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4878 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg, by Howard R. Garis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg + Bed Time Stories + +Author: Howard R. Garis + +Release Date: February 19, 2004 [EBook #11156] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG *** + + + + +Produced by The Internet Archive Children's Library, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +BED TIME STORIES + +Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg + +Howard R. Garis + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTE. + + +These stories appeared originally in the Evening News, of Newark, N.J., +and are reproduced in book form by the kind permission of the publishers +of that paper, to whom the author extends his thanks. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. BUDDY PIGG IN A CABBAGE +II. BRIGHTEYES AND MRS. HOPTOAD +III. BUDDY PIGG AND SAMMY LITTLETAIL +IV. BUDDY PIGG PLAYS BALL +V. BRIGHT EYES PIGG AND SISTER SALLIE +VI. DR. PIGG AND UNCLE WIGGILY +VII. BUDDY PIGG IS CAUGHT +VIII. BUDDY'S AND BRIGHTEYES' FOURTH OF JULY +IX. BUDDY PIGG WANTS A TAIL +X. BUDDY WALKS A TIGHT ROPE +XI. BRIGHTEYES IN A TIN CAN +XII. DR. PIGG AND THE FIRECRACKER +XIII. BUDDY PIGG IN A BOAT +XIV. BRIGHTEYES AND THE PEANUT CANDY +XV. BUDDY AND THE JUNE BUG +XVI. BRIGHTEYES AND THE BAD BOY +XVII. BUDDY'S GREAT RUN +XVIII. BRIGHTEYES, BUDDY AND THE TURNIP +XIX. BUDDY AND THE BURGLAR FOX +XX. BRIGHTEYES HAS AN ADVENTURE +XXI. BUDDY IN A DEEP HOLE +XXII. A TRICK THE GROUNDHOGS PLAYED +XXIII. BUDDY IN THE BERRY BUSH +XXIV. BRINGING HOME THE COWS +XXV. BUDDY RIDES HORSEBACK +XXVI. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES FALL DOWNHILL +XXVII. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES GO BATHING +XXVIII. BUDDY BUILDS A SAND HOUSE +XXIX. BUDDY HELPS SAMMY LITTLETAIL +XXX. BRIGHTEYES AND JENNIE CHIPMUNK +XXXI. BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES IN THE MOUNTAINS + + + + +BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG + + + + +STORY I + + +BUDDY PIGG IN A CABBAGE + +Once upon a time, not so many years ago, in fact it was about the same +year that Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boys lived in +their kennel house, there used to play with them, two queer little brown +and white and black and white animal children, called guinea pigs. They +were just as cute as they could be, and, since I have told you some +stories about rabbits, and squirrels and ducks, as well as about +puppies, I wonder how you would like to hear some account of what the +guinea pigs did? + +Anyhow, I'll begin, and so it happened that there lived at one time, in +a nice little house, called a pen, four guinea pigs. + +There was the papa, and he was named Dr. Pigg, and the reason for it +was that he had once been in the hospital with a broken paw, and ever +since he was known as "Doctor." Then there was his wife, and his little +boy, and his little girl. They were Montmorency and Matilda, but, as the +children didn't like those names, they always spoke of each other as +"Buddy" and "Brighteyes," so I will do the same. + +Buddy Pigg (and he had two g's in his name you notice) was black and +white, and Brighteyes Pigg was brown and white, and they were the nicest +guinea pig children you could meet if you rode all week in an +automobile. One day Buddy went out for a walk in the woods alone, +because Brighteyes had to stay at home to help to do the dishes, and +dust the furniture. + +Buddy, who, I suppose, you remember, was a friend of Jackie and Peetie +Bow Wow, walked along, sniffing with his nose, just like Sammie and +Susie Littletail, the rabbits. + +"It seems to me," Buddy said, "that I smell something good to eat. I +wonder if it can be an ice cream cone, or some peanuts, or anything like +that?" He looked around but he couldn't see any store there in the woods +where they sold ice cream or peanuts, and then he knew he must be +mistaken. Still he kept on smelling something good. + +"I wonder where that is?" he exclaimed, and he sniffed harder than +ever. And then he knew what it was--a cabbage--a great, big cabbage! He +ran around the side of a big rock, and there lying on the path, was a +fine big cabbage. Some one had dropped it by mistake. + +"This is great luck!" cried Buddy Pigg. "There is enough for me and +Brighteyes, and I can take some home to mamma and to my papa, the +doctor. Yes, indeed, this has been a lucky day for me. I'm as glad I +found this cabbage as if I had picked up ten cents! I guess I'll eat +some to see how it tastes." + +So Buddy Pigg began to gnaw at the cabbage and, as he had very good +teeth for gnawing--almost as good as Sammy Littletail's--he soon had +quite a hole made. But he kept on gnawing and eating away, so fine did +it taste, until, in a little while if he hadn't eaten a hole right into +the cabbage and he found himself inside, just like the mousie in the +loaf of bread! + +"Ha! This is very fine, indeed!" cried Buddy Pigg. "I think I will take +a nap here," and lopsy-flop! if that little guinea pig didn't curl up +inside the cabbage and go fast, fast asleep; and not even his tail stuck +out, because, you see, he didn't have any tail--guinea pigs never do +have any, which is a good thing, I suppose. + +Well, Buddy Pigg was sleeping away inside that cabbage, dreaming of how +nice it would be to take the rest of it home, when all at once, who +should come creeping, creeping around the edge of the rock, but a great, +big fox. He had sharp eyes, had that fox, and he saw the little guinea +pig asleep inside the cabbage, even though Buddy's tail didn't stick +out. + +"Ah, ha! Oh, ho!" exclaimed the fox, and he smacked his lips. "I see a +fine feast before me! Oh, yes, indeed, a very fine feast! Guinea pig +flavored with cabbage! Now, just so that pig can't get out, I'll stop up +that hole, while he's asleep in there, and I'll go and get my wife, and +we'll come back and have a dandy meal! Oh! a most delectable meal!" + +So that old fox crept softly, so softly, up to where the cabbage was, +with Buddy asleep inside, and the fox took a stone, and he crowded it, +and wedged it, fast in the hole, so poor Buddy couldn't get out, though +there was some air for him to breathe. Then the fox laughed to himself: +"Ha, ha!" and "Ho, ho!" and hurried off down the hill after his wife. + +Well, it wasn't long before Buddy Pigg awoke, and he tried to stretch +himself, as he always did after a nap, and wasn't he the surprised +guinea pig, though, when he found he couldn't stretch! + +"Why, what can be the matter?" he cried. "I'm all in the dark! Let's +see where was I? Oh, I remember, I found a cabbage, and I began to eat +it, and I went inside it--And land sakes, goodness me and a trolley car! +I'm inside it now!" he cried, as he smelled the cabbage. "I'm shut in +the cabbage just as if I was shut in a closet! However did it happen?" +and he tried to turn around, and make his way out, but he couldn't, +because the stone which the fox had stuffed in the hole closed it up too +tight. + +"I'm locked in!" cried Buddy Pigg. "Locked in a cabbage! Isn't it +terrible!" and of course it was, and no fooling, either. + +Well, Buddy Pigg was a brave little chap, and instead of sitting down +and crying there in the dark, he began to think of how he could get out. +He thought of all sorts of ways, but none of them seemed any good, and +at last he decided to try to burst the cabbage open. But it was too +strong and thick, and he couldn't do it. + +He soon discovered, however, that, wiggling around inside it as he did, +made the cabbage wiggle too, and the first thing you know the cabbage +began to roll down the hill, just like a man in a barrel. + +Faster and faster went the cabbage down the hill, over and over, with +Buddy inside, and he began to get dizzy, for he didn't know what was +happening. + +Then, at that moment, who should come along but that bad fox and his +wife. The cabbage seemed to be rolling straight at them. + +"My sakes alive!" cried Mrs. Fox. "What is that, Oscar?" You see her +husband's name was Oscar. + +"I don't know," he replied, "but don't bother about it. We'll go and get +that guinea pig." So they kept on, but just then the cabbage bounded +over a little clod of dirt, went up in the air, and nearly hit Mr. Fox, +and that scared him so that he ran away, and his wife ran after him. + +Well, the cabbage, with Buddy inside, kept on rolling, and the first +thing you know it began to roll down hill in front of the guinea pigs' +pen. It made quite a noise, and Matilda ran out to see what it was. + +"Oh, mamma!" she cried. "Here is a cabbage rolling down hill." + +"Nonsense!" cried Mrs. Pigg. "Whoever heard of such a thing?" but she +ran out to see what it was, and at that moment the cabbage bounded right +in front of the pen, hit a big stone, burst open with a noise like a +torpedo, and out rolled Buddy Pigg, over and over, just like a pumpkin. +But, believe me, he wasn't hurt the least mite, but he was rather +surprised-like! + +Then he got up, walked over to his mother and said: + +"Here is some fresh cabbage I brought home," and he was as cool as two +cucumbers. Well, the guinea pigs had a fine dinner off the cabbage Buddy +brought home in such a funny way, and of course the fox and his wife +didn't have any, which served them right I suppose. + +Now in the next story, if the cook doesn't burn the potatoes and make +stove blacking of them I'll be able to tell you about Brighteyes Pigg +and Mrs. Hoptoad. + + + + +STORY II + + +BRIGHTEYES AND MRS. HOPTOAD + +After Buddy had taken that funny ride down hill, inside the head of +cabbage, his father said to him: + +"Buddy, come here, and let me look at you. Possibly you were hurt in +that terrible trip, and, having been in a hospital, I can tell whether +you were or not." + +So he looked Buddy over carefully, but there wasn't a thing the matter +with the little chap, except a tiny scratch on his nose. + +"Weren't you awfully frightened?" asked Brighteyes of her brother. "It +was terrible!" + +"No," he answered, "not much. And it wasn't so terrible when we got a +good dinner out of it. I wish I could find a cabbage every day." + +"You had better put something on that scratch," cautioned Dr. Pigg. Then +he went on reading his paper, and Mrs. Pigg got out the salve bottle for +Buddy. + +Well, it was two days after this that Brighteyes Pigg was out walking +along the road. She had been to the store for some carrots, and the +store man said he would send them right over, so the little girl guinea +pig didn't have to carry them. + +Well, she was walking along, not thinking of much of anything in +particular, when suddenly something hopped out of the bushes in front of +her. + +"My goodness! What's that?" cried Brighteyes, for she was a bit nervous +from having had a tooth pulled week before last. + +"Don't be alarmed, my dear," spoke a soft voice. "It's only me," and if +there wasn't a great, big, motherly-looking hoptoad, out in the dusty +road, and the next moment if that toad didn't begin hopping up and down +as fast as she could hop. + +"Why, whatever in the world are you doing?" asked Brighteyes Pigg, for +she noticed that the toad didn't seem to get anywhere; only hopping up +and down in the same place all the while. + +"I'm jumping, my dear," answered the toad. + +"So I see," remarked the little guinea pig girl, "but where are you +jumping to? You don't seem to be getting any place in particular." + +"And I don't want to, my dear," went on the toad, and she never stopped +going up and down as fast as she could go. "I'm churning butter," she +went on, "and when one churns butter one must jump up and down you know. +That's the way to make butter. Don't your folks churn?" and then, for +the first time, Brighteyes noticed that the toad had a little wooden +churn, made from an old clothespin, fastened on her back. + +"No, my mother doesn't churn," answered Brighteyes. + +"Then I don't suppose you keep a cow," went on Mrs. Toad. "Neither do +we, but next door to us is the loveliest milk-weed you ever saw, and I +thought it a shame to see all the milk juice go to waste, so I churn it +every week. It makes very fine butter." + +"I should think it might," answered Brighteyes. "But isn't it hard +work?" + +"Yes, it is," replied Mrs. Toad, "and I know you'll excuse me, my dear, +for not stopping my jumping to sit and chat with you, but the truth of +the matter is that I think the butter is beginning to come, and I +daren't stop." + +"Oh, don't stop on my account," begged Brighteyes, politely. "I can talk +while you jump." + +"Very good," replied the toad, "I think I will soon be finished, though +on hot days the butter is longer in coming," and she began to hop up and +down faster than ever. + +Then, all at once, oh, about as soon as you can pull off a porous +plaster when you're quick about it, if poor Mrs. Toad didn't give a cry, +and stop jumping. + +"What's the matter?" asked Brighteyes, "has the butter come?" + +"No," was the answer, "but I stepped on a sharp stone, and hurt my foot, +and now I can't jump up and down any more. Oh, dear! now the butter will +be spoiled, for there is no one else at my home to finish churning it. +Oh, dear me, and a pinch of salt on a cracker! Isn't that bad luck?" and +she sat down beside a burdock plant. + +Well, sure enough, she had cut her foot quite badly, and it was utterly +out of the question for her to jump up and down any more. + +"Will you kindly help me to get the churn off my back?" Mrs. Toad asked +of Brighteyes, and the little guinea pig girl helped her. + +"All that nice butter is spoiled," went on Mrs. Toad, as she looked in +the churn. "Well, it can't be helped, I s'pose, and there's no use +worrying over buttermilk that isn't quite made. I shall have to throw +this away." + +"No, don't," cried Brighteyes quickly. + +"Why not?" asked the toad lady. + +"Because I will finish churning it for you." + +"Do you know how to churn?" + +"Not exactly, but I have thought of a plan. See, we will tie the churn +to this blackberry bush stem, and then I will take hold of one end of +the stem, and wiggle it up and down, and the churn will go up and down, +too, on the bush, just as it did when you jumped with it; and then maybe +the butter will come." + +"All right, my dear, you may try it," agreed Mrs. Toad. "I'm afraid, +though, that it won't amount to anything, but it can do no harm. I am +sure it is very kind of you to think of it." + +So Brighteyes took the churn, and tied it to a low, overhanging branch +of the blackberry bush. Then she took hold of the branch in her teeth, +and stood up on her hind legs and began to wiggle it up and down. The +churn went up and down with the branch, and the milk from the milk-weed +sloshed and splashed around inside the churn, and land sakes flopsy-dub +and some chewing gum, if in about two squeals there wasn't the nicest +butter a guinea pig or a toad would ever want to eat! + +"Oh, what a smart little girl you are!" cried Mrs. Toad. "I'm sure your +mother must be proud of you! Now I can work the buttermilk out, and salt +the butter, and I'm going to send your mamma home a nice pat," which she +did, and very glad Mrs. Pigg was to get it. + +"You certainly are a clever little child," said Dr. Pigg to Brighteyes +that night, "but then, you see, you take after your father. It is my +hospital training that shows. By the way, we must send something to Mrs. +Toad, for her cut foot," which they did, and it got all better. + +Now, in case you don't drop your bread with the butter side down on the +carpet, and spoil the kitchen oilcloth, I'll tell you in the next story +about Buddy Pigg and Sammie Littletail. + + + + +STORY III + + +BUDDY PIGG AND SAMMY LITTLETAIL + +Getting up quite early one morning, Buddy Pigg washed himself very +carefully, so that his black and white fur was fairly shining in the +sunlight, and then the little guinea pig started off to take a stroll +before breakfast. + +"Who knows," he said, "perhaps I may meet with an adventure; or else +find a cabbage, just as I did the other day. But if I do, I'm not going +to get inside it and go to sleep. No, indeed, and a feather pillow +besides!" + +So Buddy Pigg walked on, leaving his sister and his mamma and Dr. Pigg +slumbering in the pen. Oh, it was just fine, running along through the +woods and over the fields that beautiful, summer morning. + +The grass was all covered with dew, and Buddy had a second bath before +he had gone very far, there was so much water on everything, but he +didn't mind that. He looked at the flowers, on every side, and smelled +them with his little twinkling nose, and he listened to the birds +singing. + +Well, in a short time he came to a place where a lot of little trees +grew close together, making a sort of grove, not large enough for a +Sunday-school picnic, perhaps, but large enough for guinea pigs. + +"This is a fine place," said Buddy Pigg. "I think I'll rest here a bit, +and perhaps an adventure may come along." + +You see Buddy was very fond of adventures, which means having something +happen to you. He was almost as much that way as Alice Wibblewobble, the +little duck girl, was fond of romantic things--that is she liked +fairies, and princes, and kings, and knights with golden swords, and all +oddities like that. Well, Buddy Pigg went in the little grove of trees, +and now you just wait and listen--an adventure is going to happen in +less than five minutes by the clock. + +All of a sudden, just as the little guinea pig got close to one of the +trees, he smelled something good, and he looked up, and, bless him! if +he didn't see the nicest turnip that ever grew. + +"Oh, that certainly is fine!" he cried, and his eyes twinkled and his +nose wiggled, both at the same time. "I must take that home for +breakfast," he went on. But my goodness me and the mustard spoon! if, +when he went to get it, he didn't discover that the turnip was hung up +by a string on the branch of the tree! + +"Hello!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg. "I never saw turnips growing that way +before. This must be a special kind, but it will be all the better. It +is a little high up, but I think I can reach it by standing on my hind +legs, and stretching up my front paws." + +So he moved a little nearer the curious hanging turnip, and was about to +reach up for it when who should come bounding out of the bushes but +Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy. + +"Hello, Buddy Pigg!" he called. "What are you going to do?" + +"I'm going to get this turnip down," answered Buddy. "It is a fine one; +but it is hanging quite high. I'll give you some when I pull it down," +for Buddy Pigg was very kind, you know. + +Well, he stood up again, and was just about to step a little closer, so +he could grab the turnip, when Sammie cried out: + +"Here, Buddy! Come right away from that! Jump back as fast as you can! +Quick! Quick! I say!" + +"Why?" asked Buddy, "is it your turnip?" + +"No, but don't you see? That turnip is nothing but a trap. It is hung up +there on purpose. Come away. I can see the trap as plain as anything. +Uncle Wiggily Longears taught me how to keep away from them, for I was +caught in one, once upon a time." + +"A trap?" asked Buddy. "Is this a trap?" + +"To be sure," answered Sammie. "See, the turnip hangs right over a loop +of wire, and inside the wire loop there is a piece of wood. Now to reach +up and get the turnip you must step on the piece of wood, and as soon as +you do so that tree branch, to which the wire is fast, will spring up, +the wire will slip around your neck, you will be yanked up into the air, +and that will be the last of you." + +"The last of me?" asked Buddy, who, being a little boy, had not seen as +much of the world as had Sammie. + +"The very last of you," answered the rabbit. "You would be choked to +death by the wire. Yes, the turnip was put there to catch some one, but +they won't catch us, Buddy. We'll fool them!" + +"Oh, I say! This is too bad!" exclaimed Buddy. "I was just counting on +this turnip. Isn't there any way we can get it?" + +"I don't believe so," replied Sammie, wrinkling up his nose, just as +Buddy was doing. They smelled that turnip, and it had a most delicious +odor, better to them, even, than strawberries are to you. + +"Maybe we can throw some stones up and knock it down," suggested Buddy. + +So they threw up stones, and, though they hit the turnip, and made it +swing back and forth, like the pendulum of the clock, it didn't fall +down, and by this time Buddy and Sammie were getting very hungry. + +"Let's try throwing sticks," proposed Sammie. "We'll toss them at the +cord, and maybe we can break it." + +So they threw sticks, and, though Buddy did manage to hit the cord, the +turnip didn't come down, and they were more hungry than ever. + +"Let's take a long pole and poke the turnip down," said Sammie after a +while, and they did so, but Buddy accidentally came within half a dozen +steps of going too near the trap, and was almost caught. + +"Oh, I guess we'll have to give it up," spoke Sammie, but Buddy didn't +want to, because he was very determined, and did not like to stop until +he had done what he set out to do. + +So he tried every way he could think of, until he was all tired out, but +nothing seemed to do any good. Then he and Sammie sat down and looked up +at that turnip, swinging over their heads, and they were so hungry that +their tongues stuck out like a dog's on a hot day. Then, all at once, +before you could sharpen a lead pencil with a dull knife, if out from +the bushes didn't pop Billie Bushytail, the squirrel. + +"What's up?" he asked, just like that, honestly he did. + +"The turnip is," said Buddy; "it's up high and we can't get it down." + +"Ha! That's a mere trifle--a mere trifle!" cried Billie. "I will climb +up the tree, run out on the limb and gnaw through the string. Then the +turnip will fall down to you." + +Which he did in two frisks of his tail, without any danger from the trap +at all, for that was on the ground, while Billie was above it in the +tree. So Buddy and Sammie had the turnip after all. And they divided it +evenly, Sammie gnawing it through with his teeth, and each one took his +half home. Billie didn't like turnip, you see for he would rather have +chestnuts. + +Now, I think I'll tell you next about Buddy Pigg playing ball--that is, +if our tea kettle sings a nice song for supper and makes the rag doll go +to sleep. + + + + +STORY IV + + +BUDDY PIGG PLAYS BALL + +"Hello, Buddy!" called Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, to Buddy Pigg +one fine day, "come on out, and we'll have a game of ball," and Sammie +tossed his ball high up in the air and caught it in his catching glove, +as easily as you can eat two ice cream cones, a vanilla and a chocolate +one, on a hot day. + +"Why, we two can't play ball alone," objected Buddy. "It needs three, +anyhow." + +"Oh, well, we'll find Billie and Johnie Bushytail somewhere in the +woods," went on Sammie, "and maybe Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, +will come along, too. Then there is Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, who have +come back from the country. Oh, we can get up a regular team." + +"All right, I'll come," agreed Buddy. "Wait until I bring in some wood +for mother. She is going to bake some turnip pies to-day--out of the +turnip you and I and Billie Bushytail got yesterday--and she needs a hot +fire. I just love turnip pies; don't you, Sammie?" + +[Illustration] + +"Indeed I do, but I don't believe we are going to have any. Mother +stewed my half of the turnip." + +"Never mind," advised Buddy Pigg, "I'll give you some of our pies when +they are baked," so he brought in two big armfuls of wood for the fire, +and then he and Sammie went off to play ball, leaving Brighteyes Pigg +home to help her mamma bake the pies, which the little guinea pig girl +loved to do. + +Well, Buddy and Sammie hadn't gone very far before they met Billie and +Johnnie Bushytail, the boy squirrels, and they agreed to play ball. +Then, as the four of them went along a little farther, they met Jackie +and Peetie Bow Wow, out walking with Percival, the old circus dog. So +Peetie and Jackie said they would play ball, and that made six. + +"Now, if we had two more we would have four on a side," suggested Buddy, +and, no sooner had he spoken than there was a noise in the bushes, and +out came Jimmie Wibblewobble, and Bully, the frog. + +They were very glad to play ball, and soon there were two sides +selected. Buddy Pigg was captain of one side, and for players he had +Peetie Bow Wow, Billie Bushytail, and Bully, while Sammie Littletail was +the other captain, and he had Jackie Bow Wow, Johnnie Bushytail and +Jimmie Wibblewobble. + +"Now we're all ready, let's play," suggested Buddy. + +"No, wait a moment," begged Bully. + +"Why?" they all wanted to know. + +"Because," replied the little frog boy, "my brother, Bawly, has just +made up a new song, and I know he'll give us no peace until he sings it. +He's coming along now. Let him sing the song, and then we'll play ball." +So they agreed to that, and in a minute Bawly came hopping along. + +"Do you want to hear my new song?" he asked. + +"Yes--hurry up," they all cried. So Bawly sang this: + + Oh, wiggily, waggily, wheelery, + I wish that I was rich. + I'd buy an automobilery, + And ride it in our ditch. + I wouldn't hop at all again. + I'd ride the whole day long. + But I haven't got an auto, + And so I sing this song. + +"I don't call that much of a song," said the old circus dog, Percival. +"You ought to do a dance after it. That's what the clowns always do." + +"Thank you, I'm not a clown," answered Bawly. "But could you make up a +song like that, and sing it yourself? That's what I want to know," he +asked. + +"I don't s'pose I could," answered Percival. "But if we're going to the +ball game, let's go." So they hurried on, and pretty soon they met Uncle +Wiggily Longears. + +"Oh, will you umpire for us?" asked Sammie. + +"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit, as he leaned on his +crutch. "I ought to go on to the office, but--ah!--er--well, as long as +you have no one else to umpire for you, I suppose I will have to do it, +but I really ought to go to the office. Who is going to play?" he asked, +and he seemed real anxious to know. + +So they told him, and pretty soon they got to the baseball field, and +began the game. Buddy Pigg and his players were last at the bat, and +Sammie and his players came up first. + +Well, it was a great game. Sammie struck out, but Jackie Bow Wow made a +nice home run, and Jimmie Wibblewobble almost did, only he got put out +at the home plate, and then Johnnie Bushytail, he got put out, trying to +steal to second base, which means getting there on the sly, you know; +and then it came the turn of Buddy and his friends to bat the ball all +over if they could. + +Well, Johnnie Bushytail was the pitcher, and he threw in such fine +curves, and so many of them, that it was hard for Buddy and his friends +to strike the ball. + +They did manage to hit it a little, and got three runs. Then it came the +turn of Sammie Littletail's team again, and they got four runs, and so +it went along until at the close of the game Sammie's team was eight +runs and Buddy's only seven. + +"We've got to get two runs to win," cried Billie Bushytail, "everybody +work hard." + +"We will," cried Bully, the frog. Now you girls just listen carefully, +something wonderful will happen in about a minute. + +Well, Peetie Bow Wow made one run, and then Bully and Billie got put +out, and it was Buddy's turn to bat the ball. It all depended on him +now. If he could make a home run his side would win. + +Well, I just wish you could have seen how bravely Buddy walked up to the +home plate, and stood there, while Johnnie Bushytail almost tied +himself into a bow knot in throwing a double-jointed +up-and-down-sideways curve. + +Buddy Pigg swung at it, and--no, he didn't miss it, he hit it good and +proper, and away sailed the ball. Off Buddy started for first base, +hoping he could make a home run, but alas! before he got to second base +the ball he had knocked was coming down, and was almost in the webbed +foot of Jimmie Wibblewobble, who was waiting to catch it, and if it was +caught that would mean that Buddy would be out, and his side would not +win that inning. + +But Jimmie didn't catch the ball! No, sir! The strangest thing happened! +At that moment if along didn't fly the kind fish hawk; and he swooped +down and caught that ball up in his strong bill, and sailed away up in +the air with it, and Buddy ran on and on as fast as he could go, around +the bases, and toward home plate, and he got there in time to win the +game. And then the fish hawk dropped the ball, and Jimmie caught it, but +it was too late to put Buddy out. + +"That's not fair!" cried Sammie Littletail. "The bird took the ball up +in the air." All his side said it wasn't fair, but Uncle Wiggily, the +umpire, decided that it was fair, and Buddy's side won the game, but +they wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the fish hawk, and they were +very thankful to him. + +Now I think I'm going to tell you in the next story about Brighteyes and +Sister Sallie--that is if no one takes our door mat to use for a pen +wiper. + + + + +STORY V + + +BRIGHTEYES PIGG AND SISTER SALLIE + +Brighteyes Pigg had finished doing the dishes, and had put on her clean +dress, her new tan shoes, which matched her brown and white fur, and her +hair was tied with a pink ribbon--you know the kind--the ones that stick +out so with a bow on each side. Well, she looked just too nice for +anything, and she asked her mother: + +"May I go out and take a walk?" + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Pigg. "Where are you going? Is Buddy going with +you?" + +"No, he has gone off to play ball again. I guess he thinks the fish hawk +will catch up the ball once more and help him to make a home run. No, +I'm not going with Buddy. I thought I'd go over and see Sister Sallie, I +haven't called on her in some time." + +"Very well," said Mrs. Pigg, and Dr. Pigg called to his little girl: + +"Give my regards to Mr. Bushytail, and tell him that if he sees Uncle +Wiggily Longears to mention that I have a new cure for rheumatism, that +I will send him." + +"I'll be sure to tell him," said Brighteyes Pigg. "Poor Uncle Wiggily, +his rheumatism bothers him a great deal." Well, she went on through the +woods to see Sister Sallie, who, I hope you remember, was the little +sister that Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the two boy squirrels, once +found at the foot of the tree where their nest was. + +Brighteyes found Sister Sallie just finishing helping Mrs. Bushytail do +up the housework, and Sister Sallie was singing: + + Hippity-hop to the barber-shop, + To buy a lolly-pop lally. + One for me, and one for thee + And one for Sister Sallie. + +"Can you come out and play?" asked Brighteyes. + +"Indeed I can," replied the little squirrel. "Shall I bring my doll?" + +"Yes, but I haven't any," answered the little guinea pig girl, as Sallie +brought out the corncob doll, that her brothers and Grandma Lightfoot +had made for her. + +"Never mind, I'll help you make one," promised Sister Sallie, so the +two little friends walked on through the woods. + +"What will you make my doll of?" asked Brighteyes. + +"I don't just know yet," said Sallie. "I will look around for +something." So she looked first on one side of the woodland path, and +then on the other, and Brighteyes did the same, but they couldn't seem +to find anything out of which to make a doll. + +Then, all at once, oh, I guess in about two wiggles and a wag, if Sallie +didn't see a nice, long, smooth, yellow carrot. + +"That will make a fine doll!" she cried. "We will use some cornsilk for +hair, and some little stones for the eyes, nose and mouth, and for +dresses----" + +"Well, what will we make dresses from?" asked Brighteyes, for she +noticed that Sister Sallie was at a loss what to say. + +"Oh, I know--leaves," cried the little squirrel. "We will pretend that +green is fashionable for ladies with a sort of carroty complexion," and +she laughed, and so did Brighteyes, whose nose twinkled just like the +diamond in mother's ring, or baby's eyes, when he is happy. + +So the two little friends sat down on a grassy bank, in the shade of an +oak tree, and they made the carrot doll. Oh, it was such fun! + +First they stuck two little pebbles in for eyes, and they looked as real +as anything; then they stuck a little larger stone in the carrot for a +nose, and then Brighteyes found a nice, long stone, sort of curled up +around the ends, and when that was put in the carrot, just beneath the +nose, why it looked exactly as if that carrot doll was smiling as hard +as she could smile; she was so happy, I s'pose. + +"Now for some dresses!" exclaimed Sister Sallie, who had put her own +corncob doll under some grass to sleep. So they got some beautiful green +leaves from the tree, and fastened them together with grass and needles +from the pine tree, and they made the nicest dresses you ever saw. + +Let me see, there was one made in princess style, and one empire gown, +and one that had a pull-back in the skirt, and one was a tub dress, +whatever that is, and there was a crepe de chine and a basque and peau +de soie effect and--and--er--well, I know you'll excuse me from +mentioning any others, as I don't know very much about dresses; it took +me quite a while to look those up, and I must get on with the story. + +Well, when they had the dresses all made they tried them on the carrot +doll, and they fitted perfectly, believe me, they did! + +"Oh, isn't this lovely," cried Brighteyes. "Now let's play house," so +they played house, and each one had a room, there on the grass, with +sticks and stones for furniture, and they put the dollies to bed, and +woke them up, and took them for a walk, and they made believe wash +dishes and get meals, and, oh, I don't know what they didn't do. + +But, all of a sudden, just as they were putting their dolls to sleep, +they heard a sort of growling in the bushes, and a big, shaggy, yellow +dog, with glaring eyes, jumped out at them! Oh, how frightened +Brighteyes and Sister Sallie were! + +"What are you doing on my nice, green grass?" growled the dog, real +savage-like. + +"If you please, Mr. Dog, we didn't know this was your grass," said +Sister Sallie, timidly. + +"Of course it is!" snapped the dog. "I go to sleep here on it every day. +Anyway what do you mean by taking the leaves off my trees?" he growled +again. + +"If you please, kind sir," spoke Brighteyes, "we didn't know they were +your trees." + +"Certainly they are," replied the dog, snapping his eyes open and shut. +"Those leaves keep the sun off me while I sleep. Now I'm going to eat +you all up for taking my things!" and he jumped right at them. + +But land sakes, flopsy dub! Before he could bite either Brighteyes or +Sister Sallie, who should appear, but Percival, the good, old circus +dog. + +"Here, you let my friends alone!" he barked, and he jumped on that bad +dog, and nipped both his ears well, let me tell you. Then the bad dog +ran away, howling, and Percival took care of Sister Sallie and +Brighteyes until it was time for them to go home. Now in the story after +this one I'm going to tell you about Dr. Pigg and Uncle Wiggily--that is +if my furnace fire doesn't go out in the street roller-skating with the +coal man. + + + + +STORY VI + + +DR. PIGG AND UNCLE WIGGILY + +Some one knocked on the door of the pen where Dr. Pigg and his wife and +Buddy and Brighteyes lived one day. "Rat-a-tat-tat," went the rapping. + +"My! I wonder who that can be?" exclaimed Mrs. Pigg. "Run and see, will +you, Buddy, like a good boy?" + +So Buddy hurried to the door, and whom should be see standing there but +Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit; and Uncle Wiggily had +rapped with his crutch, which had made the funny sound. + +"Why, how d'do!" exclaimed Dr. Pigg as soon as he saw who it was. "Come +right in Uncle Wiggily! This is an unexpected pleasure. Brighteyes, get +a chair for Uncle Wiggily. Buddy, you take his crutch. Mrs. Pigg, +haven't we some of that new cabbage preserved in maple sugar? Bring out +a bit for our friend!" + +My! you should have seen what a bustling about there was in the pen, +and all because Uncle Wiggily had come and because every one was fond of +him. Buddy started to take the old gentleman rabbit's crutch, but Uncle +Wiggily cried: + +"Oh, no! Don't! Not for worlds! Oh, my, no! and an ice cream cone +besides! Oh, lobster salad, no!" + +"Why, whatever is the matter?" exclaimed Dr. Pigg. + +"Oh, my! Ouch! Oh, shingles!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he stepped up over +the doorsill. "Oh, dear me, and a baseball bat! It's my rheumatism, as +usual. It's something awful, these days." + +"Oh, I'm so sorry," cried Brighteyes Pigg. + +"And so am I," added Buddy, and they all were, for that matter. + +"Rheumatism, eh?" remarked Dr. Pigg, thoughtful-like. + +"Yes," went on Uncle Wiggily, as he hobbled over to a chair. "In fact, I +came to see you about it, Doctor," and the old rabbit rubbed his leg +very, very softly. + +"Ah! ha! Ahem!" exclaimed Dr. Pigg, as he puffed himself up, and looked +as important as possible. "Of course, I remember now. I sent word to you +that I had a new cure for rheumatism. I heard the doctors mention it in +the hospital, and I thought I would try it on you." + +"That's very kind of you," said Uncle Wiggily, "and you can't try it +any too soon, for I am in great pain," and he made such a funny face, +with his nose wiggling, and his ears waving back and forth, like fans on +a hot night, and his eyes--one looking up and the other down--altogether +it was so funny that Buddy and his sister wanted to laugh, only they +didn't, for they knew it wouldn't be polite, and might hurt Uncle +Wiggily's feelings. + +"I will have some medicine for you in a jiffy!" exclaimed Dr. Pigg; a +jiffy, you know, being almost as quick as half a wink. + +So the guinea pig doctor got a bottle of red medicine, and one of blue, +and one of pink, and another bottle of green medicine, and he got some +red pills and some black pills and some white powder and some yellow +powder and then he took some molasses and maple sugar, and stirred them +all up together. Oh, it was a funny-looking mixture I can tell you, all +colors of the rainbow, just as when Sammie fell into the pot of Easter +dye. + +"Now Mrs. Pigg, you stir that up well, and we'll give Uncle Wiggily some +as soon as it is cool," said Dr. Pigg, for he had cooked the medicine on +the stove. + +"It doesn't look very nice," observed Uncle Wiggily sort of +anxious-like. + +"Rheumatism medicine never does," said Dr. Pigg. + +"And it doesn't smell very nice," went on Uncle Wiggily. + +"Rheumatism medicines never do," cheerfully said Dr. Pigg, "and, what is +more, it doesn't taste very nice, either, Uncle Wiggily; but you must +take it, if you are to get well." + +"I suppose I must," remarked the old rabbit with a sigh, as Mrs. Pigg +kept on stirring the mixture. Well, pretty soon it was cool enough to +take. + +"Now, Buddy, you bring a spoon," ordered Dr. Pigg, and when the little +boy guinea pig brought one, his father poured into it some of the +medicine. + +"Brighteyes, you get a napkin so he won't spill any of it on his +clothes," went on her papa, "and Mrs. Pigg you please be ready with a +glass of water, for Uncle Wiggily will want a drink right after he takes +this." + +Well everything was all ready, and Buddy stood there to help, and so did +Brighteyes. + +"One, two, three! Take it!" suddenly cried Dr. Pigg, and he poured the +teaspoonful of the many-colored mixture down Uncle Wiggily's throat. +Brighteyes held the napkin so none of it would get on the rabbit's coat, +and Mrs. Pigg was there with the glass of water, which Uncle Wiggily +took very quickly. + +Well, I wish you could have seen the face Uncle Wiggily made when he +swallowed the rheumatism medicine! It was just like a clown in the +circus, only funnier. But Brighteyes and Buddy didn't even giggle, which +was very kind of them. + +"Do you feel any better?" asked Dr. Pigg, after Uncle Wiggily had +stopped making faces. "Is the pain gone?" + +"No, I can't say that it is," answered the rabbit. "It seems to be worse +than ever," and he rubbed his leg and tried to get up, but he couldn't +leave the chair, even with his crutch, which Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy had +gnawed for him out of a cornstalk. + +"Oh, that's too bad!" exclaimed Dr. Pigg. "I must try a new kind of +medicine." + +"No, don't!" cried the rabbit. "I had rather have the rheumatism." + +"Suppose we try some horse radish leaves, like we did for my toothache?" +proposed Buddy, and Mrs. Pigg said that would be good. So they got some +leaves, and put them on Uncle Wiggily's leg, but they didn't do any +good, neither did mustard, nor nettles, nor any of the other burning +things that they tried. + +"Oh, dear, I guess I'll have to stay in this chair forever!" cried +Uncle Wiggily, as he tried to get up and couldn't. "Oh, dear me, and a +piece of chewing gum! This is terrible!" + +Well, every one was wondering how Uncle Wiggily was ever going to walk +again, when all of a sudden, as Buddy looked from the window, he cried +out: + +"Oh, here comes the big, shaggy yellow dog that was going to eat up +Brighteyes and Sister Sallie when they were playing with their dolls! +He's coming right this way! Run everybody!" + +"Wow!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "A dog! Goodness me!" and, land sakes, if he +didn't jump up, seize his crutch and run home as fast as if he never had +any rheumatism at all. + +You see he was so frightened he forgot all about it for the time being, +which was a good thing. But do you s'pose that dog dared to come in the +pen and hurt the guinea pigs? No, sir, not a bit of it! The first he +knew, Percival, the kind, old circus dog had him by the ear and the bad +dog ran away and didn't hurt anybody. + +Now, in the next story, if an auto horn doesn't scare me so that I lose +my typewriter ribbon I'll tell you about Buddy Pigg being caught by a +boy. + + + + +STORY VII + + +BUDDY PIGG IS CAUGHT + +Buddy Pigg was sent to the store by his mother, one fine summer day, to +get a pound of butter, a loaf of bread and three-and-a-half pounds of +granulated sugar, and as that made quite a load to carry Buddy had a +basket to put the things in. + +"Now don't drop the loaf of bread in the water," said his mamma, "and +don't let the butter melt and, above all, don't tear a hole in the bag +of sugar, and have it spill out." + +"I won't, mother," promised Buddy. "I'll be real careful." So he set out +on his journey to the store, while Brighteyes, his sister, stayed home +to make the beds and mend the stockings. + +Well, Buddy got to the store all right, and bought the things for which +his mother had sent him. Then the storekeeper wanted to know how Dr. +Pigg and his family were, and he inquired about Uncle Wiggily's +rheumatism, and Buddy told about the scare the old gentleman rabbit had +had when the big, shaggy yellow dog appeared, and how the old gentleman +rabbit ran, and how Percival bit the bad dog. + +"That's very interesting," said the storekeeper, and he gave Buddy a +whole carrot for himself. + +Placing his basket of groceries carefully on his arm, Buddy Pigg started +for home. He walked along through the woods, and over the fields, +thinking how nice everything was, and what fun he would have when he got +home, playing ball with Sammie Littletail, and the Bushytail brothers, +when, all at once, what should he hear but a noise in the bushes. + +Now Buddy Pigg was always a little afraid when he heard noises, +especially in the woods, where he couldn't see what made them, so he +crouched down under a burdock leaf in case there might be any danger. +And, sure enough, there was. + +It wasn't more than a second or, possibly a second and a squeak, before +a great, big, bad boy stepped out from behind a tree. And he had a gun +with him, and he was looking for birds, or rabbits, or squirrels, or, +maybe, guinea pigs to shoot. + +That's why I know he was a bad boy, but of course he may have turned out +to be a good boy before he got to be so very old. Well, this boy looked +up, and he looked down, and he looked first to one side, and then to the +other, and then--flopsy-dub, and wiggily-waggily! if he didn't spy poor +Buddy Pigg hiding under the burdock leaf, and trembling as hard as he +could tremble. + +"Ah, ha!" cried that boy, "I have you now, little guinea pig! I'll take +you home with me, that's what I'll do! My, to think of catching a live +guinea pig! I certainly am a lucky chap!" + +Then, before Buddy could run away, which he couldn't have done anyhow, +on account of the basket of groceries on his arm, if that boy didn't +grab him up in his hands, and hold him tight! + +Oh, how frightened poor Buddy was! He was so scared that he could only +squeak very faintly, but he did manage to ask the boy to let him go, +only the boy didn't understand guinea pig language, as I do, and, even +if he had, I doubt very much if he would have let Buddy go, for he was a +bad boy as I have explained. + +Well, the boy didn't care any more about hunting rabbits or squirrels +with his gun that day, as he had caught Buddy, so off he started to take +the little guinea pig home with him, and, maybe, he intended to shut him +up in a box, or put him in a cage, or do something dreadful like that. + +But, listen, pretty soon--oh, I guess in about four jumps and a +hop--something is going to happen to that boy. Watch carefully and +you'll see it. + +On through the woods he went, holding poor Buddy tightly in his hands, +and, would you believe me, that boy never noticed that Buddy had a +basket of groceries! You see, the basket, of course, was guinea pig +size, and so was the loaf of bread and the butter and the sweet sugar. +They were so small that the boy didn't notice them, but this was partly +because Buddy hid the basket under his paws, for he didn't want anything +to happen to the things for which his mother had sent him to the store, +you know. + +Well, as the boy kept going on through the woods, carrying Buddy farther +and farther away from his home, the poor little guinea pig was more +frightened than ever. + +"Oh, how will I ever get away!" he thought, "I'll never see my mamma, +nor Brighteyes, nor my papa, Dr. Pigg, any more! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" + +No sooner had Buddy said this than he heard a funny little noise in the +trees above his head, and, looking up, he saw Billie Bushytail bounding +along. There was the squirrel, and he saw right away what the trouble +was. And he could talk to Buddy without the boy knowing it, you see; so +Billie said: + +"Hey, Buddy, take some of the bread, crumble it all up, and toss the +crumbs up in the air." + +"What for?" asked Buddy. + +"Do it, and you'll see," answered Billie. "That will help you to +escape." + +Now Buddy didn't like to spoil the nice, new loaf of bread he had bought +for his mamma, but he thought maybe it would do some good, and he didn't +want to be carried away by that boy. + +So he broke open the loaf, crumbled some of the white part in his paws, +and tossed it high up in the air, so that it fell down in a shower, all +around the boy's head, and listen, the boy hadn't noticed Buddy toss up +the crumbs. + +"My!" exclaimed the boy. "Why, I do declare, if it isn't snowing! Who +ever heard of such a thing!" and he really thought the falling bread +crumbs were snow flakes. So he turned up his coat collar to keep warm, +and began to run, for he didn't want to get snowed under in the woods. +But Buddy kept on tossing up the bread crumbs, until the loaf was all +gone. + +"What shall I do next?" the guinea pig called to Billie Bushytail, who +was following along in the trees overhead. + +"Open the bag of sugar and throw that up in the air the same way," +directed the squirrel, and when Buddy did this the boy heard the sugar +rattling down on the leaves and some of it got down his neck, and +scratched him. + +"Why, I do declare. It's hailing!" he cried. "Who ever heard of such a +thing!" So he hurried on faster than ever. + +Well, when the sugar was all tossed up, and the boy was running real +fast, Billie Bushytail called to Buddy: + +"Now throw the pound of butter down in front of the boy!" Which Buddy +did as quick as a wink, and lossy-me and a pancake! if that boy didn't +slip down in the slippery butter, and fall and hurt his nose, and he had +to let go of Buddy Pigg. + +"Now's your chance. Run, Buddy, run!" cried Billie, and my, how Buddy +Pigg did run; and he got safely away from that bad boy, and was soon at +home, where his mother forgave him for throwing away the groceries when +she heard the story. + +Dr. Pigg said Billie was very smart to think of such a thing, and I +believe so myself. Now in case you don't burn yourself with a +firecracker and lose your penny down a hole in the sidewalk, I'm going +to tell you in the next story about Buddy and Brighteyes' Fourth of +July. + + + + +STORY VIII + + +BUDDY'S AND BRIGHTEYES' FOURTH OF JULY + +One day, when Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg were playing out in front of +their pen, Buddy suddenly exclaimed: + +"Why, just think of it! Day after to-morrow is Fourth of July, +Brighteyes. Won't we have lots of fun?" + +"What will we do?" asked his sister. + +"Oh, shoot off firecrackers and torpedoes, and make lots of noise, and +at night we'll send up Roman candles and skyrockets; and oh! it will be +better than a circus." + +"Oh, you boys!" exclaimed Brighteyes. "You always want to make a racket +and have excitement. It's horrid, I think." + +"Oh, I s'pose you'll play with your dolls, or something like that," said +Buddy, laughing at his sister, who was very serious. + +"Yes, that's what I'm going to do," replied Brighteyes. "I'm going to +play with Sister Sallie, and Alice and Lulu Wibblewobble, and Jennie +Chipmunk, and we're going for a picnic in the woods." + +"Look out that a big fox or a bad dog doesn't get you," said Buddy. +"Well, I'm going off to find Sammie and Billie and Johnnie and Jimmie +and Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, and Bully and Bawly Frog, and we'll have +a fine time on the Fourth." + +"Where are you going to get your firecrackers and things?" asked +Brighteyes. + +"You'll see," answered Buddy, as he ran off. + +Well, Fourth of July came at last, just as it always does, and early in +the morning Buddy Pigg awoke. + +"Where are you going?" called his papa. + +"Out to shoot off some firecrackers," answered Buddy. + +"Be careful you don't get burned," cautioned his mother. "Oh dear! I +don't like the Fourth of July. If you do get burned. Buddy, run right in +and let papa attend to you." + +"I can't get burned with the kind of firecrackers and torpedoes I'm +going to use," answered the little boy guinea pig, and he laughed as he +ran out. + +Well, pretty soon, along came all his friends, Billie and Johnnie and +Sammie, and all the rest. They were so excited that Bawly, the frog, +didn't think to sing a song, or recite any poetry. + +"What shall we do first?" asked Buddy. + +"Let's play war," suggested Sammie. "We'll divide up into two armies, +and have a battle. It will be great!" + +So they divided into two sides, and Buddy was the general on one side, +and Billie Bushytail on the other. Then the fight began--not real, you +understand--but make-believe. + +First the loud cannons shot off; and what do you suppose the cannons +were? Why big stones, that the squirrels and rabbits and the other +animal boys held and clapped together as loud as anything. You know +stones can make a terrible racket when they are hit together real hard. +Well, it sounded like regular cannon, and the birds in the wood got +awfully scared. + +"Now fire your guns!" cried General Buddy Pigg, and his soldiers took +sticks, and snapped them in two pieces and broke them, until they +sounded like real guns, or a lot of firecrackers going off. + +Oh, it was fine, and the best of it was nobody could get hurt, or +burned, either. + +"Now shoot them with your torpedoes!" cried General Billie Bushytail, +and all at once his side began firing off torpedoes at a great rate; +until you would have thought the woods were on fire. And you would +never guess what the torpedoes were, so I'll tell you. They were big, +rose petals, blown up with air until they were like little pink and red +balloons, and tied around with a string, just as you tie a paper bag +around the neck, after you've blown it up, to burst it, and when those +rose-torpedoes were cracked down on a flat stone--my! you should have +heard the noise! + +Well, lots of them were fired off, and then Buddy Pigg got some empty +bags, and his soldiers blew them up, and they cracked 'em down, and they +went off "Boom! Boom!" like great, big cannons. They blew dust up in the +air, to pretend it was smoke, and there was the most terrible +make-believe battle you ever heard of. But nobody was hurt, and they had +lots of fun, and the best of it was that neither side won, which made +everybody happy. + +"Now we'll take a rest," said Buddy Pigg. "I wonder what Brighteyes and +the others are doing?" + +"Let's go see," proposed Billie Bushytail. + +So they all marched off through the woods, just like real soldiers, and +pretty soon they came to the place where Brighteyes and Sister Sallie +and all the girls were having a picnic. + +"You're just in time," called Brighteyes. + +"Come and have some lunch, and some lemonade. You must be tired after +all that fighting." Now wasn't she kind, even after Buddy had laughed at +the idea of a picnic being better than a battle? Well, I just guess! +Those soldiers were glad enough to eat the lunch, and drink the +lemonade, I can tell you. + +So the soldiers and the girls sat there in the woods under the trees and +had a fine time--almost as good as at the make-believe battle, I +think--and after a while, just as Buddy and his chums were getting ready +to go back and shoot some more stick-firecrackers and roseleaf +torpedoes, what should happen but that bad fox and that mean, old, +yellow, shaggy dog ran right out of the woods. + +"Let's eat everything up!" cried the fox, waving his big tail. + +"Yes, and then we'll eat the squirrels and rabbits and guinea pigs all +up!" cried the dog, gnashing his teeth and blinking his eyes as bold as +bold could be. + +At first even the soldiers were so frightened that they hardly knew what +to do, and they were about to run away, when Buddy called out: + +"Come on! Let's get our guns and our cannon and shoot them!" + +Then he grabbed up some stick-firecrackers and began to break and snap +them, and Sammie shot off some roseleaf torpedoes and Billie and Johnnie +clapped stones together, and Jimmie and Bully and Bawly threw dust in +the air until it looked like smoke, and there was a terrible racket, +until--well, sir, if that dog and that fox weren't so frightened that +they ran away and didn't even get so much as a crumb of cracker or a +drop of lemonade; and it served them right, I think. + +Then how thankful the girls were to the brave soldiers. Oh, everything +turned out just right, I'm glad to say. That afternoon Buddy and his +chums had more Fourth of July fun, and Brighteyes and her friends played +with their dolls. + +Then at night Buddy and the boys sent up skyrockets and Roman candles +(which were sticks covered with lightning bugs), and prettier ones you +never saw. And they even had a lightning-bug pinwheel. Oh, it was the +nicest Fourth of July that ever was! I hope you children have as nice a +one and that none of you get burned or hurt when you celebrate +Independence Day. And, if none of you do, why, in the next story I'll +tell you about Buddy Pigg trying to buy a tail for himself, because he +didn't have any. That is, I will if the lollypop doesn't fall down +stairs and break his stick. + + + + +STORY IX + + +BUDDY PIG WANTS A TAIL + +The day after the Fourth of July, when he and his sister had had such +fun, Buddy Pigg came into the pen, where his mamma was baking tea +biscuits for supper, and sat down in a chair by the table where she was +working. + +He didn't say anything, but just watched his mamma rolling out the +crust, or whatever it is they make tea biscuits of, and pretty soon Mrs. +Pigg noticed that Buddy didn't seem very happy. His face was all twisted +up into a funny sort of a scowl, and every once in a while he would give +a long sigh, as though he hadn't a friend in all the world. + +"Why, Buddy," Mrs. Pigg asked, when the tea biscuits were ready for the +oven, "whatever in the wide, wide world is the matter? Are you sick, or +did you burn yourself with a firecracker?" + +"No, mother," Buddy answered, "I'm not sick and I didn't burn myself +with a firecracker, but I wish--I wish--" and then he stopped, and sort +of wiggled his nose. + +"Well," asked his mother with a smile, "what do you wish? Remember, +though, that I am not a fairy and can't give you anything you want." + +"Oh," answered the little boy guinea pig, "this is very easy, mamma. All +I want is a tail." + +"A tail?" exclaimed his mamma in great surprise, and she wondered if, +after all, Buddy wasn't ill, for that was a very strange request. And +she began to wish that his papa was home, or that Brighteyes, who was +Buddy's sister, was in the house, to help look after him, but Brighteyes +had gone to see her aunt, and wouldn't be back till night. + +"Yes," went on Buddy, "I want a tail. All the other boys and girls who +are friends of mine have them, and I don't see why I can't." + +For you see guinea pigs never have tails. Why that is I don't know, +except, maybe, it's better that way in hot weather, but, anyhow, they +have no tails. + +"You don't need a tail," said Buddy's mamma. + +"Yes, I do, mother dear," he answered. "Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow have +tails, and so have Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, and the three +Wibblewobbles, and--" + +"But Bully and Bawly, the frogs, have no tail," said Mrs. Pigg, "and +they are happy, Buddy." + +"Well, they are in the water so much it doesn't show whether they have a +tail or not," went on Buddy. + +"And Sammie and Susie Littletail haven't much of a tail, Buddy," said +Mrs. Pigg, as she looked in the oven to see if the biscuits were +burning. + +"I know it, mother, but they have something of a tail," spoke Buddy, +"and maybe it will grow longer in time. I'd be glad if I had even as +much as Sammie has." + +"Well," said Mrs. Pigg, "I'm sorry, Buddy, but I don't see how you are +ever going to get a tail. I haven't any, your father hasn't any, and we +get along very well. None of your relations have tails and they are +happy. They never had any. In fact there has never been a tail in our +family and I don't see why you want to start. Now run out and play, like +a good boy, and when Brighteyes comes back it will be supper time, and +we'll have hot biscuits and honey." + +But, though Buddy ran out, he was not happy. There was a frown on his +face, and, as he walked through the woods, he kept thinking how nice it +would be to have a tail. + +Pretty soon, oh, I guess in about a whisper and a squeak, Buddy Pigg +heard a rustling in the tree over his head. Then he saw two big, yellow +eyes peering down at him from the darkness of the woods, and a voice +called out: + +"What's the matter, little boy? Why are you so sad?" + +"Oh, I feel bad because I haven't a tail," answered Buddy, wondering who +was speaking. + +"What's the matter? Did some one cut your tail off?" the voice asked. + +"No," replied Buddy, "I never had one; but I want one, awfully bad." + +"Oh, don't worry about a little thing like that," went on the voice. "I +can get a fine tail for you." + +"Oh, can you?" cried Buddy, his face lighting up, "are you a fairy?" + +"Well, not exactly," was the answer, "but you just run along after me, +and I'll get a tail for you, in less than no time." + +Then there was a rustling in the branches, and a great, big owl, with +ears that looked like horns, flew out, and Buddy was frightened. But the +owl said: + +"Oh, don't be alarmed, little boy. Just follow me, and I'll see that you +get a tail." + +So the owl flew along through the dark, dismal woods, going slowly, and +close to the ground so Buddy could follow, and pretty soon, the owl +stopped in front of a hole in the side of a hill. + +"There is where the tail is," said the owl. "Just wait and I'll have it +out to you in a jiffy and a half," and bless me, if that owl didn't go +in that hole. He stayed there some time, and Buddy could hear voices +inside, talking, and land sakes, goodness me alive, and a cherry pie! +out of that hole was thrust a great, big, bushy tail. A tail, and +nothing else, believe me, if you please. + +"Oh, what a fine tail!" cried Buddy in delight. + +"Do you think so?" asked a voice. "Then just grab hold of it, hold +tight, and it's yours!" + +Well, Buddy didn't think there was any danger, so he grabbed hold of the +tail, and held on tight, but oh, dear me! instead of pulling the tail +out, he found himself being pulled in. Yes, sir, right into that hole, +and land knows what would have happened if Buddy's sister, Brighteyes, +hadn't come along just then on her way home from her aunt's house. She +saw right away that the bushy tail was fast to something inside the +hole. + +"That's a fox's tail!" she cried, "and he's pulling you into his den! +Let go, quickly! Let go, Buddy!" + +So Buddy let go just in time, though the fox and the owl rushed out and +tried to grab him, but they fell down, and couldn't get up in time, and +he and his sister ran home. You see it was just a trick of that owl and +fox, to get Buddy into the den, and eat him up, but they didn't, I'm +glad to say. And after that Buddy never wanted a tail. Now if it doesn't +rain in the dishpan and turn the umbrella inside out, I'll tell you in +the next story about Buddy walking a tight rope. + + + + +STORY X + + +BUDDY WALKS A TIGHT ROPE + +One day after Buddy Pigg had been on a visit to Jackie and Peetie Bow +Wow, the two puppy dogs, who were once in a circus, he came home all +excited. He ran out in the yard, began pawing over in the woodpile, and +soon he ran into the house, where Brighteyes, his sister, was washing +the potatoes for dinner. + +"Do you know where there is any wire, Brighteyes?" the little boy guinea +pig asked. + +"Wire? No, I haven't seen any around the house. What do you want of it? +Are you going to wire a tail on to yourself?" and Buddy's sister smiled +just the least bit. + +"Please don't remind me of that," said Buddy, for he felt a little +ashamed of the time he had tried to get a tail for himself and had been +nearly dragged into a fox's den, as I told you in the story before this +one. "No, Brighteyes, I'm not going to make a tail. I am going to do a +circus trick, and you can see me if you want to," he said. + +"Oh, Buddy! are you really?" she cried, and she was interested all of a +sudden, you see, for she had never seen much of a circus. + +"Yes, I'll do the trick, if I can find a bit of wire," went on Buddy. +"Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow told me how to do it; and I'm sure I can. +It's walking a tight rope, and it's very hard to do." + +"Oh! then you want rope, not wire," went on Brighteyes, as she put the +pan of potatoes on the table. + +"Wire is what the circus performers use," insisted her brother, "but if +you can't find any I suppose rope will do." + +"I saw some up in the attic," said Brighteyes. "I'll get it for you. +But, Buddy, isn't it dangerous? Do you s'pose mamma and papa would let +you do it?" + +"There's not much danger," answered Buddy. "I'll not put the rope up +very high, and I'll put some pillows on the ground underneath, so that +if I fall I won't get hurt much." + +Well, Brighteyes found a long rope, and she helped Buddy tie it from one +clothes post to the other, across the yard, so that it looked like a +real tight rope in a circus. + +"Oh, you can never get on that!" she cried to her brother, as she saw +how high up it was. + +"Yes, I can," he replied. "You just watch me. But first I must put some +pillows underneath, in case I fall." + +So he ran into the house and got a lot of feather pillows and put them +on the ground under the rope, Brighteyes helping him. + +Then Buddy got some old soap boxes, piled them one on top of the other, +and, by climbing up on them, he was able to step to the rope. + +"Oh, how thin and slender and shaky it is!" cried Brighteyes. "You never +can walk across that, Buddy!" + +"Yes, I think I can," he answered. "But I must get a pole to balance +myself with," so he got off the boxes and ran to the woodpile, got a +piece of an old broom handle, and ran back to the rope again. He stepped +one foot out on it, to try it, and it seemed quite strong, though it +wabbled a bit from side to side, like a duck's tail. + +"Oh! are you really going to walk on it?" cried Brighteyes in delight. + +"I really am," answered her brother. + +"Then you ought to have an audience to applaud you and clap when you do +it," she went on. "Wait, and I'll run and get Johnnie and Billie +Bushytail and Sammie and Susie Littletail, and--" + +"No, don't!" cried Buddy, quickly. "Better wait until I walk across a +few times, first, so as to sort of practise. Then I'll do the trick +before folks." + +So he got up on the rope, standing up on his hind legs, and balancing +the pole with his front paws and he steadied himself for a moment and +then took a step. My! but that rope wiggled, though, from side to side, +almost like a hammock, only, of course, not as safe as a hammock. But +Buddy kept bravely on, and took another step--and land sakes laddy-da! +if that rope didn't wiggle more than ever. + +"Oh, take care! You'll fall!" cried Brighteyes, and she screamed. + +"Oh, Brighteyes, don't do that, please!" begged Buddy. "You make me +nervous, and then I can't walk the tight rope." + +So Brighteyes, whose real name was Matilda, you know, kept real still +and quiet, just like a little mouse when it wants a bit of cheese, and +Buddy took another step out on the tight rope. + +He held his balancing pole by the middle, and he went slowly and +cautiously, and he was actually walking that slender rope! + +But he kept looking down and wondering whether he would fall or not, and +he got to thinking about the feather pillows, and wondering if they were +thick enough and soft enough, so that he wouldn't get hurt if he should +fall, when all at once, quicker than you can wheel the baby carriage +down hill, when he was right in the middle, Buddy's foot slipped, and +down he went, right a straddle across the tight rope, and the pole fell +with a bang! + +[Illustration] + +And Brighteyes screamed, for she couldn't help it, but Buddy didn't dare +call out. No, all he could do was to cling there with his teeth and his +paws to that swaying rope. + +"Oh!" cried Brighteyes, "you're going to fall, Buddy!" + +"I've fallen already," he panted. "But I'm going to land on the ground +in a minute, for I can't hold on any longer!" + +And he looked down, picking out a soft spot to fall on, but, oh, dear +me, and a sour pickle! If the pole, when it fell down, hadn't knocked +the pillows to one side, and there was only hard ground for Buddy to +land on. Well, maybe he wasn't frightened, and Brighteyes was also +frightened, too flabbergasted, you see, to go and fix the pillows in +place again, and they didn't either of them know what in the world to +do. + +I don't know what might have happened, for Buddy couldn't hold on much +longer, but, just as he was going to let go, along came Uncle Wiggily +Longears. He saw what the trouble was at once, and up he rushed and with +his crutch he piled the pillows in a soft heap right under Buddy, and +then Buddy let go the tight rope and down he came, just like in a +feather bed. + +And he wasn't hurt the least mite, but he was very thankful to Uncle +Wiggily, the old rabbit gentleman, and Buddy never tried to walk a tight +rope, nor a loose one again. + +Now, in case there is no salt in the ice cream to make the rag doll +sneeze, I'll tell you in the following story about Brighteyes Pigg in a +tin can. + + + + +STORY XI + + +BRIGHTEYES IN A TIN CAN + +Of course, when Mamma Pigg came home the afternoon that Buddy tried to +walk a tight rope (for she had been away visiting Mrs. Wibblewobble when +it happened) she had to hear about it. Buddy and Brighteyes would have +told her, anyhow, for they always did, but, as it was, Mrs. Pigg saw a +scratch on Buddy's leg, where the rope had hurt him when he fell, and +she wanted to know all about it. Then Buddy told her of the trick he had +tried to perform. + +"Little guinea pigs are safer on the ground," she said. "Leave such +things to Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, or the Bow Wows, who were once +in a circus. Now get washed for supper, for your papa will soon be here, +and I think he'll fetch a quart of carrot ice cream, as it is so hot." + +And sure enough, Dr. Pigg did, and the carrot ice cream was the best +Brighteyes and Buddy had ever tasted, they thought. + +Well, it was about two days after this that Brighteyes Pigg was sent to +the store for her mother, to get a nutmeg, a yeast cake, and a bottle of +blueing. Brighteyes started off, hurrying through the woods, where once +the owl had tried to get Buddy into the den of the old fox, and soon the +little guinea pig girl was at the grocery. + +She got the things, and the storekeeper put them in a paper bag for her, +and back she started. + +It was so warm that, after Brighteyes had reached a cool place in the +woods, near where a little brook ran over the stones, making a gurgling +noise, very pleasant to hear, she sat down to rest. And she hadn't been +sitting there more than about ten long breaths, when she saw, beside the +stream, a tin can. + +"Now I wonder what is in that can?" thought Brighteyes. "I'm going to +see. Perhaps it's something good to eat, and I can take some home to +Buddy," for she was very kind to her brother, you understand. + +So she went up to the can, but wasn't she disappointed when she saw that +it was empty! The open end was on the side that was turned away from +her, and that's why at first she thought it was full. But she smelled of +the opening, and oh, what a delicious perfume there was, sweet and +sugary, and in a minute Brighteyes knew what it was. + +"There has been molasses in that can!" she exclaimed. "Oh, if there's +anything I dearly love it's molasses! I wonder if there is any left +inside? Sometimes people don't quite empty the cans before they throw +them away. I'm going to look." + +So Brighteyes went closer, and, would you believe me? if she didn't see, +away down in the lower edge of that can, as it rested on its side, a lot +of nice molasses. + +"Oh, I must have that!" cried Brighteyes, and, without thinking of what +she was doing, she put her head and her forepaws inside that can. She +found she could reach the molasses with her tongue, and she began to +lick it up, wishing she had some way of taking part of it to Buddy. + +She was so excited over it that she even had taken her things from the +grocery store inside the can with her. There she was, with only part of +her body and her hind legs sticking out, and she was eating the molasses +as fast as she could. + +It kept tasting better and better, but, after a while, Brighteyes +thought she had enough, and she started to pull her head out of the can. +But, oh dear me! She found she couldn't do it. The sharp edges of the +tin caught in her fur, and there she was, stuck fast with the can over +her head, and the nutmeg, the bottle of blueing and the yeast cake in +there with her. + +"Oh, dear me suz-dud!" she cried. "I'm fast!" + +She tried to shake the can off, but it wouldn't shake. Then she tried to +pull herself out, but the can was still on her head, and went everywhere +she went, like Mary's little lamb. Then poor Brighteyes tried to stand +up on her hind legs, and hit the can against a tree or a stone, thinking +she could knock it off, but it wouldn't come off, and then she turned a +somersault, thinking that would help, but, though she even stood on her +head in the can, and wiggled her hind legs, it did no good. + +"Oh, I'm caught fast!" cried the poor little creature, and she rolled +around and around on the ground, thinking that would help some, but it +didn't. + +Then she heard some one coming along through the woods, and she called +out: "Who's there? Please help me out of this can!" + +"I'm Johnnie Bushytail," answered a voice. "Who are you?" + +"I'm Brighteyes Pigg," she said. "Please help me." + +But her voice sounded so queer and hollow, shut up as it was in the can, +and the nutmeg rattled around so, like thunder, that Johnnie Bushytail, +the squirrel, was frightened, and ran away, without helping Brighteyes. +Then she felt like crying, but, in a little while she heard some one +else coming along through the woods, and she called: "Oh, please help +me! Who is there?" + +"I'm Sammie Littletail," was the answer. "Who are you?" + +"I'm Brighteyes Pigg," she replied. "Help me, please!" + +But her voice sounded so strange and hollow in the can, and just then +the yeast cake came bouncing out, where there was a little space near +Brighteyes' neck and the tinfoil was all shining so that Sammie thought +some one was shooting square, silver bullets at him, and away he ran. + +Then Brighteyes was going to give up in despair, and she thought she +would never, never get out, and she wished she had never eaten the +molasses, when, all of a sudden, she heard some one else coming along, +and between her sobs she cried out: + +"Oh, please, whoever you are, don't run away! Help me out of this can! +Who are you?" + +"I am Alice Wibblewobble, the duck," was the answer. "Who are you?" + +"I am Brighteyes Pigg," said the little creature in the molasses can, +and just then the bottle of blueing broke inside and the blue stuff ran +out, trickling to one side. + +"Oh, you must be the blue fairy!" cried Alice, and she took her strong +bill and bent back the edges of the tin can so that Brighteyes could get +out, which she soon did, and was not hurt in the least. + +Of course Alice was surprised to see a guinea pig instead of a blue +fairy, but she was glad she had saved Brighteyes, who had to go back to +the store for another bottle of blueing. But the nutmeg and the yeast +cake were all right. + +Then Alice Wibblewobble poured the rest of the molasses out of the can +into an empty acorn cup and Brighteyes took it home to Buddy, who liked +it very much, and I almost wish I had some molasses candy; don't you? + +Now, in the next story I'm going to tell you about Dr. Pigg and the +firecracker; that is if the mosquitoes don't sing so loudly that they +wake up the baby's rattle box. + + + + +STORY XII + + +DR. PIGG AND THE FIRECRACKER + +Once upon a time it happened that, as Buddy Pigg was coming home from +having played baseball with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, and all his +friends, he saw, lying beside the road, something long and round and +red, with a little string dangling from it. + +"Aha!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg; "there is a stick of red candy? Oh, fine! +Oh, dandy! I'll take it home, and give Brighteyes some." + +That was because she had managed to bring him home some of the molasses +that was in the can, in which the little girl guinea pig got stuck fast. +So Buddy picked up the long, round, red thing, with a string dangling +from it, and took a big bite. That is, he tried to, but he found his +teeth wouldn't go through it. + +"Wow!" he cried. "That isn't a stick of candy at all." + +And the funny part of it was that it wasn't a stick of candy. No, not in +the least, I do assure you. What it was Buddy couldn't guess, though I +suppose some of you children can. + +Well, anyhow, he picked it up, and carried it in one paw, and his bat +and catching glove in the other. And pretty soon whom should he meet +hopping along but Bawly, the frog--Bully's brother, you know. And Bawly +was singing away for dear life, this little song, which you will have to +get some one to sing for you, as I am as hoarse as two crows and a +cricket. Well, anyhow, this is the song: + + "As I was hopping along one day, + Hi diddle um diddle I! + A grasshopper sat in a greenwood tree, + Tum-tum-tum tiddle di! + "Oh, where are you going?" the grasshopper asked. + "Oh, not very far," I said. + "May I go along?" asked the funny bug. + And he stood right up on his head. + + "Why yes," I told him, "come along," + Tu ri lum diddle day. + "The weather is certainly fine just now," + Fum lum dum skiddle fay. + But the grasshopper fell in a deep, dark bog, + And I pulled him out on a sunken log, + And then came along a bad, savage dog, + And we both ran away." + +[Illustration] + +"Oh, ho! So that's the way it was, eh?" asked Buddy, who had never +heard that song before. + +"That's exactly how it was, and not a bit different, I give you my word +for it," said Bawly, the frog. "But what have you there, Buddy? +Peppermint candy, as sure as I can sing! May I have a bit?" + +"You could have it if it was candy," promised Buddy, real politely, +"only it isn't," and he looked at the queer red thing from all sides, +and he couldn't make out what it was, and neither could Bawly. + +Well, I'll tell you what it was, so you can understand the story better. +It was a firecracker. Yes, sir, a big, red firecracker that, somehow or +other, hadn't gone off on Fourth of July when it ought to have done so. + +I presume some boy had lighted it, tossed it into the bushes and it had +gone out and stayed out until Buddy found it. At any rate, he didn't +know what it was, and he took it home. Neither did Mr. Pigg know what it +was, but Buddy's mother and sister thought it was quite a pretty +ornament, and Mrs. Pigg put it on the parlor mantle, where company could +see it. + +Well, one day, not long after this, Dr. Pigg was home all alone, for his +wife and the children had gone to a moving-picture show. He was dozing +away in his easy chair, with a newspaper over his face to keep away the +flies, when, all of a sudden, there came a knock on the door. + +"My goodness alive! Who's there?" cried Dr. Pigg. + +"It's me," answered a voice. + +"And who, pray tell, may you be?" asked Dr. Pigg. + +"I'm a bad tramp fox," was the answer, "and I want you to give me +something to eat. Quick! I'm in a hurry!" + +Now that wasn't a nice way to speak, and Dr. Pigg knew it, and, what is +more, that bad fox knew it, too. But, do you s'pose he cared? Not a bit +of it. He was as impolite as he could be, and he took pride in it. + +"I want something to eat in a hurry," he went on, in a coarse, grumbly +voice, and he was such a big fox, and Dr. Pigg was such a nice, gentle +kind of a creature that he didn't dare refuse him. + +"Very well," said Buddy's papa, "step into the parlor, Mr. Fox, and I'll +see what I can do for you. There ought to be something in the pantry." + +So he went to look in the pantry for a bone, or something like that, +just as Mother Hubbard would have done, you know, and when the fox went +in the parlor what do you suppose he saw? Why, that big, red firecracker +on the mantle, of course. And when he saw it a wicked plan came into +his head. + +"I'll just light that," he thought to himself, "and it will blow this +pen up, and Dr. Pigg with it. Then I can take anything I want. That's +what I'll do. I'll blow the place up!" + +Then he lighted the string of the firecracker, standing up on his hind +legs to reach it, you see, and, as it was a long string, the fox knew it +would burn some time before it would explode the firecracker. So the fox +ran out into the kitchen, where Dr. Pigg was getting him something to +eat, and he cried: + +"Here, give me what you have ready, I can't wait." + +"You must be in a hurry," replied Dr. Pigg, as he gave the fox some +bread and meat and cold potatoes. And of course the fox was in a hurry, +for he wanted to get out of the way before that firecracker went off and +blew the house up. + +Then the fox ran and hid in the bushes, waiting for the house and Dr. +Pigg to be blown up, so he could go in and take whatever he wanted. The +string on the firecracker burned slowly, but surely. And the fox knew it +would be a perfectly tremendous explosion, for the firecracker was as +big as a hundred lead pencils made into one. + +But now watch and see what happens. After Dr. Pigg had put away the +bread and meat, left over after giving the fox some, who should come +along but Percival, the old, circus dog. He came to pay a friendly call +on Dr. Pigg, but, no sooner had he reached the front door than he cried +out: + +"Oh, I smell something burning," and, sure enough it was the firecracker +string sizzling away. + +"Maybe the house is afire," said Dr. Pigg. "Let's look!" So he and +Percival went all through the pen, and the first object they saw was the +long, rod thing burning on the mantlepiece. And Percival knew at once +what it was, for he was a smart dog, let me tell you. + +"Oh!" he cried, "that is a cannon firecracker, and if it goes off it +will blow the place to pieces, and me and you, too!" + +"Then, for mercy sakes, don't let it go off!" cried Dr. Pigg, and that +brave dog Percival jumped up, grabbed the cannon cracker in his mouth, +dashed out of the house, and leaped into a pond of water with it, which +put out the burning string, and wet the firecracker so it wouldn't +explode. + +And when the fox saw Percival, he sneaked away with his tail hanging +down, I can tell you. So that's the story of Dr. Pigg and the +firecracker, and when his family came home he told them of of his +narrow escape. + +Now, in case I hear a June bug buzz like an electric fan blowing soap +bubbles, I'll tell you in the next story about Buddy Pigg in a boat. + + + + +STORY XIII + + +BUDDY PIGG IN A BOAT + +After Percival, the old circus dog, had been so kind to Dr. Pigg, in the +matter of jumping into the pond with the big firecracker, which the bad +fox had lighted, the old gentleman guinea pig said: + +"I wish, Percival, you would spend a few days with us. I'm afraid that +ugly tramp fox will come back." + +"Of course I will," agreed the dog. "The Bow Wows are going down to +Asbury Park for the summer, and I don't much care for the seashore, so +I'll stay home and spend a few days with you. And in case that fox does +come back--" + +Well, Percival didn't say what he would do, but land sakes, flopsy dub! +Oh me, and a potato pancake! You should have seen him show his teeth and +growl. + +Well, it was a few days after Percival had come to pay a little visit to +the Pigg family that something happened to Buddy, and I'm going to tell +you about it. + +You see, it had been raining pretty hard for a week or more--yes, +nearly two weeks, and it didn't seem as if it was ever going to stop. +There had been thunder showers and lightning showers and hail showers +and just plain rain showers, and they were all more or less wet; and +when it did finally stop raining there was a lot of water all over. + +One day, the first day, in fact, after it stopped raining, Buddy was +taking a walk, and glad enough he was to be out of the pen. He strolled +along, letting the warm sun and the gentle wind dry his black and white +fur, and he was thinking of, oh! ever so many things, when, all at once, +he came to a little pond; only this time it was a great big pond, +because it had so much water in it. And on the shore of the pond was a +boat that some boys had been playing with. + +"Oh, fine!" cried Buddy Pigg. "I'll get in and make believe I'm a +sailor, just as Billie and Johnnie Bushytail and Jennie Chipmunk did +once. I've always wanted a ride in a boat, and now's my chance!" + +So he climbed into the boat, and he made believe he was sailing away off +to China, where they make firecrackers and fans, and then, when he was +half-way there (make believe, you know), why, he turned around and +sailed for India, where it's very hot; but all this while the boat was +partly on the bank and partly in the water, and Buddy only rocked it +from side to side, pretending it was moving. + +Well, after he reached India, what did he do but find it so hot there +that he turned around at once and sailed for the North Pole, so he could +be nice and cool. + +Then, all at once, as quickly as you can eat an ice cream cone on a hot +day, if something didn't happen. Buddy looked up, after reaching the +North Pole, and he found that the boat was adrift, floating off across +the big pond, with the wind blowing it faster, and faster, and faster. + +At first Buddy thought it was fun; then, as he saw that he was getting +farther and farther from shore, he became frightened. He looked for +something with which to send the boat back to land, but there was no +sail in it, and no oars; and, if there had been, the little guinea pig +boy couldn't have used them, I don't suppose. Well, there he was, really +sailing off to some unknown country this time, in earnest, and not make +believe. + +Then he began to cry, and he called out as loudly as he could: + +"Help! Help! Help!" and who should come running down to the shore but +Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the two puppy dogs. They hadn't gone to +Asbury Park yet, you see, but they were going soon. + +"What's the matter?" asked Peetie. + +"The boat is taking me away off," answered Buddy. + +"Jump out and swim to shore!" cried Peetie. + +"I can't swim," called back Buddy. + +"Oh, we'll show you how," went on Jackie, and then he and Peetie jumped +into the water and began to show Buddy how to swim, but he was too +frightened to learn, and, besides, the two puppy dogs were too far off +for him to see them plainly. Then they swam out, and they tried to pull +the boat back to shore, but they were not strong enough. + +"Oh, I'll be drowned! I'll be drowned!" cried Buddy. "What shall I do? +Tell my mamma good-by for me," he said to Jackie. + +"We'll tell her you're in trouble, and maybe she will know of a way to +save you," called Peetie and Jackie. + +So they ran and told Mrs. Pigg, and she and Brighteyes came running down +to the shore of the pond. + +"Oh, my poor little boy," cried Mamma Pigg, when she saw Buddy being +carried farther and farther away. + +"Oh, how can we reach him?" wailed Brighteyes, wringing her paws. "We +must save him, somehow!" + +Just then along came Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels. + +"Stick up your tail like a sail and the wind will blow you ashore!" they +cried to Buddy. "That's what we did." + +"I haven't any tail," answered Buddy, real sorrowful-like. + +"That's so," said the little squirrel boys, and it began to look pretty +bad for poor Buddy, let me tell you. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Mamma Pigg. "I'll never see my poor boy +again," for he was quite far off by this time. + +Then, all of a sudden, down to the edge of the pond, came rushing +Percival, the old circus dog. + +"I'll save Buddy!" he cried. "I'll carry a rope out to him, and he can +fasten it to the boat, and then we can pull him ashore." + +Well, Percival took a rope in his mouth and started to swim out, but a +funny thing happened. The water got in his mouth and washed the rope +away, and he couldn't carry it, though he tried a number of times. + +Then everybody felt sorry, and Jackie Bow Wow was just suggesting that +they build a raft and float out on it to Buddy, when who should come +along but Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck. They all told him what the +trouble was, and he said, "Quack! Quack! Quack!" three times, just like +that, and exclaimed: + +"I have it! I can swim out with the rope in my bill, for my head will be +above the water." + +He did it too, in about two quacks and a quarter. Then he helped Buddy +fasten the rope to the side of the boat, and those on land, including +Percival, the two Bow Wows and Mamma Pigg and Brighteyes, soon pulled +the boat and Buddy in it ashore. + +Buddy said he was never going sailing again, and I guess he never did, +for he was very much frightened, but he soon got over it and played with +Jimmie and Jackie and Peetie, while Mamma Pigg had to go home to take +something for her nerves. + +Now, if I have rhubarb pie for supper, and the ham sandwich doesn't +squeal when they put mustard on it, I'll tell you about Brighteyes and +the peanut candy in the next story. + + + + +STORY XIV + + +BRIGHTEYES AND THE PEANUT CANDY + +It happened, once upon a time, that Brighteyes and Buddy Pigg were +walking through the woods together, not far from their home. They had +been over to see Sammie and Susie Littletail, and they had had a very +nice time. In fact, there had been a little party at the Littletail +home. + +It was Sammie's or Susie's birthday, I forget just whose, and after +games had been played, there were good things to eat; nuts of various +kinds for the squirrels who came; candy, lemonade, ice cream flavored +with turnips and carrots, and oh! lots of cake, and I don't know what +else besides. There was so much that Buddy and Brighteyes couldn't eat +all their share, and they were bringing it home to their papa and mamma. + +Well, as they were walking along, thinking what a good time they had +had, the two guinea pig children heard a rustling sound in the bushes, +and two big, round, staring eyes peered out at them, and there was a +noise like a dog growling. + +"Oh, quick! Hurry up, Buddy!" cried Brighteyes. "Something will catch +us sure!" and she began to run as fast as fast could be, or even faster, +maybe. + +"Oh, I don't think it's anything but old Percival, the circus dog," said +Buddy. "He won't hurt us." + +And he was going to stand still and look in those bushes; yes, sir, +that's what Buddy was going to do, only he happened to see a big, bushy +tail sticking out, and then he knew it was a bad fox there, and not the +good, kind dog, so Buddy ran as fast as he could run, if not faster, +right after Brighteyes. + +And the fox ran, too, only he had stepped on a piece of glass and cut +his foot and couldn't run very fast. He was the same fox who lighted the +firecracker in Dr. Pigg's house, and I'm glad to say that he didn't +catch Buddy or Brighteyes, for they ran faster than the fox did. + +Well, they hurried on for quite a distance further, and all at once, +just as they were getting tired, and when they knew the fox had stopped +chasing them, they happened to look down on the path, and what should +they see but a white box; yes, indeed, a white box, tied with pink +string. + +"Oh, I wonder what can be in there?" asked Brighteyes. + +"I don't know, but I'll go see," said Buddy. + +"Oh, no, don't go too close," begged his sister. "It might be a trap, or +perhaps the bad fox is hidden inside it." + +"It's too small for a fox to get in," declared the boy guinea pig. "I'll +take a smell, anyhow." + +So he crept slowly, slowly, slowly up to the white box, and sniffed, and +sniffed and sniffed. + +"Oh! Ah! Um! La-la! Um! Um!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg, and he laid down the +packages of candy, nuts, cakes and other things he had carried home from +the Littletails' party, so that he might smell the better. + +"What is it?" asked Brighteyes Pigg. "What's in the box?" + +"I don't know," replied her brother, "but whatever it is, it smells the +nicest of anything I ever smelled. It's just like when mamma bakes a +ginger cake in the oven. I'm going to open it and see." + +So, with his sharp teeth, Buddy loosened the pink string around the box, +and off came the cover. Then, what do you suppose was in the box? Why, a +whole lot of peanut candy, all nice and fresh, shining, golden brown, +with just enough peanuts in, and not a bit more, really and truly! + +"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Brighteyes in delight, as she saw it. "Peanut +candy, Buddy! If there's anything I love it's peanut candy! Some good +fairy must have left this for us. Come on, we'll take it over here, +under a bush, where the bad fox won't see us, and we'll eat some of it, +and save some to take home. Oh, how lovely!" + +"I don't think I care for peanut candy very much," said Buddy. "When I +smelled it I thought it was going to be chocolate caramels." + +"Don't you want any?" asked Brighteyes. + +"No," answered her brother, "but I'll help you carry it into the bushes. +I'll eat some of the things we brought from the party. I'm getting +hungry again." + +So he and Brighteyes carried the box of peanut candy into the bushes, +and the little girl guinea pig began to eat the sweet stuff. + +Well, she had eaten almost all of it up, before she thought, because it +tasted so good, when all of a sudden, who should come along the path in +the woods, but a little girl. Yes, a little girl in a red dress, and she +was crying as hard as she could cry, that little girl was. + +"Oh, dear!" she sobbed, "I have lost my box of peanut candy, that I +bought in the store, and I can't find it, and I'm so miserable! Nobody +in the world is so miserable as I am. Oh, dear! Boo! Hoo!" + +Well, you should have seen how sorry Brighteyes was for eating that +little girl's candy, but Brighteyes didn't know, of course, whose it +was. She and Buddy just hid down in the bushes, and didn't know what to +do, until Buddy whispered: + +"Listen! I'll fill the box full of our candy, nuts and things that we +brought from the party, and maybe that will stop the little girl +crying." + +So he did that, filling the box real full, and putting the pink string +around it again. Then, when the little girl wasn't looking, Buddy +slipped out of the bushes, put the box back on the path again and +slipped under a leaf to hide. Then, pretty soon, when the little girl +stopped crying, she saw her box, and she thought a fairy had brought it +back. + +Then she opened it, and she saw the peanut candy had been turned into a +different kind, and that there were nuts with it and she surely thought +it was magical, but it wasn't, it was only Buddy Pigg, who did it. + +So Buddy and Brighteyes went home happy, and so did the little girl, +with her white box which she had found again after she had lost it. + +Now, in the next story I'm going to tell you about Buddy and the June +bug, that is if some one sends me some peanut candy with a lot of red +postage stamps on it. + + + + +STORY XV + + +BUDDY AND THE JUNE BUG + +One night Dr. Pigg and Mrs. Pigg and Brighteyes went to a nice +moving-picture show that Percival, the old circus dog, had gotten up, +and they left Buddy at home alone. The reason for that was this: Buddy +wasn't feeling well. He had eaten too many ice cream cones, and too much +lemonade on a hot day, and he had to have some medicine that his papa +fixed for him. + +It was bitter, sour medicine, too, and Buddy didn't like it, and he +didn't like to be ill, either, but one always is when one eats too many +ice cream cones and drinks too much lemonade on a hot day; yes, indeed, +and a bottle of paregoric besides. + +Well, Buddy was sick, and couldn't go to the moving-picture show, but +his mamma and papa thought it would be all right to leave him home +alone, as he was getting better by that time. + +"I'll tell you all about the show when we come back," promised +Brighteyes. "There is going to be a fairy play in it." + +"Oh!" cried Buddy, "how I wish I could go! I love fairy plays!" + +"You will be much better in bed," said Dr. Pigg, "and if you keep quiet +you won't have to take any more medicine." + +There was no help for it, and Dr. Pigg and his wife and daughter started +off. They knew Buddy would be much more comfortable in bed than at the +show, or they would never have left him, and right next door lived a +family of chickens, who would come over in case anything happened. + +Buddy felt a little lonesome when his folks had gone, but after awhile +he fell asleep. He dozed off for some time, and, all of a sudden, he was +awakened by hearing something going "thumpity-thump-bump-bump-bump! +Humpity-hump-bump-bump!" on the ceiling and walls of his room. Then it +went "bangity-bung-bung," and before Buddy knew what was happening, if +something didn't go slam-bang-crack into the lamp, and put it out, +leaving the poor little guinea pig boy in the dark. + +Then how frightened he was! He shivered, and crept down with his head +beneath the bed clothes, but all the while he kept hearing that +"thumpity-thump-bump-hump-lump-dump!" against the ceiling. First he +thought it was the bad fox, who had gotten in to eat him up, and then +he knew the fox couldn't fly around the room that way, or, if it could, +it would make ever so much more noise. Then he thought it might be an +owl, with big, round, staring, yellow eyes, but when he peeped out from +under the clothes the least bit, he didn't see any eyes, so he knew it +couldn't be the owl. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Buddy, when he was so frightened he couldn't +keep still any longer, "Oh, dear! I wish my papa and mamma would come +home; and Brighteyes, too!" + +"What for?" asked a voice, away high up on the ceiling. + +"Because I'm--I'm lonesome--and afraid--and--and--" but Buddy was almost +crying, so he couldn't finish what he had started to say. + +"What are you afraid of?" asked the voice, and this time it was on the +side wall, close to Buddy. + +"I'm afraid of you!" cried the little boy guinea pig, and he got farther +under the bed clothes. + +"Nonsense! Afraid of me!" exclaimed the voice, and this time, bless me; +if it wasn't on the blanket, right over Buddy's nose. "Don't be afraid, +little boy," the voice went on. "I wouldn't hurt you for the world. Why, +I'm only a harmless, old June bug, you know. I blundered in here by +mistake, somehow, because I saw your light, but now it's dark, and I +can't see to get out. But land sakes, goodness me, and some buttermilk! +Don't be afraid of me! I wouldn't hurt you for the world and the moon +too." + +"Well, I--I don't exactly know if I'm afraid of you or not," went on +Buddy. "First I thought you were a fox or an owl. I--I guess I'm a +little afraid of the dark, too." + +"Nonsense! The dark can't hurt anyone," said the June bug. "The dark is +good for sleeping. But if you're afraid, how would you like me to tell +you a story? And that will pass the time until your papa and mamma come +home." + +"Oh, fine!" cried Buddy, and he wasn't afraid any more, for he loved to +hear stories. So the June bug perched upon the bed clothes, where they +were nice and soft, and he told lots of stories to Buddy. + +He told about the cow that went to school, and about the bear who was +bitten by a big, black bug, and about two good boys, and about three bad +boys, who lived in a cave, and about an elephant, and about a horse that +had four legs and, oh, I don't know how many stories. + +Then the June bug sang this little verse, only, as I have a cold in my +head you'll have to get some one else to sing it for you. Anyhow this +is how it goes: + + "I love to flip and flop and flap, + And buzz around the room, + I leap up to the ceiling high, + And hit it with a boom! + I turn a double somersault. + My wings they play a tune. + It's lots of fun to be a bug, + Especially in June." + +And then, land sakes, and a feather pillow; if Buddy Pigg wasn't fast +asleep. Then the kind old June bug sang his song over again, softly, and +was about to fly away, when he saw a mosquito going to bite the little +guinea pig boy. + +And what did that bug do but grab the mosquito and throw him out of the +window. And the June bug stayed until he heard Dr. Pigg and his wife +coming back, and then he flew away, for he had managed to find the place +where he had come in, and crawled out again. + +Buddy woke up when his mamma came in his room to see how he was, and he +told her all about the June bug, and how kind it had been, and how it +had told stories. + +"You must have had a lovely dream," said Mrs. Pigg, but Buddy knew it +had actually happened, and wasn't a dream at all. Now if my typewriter +doesn't fall down and sprain its hair ribbon we'll next have a story +soon about Brighteyes and a bad boy. + +[Illustration] + + + + +STORY XVI + + +BRIGHTEYES AND THE BAD BOY + +Brighteyes Pigg was coming home from the grocery store one day. She +didn't have much to carry because, you see, her mamma had sent her for +only a yeast cake, and, as that wasn't very large, Matilda put it in her +apron pocket. + +She was walking along, thinking what a good time she would have when she +got home, for Jennie Chipmunk had promised to come over as soon as she +got her dishes washed and play house with the little guinea pig girl. + +"We'll have a lovely time," thought Matilda, who was called Brighteyes +for short. "We'll dress up all our dolls and have a play-party, and +maybe mamma will give us real things to eat." + +Well, Brighteyes was thinking so much about the party, and about Jennie +Chipmunk, whom she had not seen in some time, that she didn't pay much +attention to anything else. She was going along, hippity-hop, just as +Sister Sallie went to the barber shop, when all of a sudden something +whizzed right past the nose of Brighteyes and almost hit her. + +"My goodness me, sakes alive and a tin dishpan! What's that?" she +exclaimed. "I wonder if it could have been that June bug who told Buddy +stories so nicely?" + +Then she looked all around and she didn't see anything of a bug, and she +didn't hear his wings buzzing, so she thought it couldn't have been him. + +Then, bless me! if something more didn't shoot right past Brighteyes +with a whizz and a whozz, making a funny noise, you know. And this time +she saw what it was. It was an arrow, the kind that are shot from bows, +you understand. + +"Oh, the Indians are after me! The Indians are after me!" cried poor +Brighteyes in fright, for you see she had read in her school reader +about the Indians shooting arrows. + +Then the little guinea pig girl started to run, but before she had taken +three steps and a half, if another arrow didn't come whizzing through +the bushes at her, and this time it was so close that it just touched +her left ear. + +This frightened her so that she fell down, and before she could get up +to run away, if out from behind a tree didn't leap a bad boy. + +So it wasn't an Indian shooting the arrows, after all, which, perhaps, +was a good thing, as Indians can shoot very straight and might have hurt +Brighteyes. No, it was a bad boy. + +I call him bad because he shot at Brighteyes, and I guess before I'm +through with this story that you'll call him bad also. + +Well, that boy ran right at Brighteyes, and before she knew what was +happening he had grabbed her. + +"Wow!" cried the boy. "I've got it! I shot it! I've got a rabbit!" + +"Ha! That ain't a rabbit!" exclaimed another boy, coming out of the +bushes, "that's a guinea pig. Where did you hit it?" + +"I don't know. It doesn't seem to be hurt anywhere. But I was sure I hit +it. But, maybe, the arrow only stunned it. Anyhow, I've got it. Now +we'll take it home, and put it in a cage, and charge five cents for all +the other boys to see it." + +"Sure," said the second boy. "You're a good shot with your bow and +arrow. Come on, let me carry the guinea pig." + +"No," replied the first boy, "I'm going to carry it myself. I wonder if +you carry 'em by their ears, like you do rabbits?" Then he tried to get +hold of Brighteyes' ears, and he could hardly find them, as they were so +small, and, of course, he couldn't take hold of them. + +But, oh, dear! how roughly he handled that poor little guinea pig girl! +When he couldn't get hold of her ears he grabbed her by the hind legs +and actually turned her upside down, and then what should happen but +that the yeast cake fell out of her apron pocket. + +"Ha! That's funny!" cried the boy who held Brighteyes. "I never knew +that guinea pigs ate yeast cakes. This must be a smart one. We'll teach +it to do tricks, and then we can charge ten cents to see it. Oh, I'm +glad I caught it." + +And he held on more tightly to Brighteyes, for she was wiggling and +squirming, trying to get away. + +Oh, how frightened she was, when she heard the boys say that they were +going to shut her up in a cage! She thought she would never see her +mamma, and papa, and Buddy again. Big tears came into her eyes, and she +trembled all over. + +But do you s'pose that bad boy and the other one cared? Not the least +bit! First one held Brighteyes, and then the other, to see how heavy she +was, and then they took her up, first by one leg and then by the other, +and, if she had had a tail, they would have held her up by that, and +probably pulled it, too, for all I know. + +You see those two boys had been playing they were Indians in the woods +with their bows and arrows, and perhaps that made them act so cruelly. + +"Let's hurry home now and put it in a cage," said the bad boy, and he +and the other boy started off, carrying Brighteyes. But wait, don't be +frightened, or worried, for something is going to happen immediately, +which is very soon. + +All at once there was a whizzing and a whozzing in the air, and a +buzzing, bizzing sound, and that kind old June bug came sailing along. +He saw those bad boys taking Brighteyes away, and the bug knew at once +that she was Buddy's sister. + +So what did he do but wiggle his wings about a thousand times a minute, +I guess, and fly right at the boy who held the guinea pig girl! + +Right at the bad boy flew the bug, and he hit him first in one eye and +then the other and scared him so that the bad chap was glad enough to +let go of poor Brighteyes in a hurry. + +Then the other boy stepped on the yeast cake, and it flattened out, and +he slipped on it, and fell down, and he thought a bear was after him, +and he yelled, and the other boy yelled, and then they both ran away, +and Brighteyes was saved. + +She thanked the June bug, and he said he was glad he could help her, and +he flew back to the grocery and got another yeast cake for her. Then +Brighteyes hurried home. + +Now the next story is going to be about Buddy Pigg's great run--that is, +if we have peaches and cream for supper and the rag man doesn't take my +rubber boots for his goat to wear to the party. + + + + +STORY XVII + + +BUDDY'S GREAT RUN + +Well, I didn't have peaches and cream for supper last night, but I had +strawberry shortcake, which is almost as good, so I can tell you a +story, anyhow. + +Once upon a time, Oh, I guess it must have been about two weeks after +Brighteyes was caught by the bad boys, and rescued by the June bug, +Buddy Pigg was sitting on his front steps, wishing he had something to +do. + +"Mother," he asked, "can I go down in the brook, paddling? Jimmie +Wibblewobble is down there." + +"No," said Mrs. Pigg kindly, "you are not quite well enough to go in the +water, Buddy. But you may have five cents for an ice cream cone." + +Well, Buddy walked up to the store, got a vanilla ice cream cone, and +had just finished the last of it, even down to the sharp point of the +cone, where there wasn't any ice cream, when who should come along but +Billie and Johnnie Bushytail. They had their catching gloves, and a +ball and a bat, and when the squirrel boys saw Buddy they called out: + +"Come on, let's have a game of baseball." + +"All right," agreed Buddy. "But who else will play?" + +"Oh! we'll get Sammie Littletail, and Bully and Bawly, the frogs, and +Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, and we'll have a +fine game," said Billie Bushytail. + +So they walked along, and pretty soon they met Sammie Littletail, and +then a little while after that they met the two Bow Wows, and then who +should come hopping along, but Bully and Bawly, the two frogs, and, if +you'll believe me, a moment after that, along came Jimmie Wibblewobble. + +Then they had enough for a fine baseball game, and they went to a nice, +green meadow where they could play. Well, Johnnie Bushytail was up at +the bat first, and he knocked the ball so far that Bully, who was +playing out in the far-off part of the field, had to take about sixteen +and a half hops before he could get it. But by that time Johnnie was +back at home plate safe. + +Then it came Sammie Littletail's turn, and he knocked the ball so high +that it went up in a tree and stayed there, and didn't come down. + +"Oh, that's no way to play!" exclaimed Jimmie Wibblewobble. "Now we +haven't any ball. What did you do that for, Sammie?" + +"Well, I couldn't help it; could I?" asked Sammie, and he threw the bat +up, trying to knock down the ball. + +But it wouldn't come down, and then they all threw up stones and sticks, +but still that ball wouldn't come down, and then Billie and Johnnie +Bushytail climbed up and they had it down in about two frisks of their +big, long tails. + +Well, they said that Sammie Littletail was out for knocking the ball up +in the tree, and he didn't like it, but he gave in, and the game went +on. Then Jimmie Wibblewobble knocked a ball, oh! so far and so high that +it was almost out of sight. + +"Nobody can catch that!" cried Jimmie, as he started for first base. + +But just you wait and see. Buddy Pigg was out in the field, waiting for +a nice ball to come along so he could catch it, and now was his chance. +He had such bright eyes, almost like his sister's, and he could see the +ball away up in the white clouds, even though none of the other players +could. + +He kept his eyes on it, and got his paws all ready to catch it when it +came down. And pretty soon it did begin to come down, for you know it +couldn't stay up there in the air, with nothing to hold it. Of course +not, and I know you understand how that is. + +Well, Buddy managed to catch that ball, though it came down very +swiftly, and Jimmie Wibblewobble was out. + +"Fine catch, Buddy! Fine!" cried Billie Bushytail. + +"Yes, and now it's Buddy's turn to bat," said Bawly, the frog. "Get up, +Buddy. I'll pitch you a nice one." + +So Buddy got up to home plate, which was a flat stone, you know, and he +held his bat ready to knock the ball out of sight, if possible. + +Bawly threw him a nice, easy ball, and Buddy struck at it. He hit, too, +which is better. Oh! such a hit as he gave that ball! It's a good thing +balls don't have feelings, I think, or bats either, for that matter. + +Well, as soon as he hit the ball Buddy started to run for the bases. Oh, +how fast he ran, but something happened. The ball didn't go as far as he +thought it would. No, it fell down right near Sammie Littletail, and +Sammie picked it up and ran toward Buddy with it. + +He knew if he could touch Buddy with the ball before Buddy got back to +home plate, that Buddy would be out and then Sammie could bat again. + +So Sammie ran after Buddy, and Buddy ran all around the bases, hoping he +could make a home run and get there safe. But it was hard work. Faster +and faster he ran, and faster and faster hopped Sammie after him. + +"Run, Buddy! Run!" cried Bully the frog. + +"I--am--running!" panted Buddy. + +"Catch him, Sammie! Catch him!" cried Bawly, and Sammie gave three +tremendous hops to catch Buddy. + +But by this time Buddy was nearly at home plate, where he would be safe. +And the worst of it was that Sammie was almost there, too. + +Then, with his last breath, and giving a spring and a hop that was so +big that it took him close to Buddy, Sammie stretched out his paw with +the ball in and tried to touch Buddy. But do you s'pose he did? No, sir, +he didn't, and Buddy got home safe, and wasn't put out after all. + +"Well," said Sammie, after he had gotten his breath, "if you had had a +tail sticking out behind you I would have touched that, and you'd have +been out." + +"I'm glad I haven't a tail," said Buddy, as he sat down on the grass to +rest, and then, after a while the game went on, and lasted until dark, +everybody having a fine time. + +Now, I'm going to tell you in the story after this one about +Brighteyes, Buddy and the turnip--that is, in case I hear a potato bug +sing a song that puts the rag doll to sleep, so she won't cry and wake +up the pussy cat. + + + + +STORY XVIII + + +BRIGHTEYES, BUDDY AND THE TURNIP + +One day when Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg were out walking in the fields, +they saw, close beside a big stone, a fine, large turnip. Oh, it was the +nicest, ripest, juiciest turnip that ever a guinea pig boy or girl +smelled of, and it just made their mouths water, and water even came +into their eyes. + +"Oh, what a lovely turnip!" exclaimed Brighteyes. "I wonder who it +belongs to?" + +"Let's look and see if it has any one's name on it," suggested Buddy. + +So, after peering carefully about to see that there were no traps near, +the two guinea pig children went closer, and gazed on all sides of the +turnip, and even turned it over to look on the bottom. + +They couldn't see a single name, and then they came to the conclusion +that the turnip didn't belong to any one in particular. + +"I wonder if it would be right for us to take it home?" asked +Brighteyes. "Mamma and papa would just love to have some of it." + +"Why certainly, take it right along, children!" exclaimed a voice from +under a burdock leaf, and then out flew the kind, old June bug. + +"May we really have it?" asked Buddy. + +"Of course," answered the June bug. "You see I was hiding under that +leaf, thinking it was about time for me to go South, for June bugs +oughtn't really to fly in July, when I heard a rumbling noise. First I +thought it was thunder, and then I saw that it was a big farm wagon +loaded with turnips. + +"Well, one of the turnips fell off, and a boy, who was riding on the +wagon, called to the man who was driving, and told him about the turnip +falling. Then the man said that didn't matter, as he had more turnips +than he knew what to do with. So that's how I know that you can have the +turnip if you wish." + +"Well, we certainly do wish!" cried Brighteyes. "Isn't it grand, Buddy? +We'll take it right home." + +"Yes, but how can we carry it?" asked her brother. "I don't believe we +can lift it." + +He went up to the big, round turnip, and tried and tried, with all his +might, to lift it, but it wouldn't come up as high even as a pin head +from the ground. + +"Perhaps I can lift it," suggested Brighteyes, so she tried, but she +couldn't. + +"Maybe if you both try together you can," said the June bug. + +Well, they both pulled and hauled, but it was of no use. There that +turnip was, just as if it was stuck fast in the ground. + +"I'm not very strong myself," went on the June bug, "but I'll do my +best. Come on, now, all together." + +So he took hold, with Buddy and Brighteyes, and he buzzed his wings as +hard as they would buzz, and he cracked his legs, and he strained and he +tugged and pulled, but, no sir, that turnip wouldn't move the least bit. + +"I guess we'll have to leave it here," said Buddy sorrowful-like, "but I +did so want to take it home to mamma and papa." + +And he looked at the big vegetable as if it would, somehow, move itself. + +"I know a way," said the June bug, at length. + +"How?" asked Brighteyes. + +"Why you and your brother must eat as much of it as you can, and then it +will be lighter, and easier to lift, you see. Just gnaw a lot off the +turnip, and you can carry it, then." + +"Oh, but that would spoil the turnip," objected Buddy. "We want to take +it home all in one piece, so papa and mamma can see it." Now wasn't that +good of him? Especially when he and his sister were just as hungry as +they could be, and would have loved to have had some? But they wanted to +have their folks see it first, without a bite being taken from it. + +"Well," said the June bug, "maybe you can roll it along, if you can't +lift it." + +"The very thing!" cried Buddy. "If we can just get it started it will +roll along easily, for it is down hill to our pen, and it will bounce +along just as the cabbage did, that I was once in. That's a good plan." + +Well, by hard work the three of them did manage to get the turnip +started, and it rolled along, first slowly and then more quickly, and +then with a rush, and land sake! if all at once it didn't roll down into +a big hole. + +"Oh, now we'll never get it up!" cried Buddy, much disappointed, and he +and his sister felt very sorrowful. But not for long, for in a little +while along hopped Uncle Wiggily Longears, with his crutch. It didn't +take him any time, with the aid of the June bug, and Buddy and +Brighteyes, to pry that turnip up out of the hole. + +"Now I'll show you how to get the turnip home," said Uncle Wiggily. +"You need some way to steer it, so it won't run away from you and get +into a hole again." + +Then he took his crutch and punched a hole through that turnip, and put +a stick through the hole, so the turnip was just like the wheel of a +wheelbarrow. + +Then he fastened long pieces of strong grass to the stick that was stuck +through the turnip, and he and Buddy and Brighteyes and the June bug +took hold of the grass, and they rolled that turnip along and steered it +just as you pull your sled or wheel the baby carriage or guide a horse +with a bit in his mouth. + +And pretty soon they were safely at the pen, and Dr. Pigg and his wife +were much surprised and delighted when they saw the big turnip which +their children had found. They gave Uncle Wiggily Longears some, but the +June bug said he would rather have a ginger snap, and he got it. + +Now the next story will be about Buddy and the burglar fox, in case the +milkman isn't late to school, and if he brings a bottle of water for +teacher to sprinkle the blackboards with. + + + + +STORY XIX + + +BUDDY AND THE BURGLAR FOX + +"We must lock all the windows and doors very tightly to-night," said +Mrs. Pigg to her husband, one evening, when they were getting ready for +bed. + +"Yes," agreed Dr. Pigg, "we must. I'll see to it, my dear, and you put +the children to bed." + +"Why do you have to lock up so carefully, mamma?" inquired Buddy. + +"Because," said Mrs. Pigg, "I heard that there have been a number of +tramps and burglars around lately." + +"Indeed, that's true," added Dr. Pigg. "Mr. Cock A. Doodle, the rooster +next door, was telling me that he thinks some one tried to get in his +coop last night. The door rattled and some one shook the window." + +"Perhaps it was the wind," suggested Brighteyes. + +"It may have been," agreed her father. "I hope it was, for I don't like +burglars at all. Now go to bed and don't be afraid, for I'll lock up +carefully, and I have a pail of water right beside my bed and I'll +throw it on a burglar if he dares to come in." + +So Buddy and Brighteyes went up stairs to bed with their mother, while +Dr. Pigg put out the cat, locked the doors and windows and set the alarm +clock to wake him up at five o'clock, for he had to go downtown to +attend to some business in the morning. + +"I wish the June bug would come again," said Brighteyes, as she was +falling asleep. + +"Why?" asked her mother from the next room. + +"Oh, so he could tell us some stories, and then I wouldn't think about +burglars." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Pigg. "How silly! Burglars will never hurt +you. Go to sleep now." + +"If any burglars come in I'll fix 'em'!" cried Buddy, bravely, from his +room. Then Brighteyes went to sleep, and so did Dr. Pigg and his wife. + +But, somehow, Buddy couldn't sleep. Why it was he didn't know, only he +couldn't. He thought of everything he could think of; ice cream cones +and turnips and baseball games, and being in the boat that time, and +going to the North Pole and then he thought of the stories the June bug +had told him, but still he couldn't go to sleep. + +"I guess I'll get up and sit by the window a while," he said to +himself. "Then maybe I'll feel sleepy." + +So he got up and sat down in a comfortable chair and looked out. It was +a beautiful moonlight night, and he could see things almost as well as +if it was day. + +Well, Buddy hadn't sat there very long, before he saw something long and +black and shadowy creeping along, as softly and as gently as a mouse. + +First he thought it was a cat, but when he looked again he saw that it +was a fox. And the fox had a bag over his shoulder, and he was sneaking +along, looking around to be sure no policeman dogs saw him. + +Well, sir, as true as I'm telling you, if that fox didn't come softly up +to Dr. Pigg's house, right to the front door, as Buddy could see by +leaning out of his window, which was open, and looking down, as his +window was right over the front door. + +Then that fox took a screw-driver out of his bag, and he began to work +at the door to force it open, in spite of the lock on it. Oh, how softly +and quietly he worked! But Buddy looked down and saw him, and he knew +right away that it was a burglar fox, who was coming in the house. + +At first Buddy was frightened, and then he knew that he ought to do +something. He thought of awakening his papa and mamma, and then he +feared that this would scare Brighteyes, and so he decided to drive that +burglar fox away all by himself. + +Then he tried to think of the best way to do it. He moved softly about +his room, looking for something with which to scare the fuzzy old fox, +and what do you think he found? Why, his baseball, to be sure! + +"That will be as good as a bullet!" thought Buddy. + +Then he moved softly to the window, leaned out, where he could see the +fox, who was still trying to force open the front door, and raising the +ball in his hand, Buddy threw it down with all his might, just as if he +was throwing to first base. + +Well, sir, the ball hit that bad fox right on the head, and it bounced +up almost into Buddy's hands again, but not quite. + +My, how surprised that fox was! In fact he was so surprised that he fell +down, and when he got up and saw Buddy looking at him from the window, +he was more amazed than ever. + +"Get right away from here, you bad burglar fox you!" cried Buddy, "or +I'll throw forty-seven more big bullets at you!" + +Of course he really couldn't, because he didn't have any other baseballs +to throw, but the fox didn't know that, and really thought the one +baseball was a big bullet. + +Then, without even stopping to pick up his bag, the fox ran away, and so +he didn't get in at all in Dr. Pigg's house, and Buddy went to sleep. + +Well, when Buddy told his papa and mamma and Brighteyes the next morning +what he had done, maybe they weren't proud of him. Yes, indeed! + +I wish I could say that the fox was arrested, but he wasn't, and made +lots more trouble later. But he never broke into Dr. Pigg's house and +I'm glad of it. + +Now, do you think you'd like to hear, in the next story, about a queer +adventure which Brighteyes had? Well, I'll tell it to you if the water +sprinkler man gives us a nice big piece of ice to bake in the oven for a +pudding. + +[Illustration] + + + + +STORY XX + + +BRIGHTEYES HAS AN ADVENTURE + +It was a very hot day. It was as hot, in fact, as some of the days we +have had around here lately, and when Brighteyes, the little guinea pig +girl, saw the yellow sun beaming down as she looked out of the pen in +the morning, she said to her papa: + +"Now, be very careful not to get overheated to-day, daddy, dear." + +"I will," replied Dr. Pigg. "It is so very warm that I shall walk on the +shady side of the street, and keep a handkerchief, wet in ice water, on +my head." + +"I was cool enough the other night," remarked Buddy Pigg. "In fact, I +shivered when I saw the burglar fox trying to get in," and he actually +shivered again when he thought of it, and of how he had scared the bad +fox away, as I told you in the story just before this one. + +But, after a bit, it got so warm that even the thought of the fox could +not make Buddy shiver. Neither could his mother nor Brighteyes shiver, +and when you can't shiver, you know, it's a sure sign that it's going +to be very hot. + +At last Brighteyes said: + +"Oh, I think I'll go for a walk in the woods. Don't you want to come +along, Buddy?" and she looked at her brother, who was whittling a stick +with his new knife. + +But Buddy decided it was too hot even to go off in the woods, so +Brighteyes said she would go alone. She put on her coolest dress. I +think it was a white swiss or a blue organdie, or a challis, or a +bombazine, I can't just exactly remember. Anyway, it was nice and cool, +and freshly washed and ironed and starched, and Brighteyes looked just +as pretty in it as a picture in a gold frame. + +Well, she walked along for some time, and, pretty soon, oh, I guess in +about three squeaks, or, maybe, four, she came to the woods. It was nice +and cool and shady in there, with a little breeze blowing through the +trees, and, frisking about in the branches, were several chipmunks, who +were cousins of Jennie Chipmunk, and a number of squirrels, besides, +most of them relations of Johnnie and Billie Bushytail. + +So Brighteyes sat down on a mossy log, and thought how nice and cool it +was, and pretty soon, she heard water running and splashing over the +stones. That made her cooler than ever and she was feeling very happy, +and wishing Buddy was with her, when she began to feel thirsty. + +And the more she heard the water running the more thirsty she became, +until she said, right out loud: "I'm going to get a drink!" + +You've no idea how funny it sounded to hear Brighteyes speak out loud +that way, for it was so still and quiet in the woods, that it was just +as if she had spoken out loud in church, after the minister has stopped +praying. Then Brighteyes got up from the mossy log, and went toward the +running water. And what do you s'pose is going to happen? Why, she's +going to have an adventure in about a minute, or, maybe, less time. + +Well, the little guinea pig girl found where a little brook ran through +the woods, over the stones and under green banks where the long ferns +grew, and she was more thirsty than ever, and when she got down to the +edge of the brook, there was a little plank stretched across the water +for a bridge. + +Brighteyes walked out on the middle of the plank, looked down into the +brook, which was just like a looking-glass, and she saw how well her +dress fitted. Then she kneeled, dipped her paws in the water and scooped +up some to drink, taking care not to splash any on her clothes. + +"Oh!" exclaimed the little guinea pig girl, "that is very fine water!" +Then she took another drink and stood up. She was just going to walk +back to shore when she happened to hear a funny noise, and, lo! and +behold, at either end of the plank bridge there was a funny brown, furry +creature, about as big as a small dog. They stood up on their hind legs, +one at one end of the plank and one at the other, and when they saw +Brighteyes looking at them the larger creature cried out: + +"Ha! Ha! Now we have you! You can't get ashore unless you give us all +your money!" + +"I haven't very much," said poor Brighteyes, beginning to tremble, and +wondering if the brown creatures were burglars. + +"Well, we want whatever money you have," declared the creature at the +right-hand end of the plank. + +"Yes, indeed!" cried the creature on the left end. + +"Who--who are you?" stammered Brighteyes, thinking to make friends with +the creatures. + +"We're groundhogs!" they both cried together, "and we want your money." + +"What for?" asked Brighteyes, wondering what question she could ask +next. + +"We're going to buy firecrackers," answered the one on the right end. + +"Fourth of July is past," said Brighteyes. + +"No matter. Give us all your money, or we'll push you into the brook!" +declared the two groundhogs together, and when Brighteyes said she +hadn't any change, for there was no pocket in her dress, you see, to +carry any money in, what did those bad groundhogs do, but begin to +teeter-tauter up and down, with the little guinea pig girl on the middle +of the plank. + +Up and down she went, faster and faster, and pretty soon the water began +to splash upon her new dress. And oh, how terrible she felt. + +First she thought she would run across the plank, but she was afraid of +the groundhog at either end. Then she thought she would jump over their +heads, but she couldn't jump very well, not being a grasshopper, you +see, and she didn't know what to do, and she was crying the least bit, +when, all of a sudden, who should come along but the three Wibblewobble +children--Lulu and Alice and Jimmie--and when they saw how the two +groundhogs had made Brighteyes a prisoner in the middle of the plank +bridge, those three ducks just stretched out their long necks, and +cried, "Quack! Quack! Quack!" as loudly as they could. + +That so frightened the groundhogs that they jumped into the brook and +swam away, leaving Brighteyes free. Then she went home with the +Wibblewobbles, and told Buddy her adventure, and he said it was a good +one. + +Now, the next story will be about Buddy in a deep hole--that is if the +trolley car doesn't run off the track, and break all the eggs in the +grocery store window. + + + + +STORY XXI + + +BUDDY IN A DEEP HOLE + +Once upon a time it happened that Buddy Pigg was out taking a walk over +the fields and through the woods. He often used to do this, sometimes +taking a stroll for pleasure, and again to see if he could find anything +to eat. This time he was looking for something to eat, and so he walked +very slowly, looking from side to side, and sniffing the air from time +to time. + +"For," he said, "who knows but what I may find a nice cabbage or a +turnip, or a radish, or a bit of molasses cake, or a ginger snap, or +even an ice cream cone. Any of those things would be very good," thought +Buddy to himself, "especially an ice cream cone on a hot day." + +But, though he looked and he looked and he looked, oh, I guess maybe +about a dozen times, he couldn't find a single thing that was good to +eat, and he was beginning to get discouraged. + +"I'll go a little bit farther," he thought, "and then if I don't find +anything I'll turn around, go back home, and get some bread and butter, +for that is better than nothing; and I am getting hungry." + +So he walked on a little farther, and, as he walked along, he sang this +little song which no one is allowed to sing unless they are very, very +hungry. + +So in case it happens that you have just had an ice cream cone, or +something good like that, and are not hungry, you must not sing this +song until just before dinner or breakfast or supper. Anyhow here's the +song and you can put it aside until you are nearly starving. This is how +it goes: + + "I wish I had some candy + Or a peanut lolly-pop. + I'd eat an ice-cream cone so quick + You could not see me stop. + If I had two big apples, + An orange or a peach. + I'd give my little sister + A great big bite from each. + + "But there is nothing here to eat-- + Not even cherry pie. + Though we had one at our house once, + And some got in my eye. + Oh! how I'd like a cocoanut! + And watermelon, too. + I'd eat two slices off the ice-- + Now, really, wouldn't you?" + +No sooner had Buddy finished singing this song, than he came to a place +in the woods, where there was a big hole going down into the ground. Oh, +it was quite a large hole, not quite so big as the one going down to +China, but pretty large and it looked just as if some animal were in the +habit of going in and out of it. + +"Ha, ho!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg. "This looks like something; it surely +does," and, my dear children, the funny part of it was that the hole did +look like something. + +"I guess I'll go down there and see if there's anything to eat at the +bottom," went on the little guinea pig boy, "for I certainly am hungry." + +Then he stood and peeped down into the hole, and, though it looked quite +far to the bottom of it, and though it seemed pretty dark, Buddy decided +to go in. Now, that was rather foolish of him, for it's never safe to go +in a hole until you know where you're coming out, especially a hole in +the woods; but Buddy didn't stop to think. So he looked all around, to +see that there were no bad foxes in sight, and then he entered the hole. + +First he crept along very slowly and carefully. Oh my, yes, and a +banana peeling in addition! and then, all of a sudden, land sakes flopsy +dub! if Buddy didn't slip and fall and stumble, and roll over and over, +sideways, and head over heels, and he kept on going down, until finally +he came to a stop in a place that was as dark as a pocket in a fur +overcoat on a winter day. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried poor Buddy Pigg. "Whatever has happened; and +where am I?" + +He tried to see where he was, but, my goodness sakes alive! he might as +well have tried to look through the blackboard at school, for all he +could see was just nothing. + +"I--I guess I must have fallen all the way through to China!" whispered +Buddy, as he lay there in the darkness, and then he happened to remember +that if he was in China he would see some little Chinese boys and girls, +and he could not see any, so he knew he wasn't in China. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Buddy again. "Where am I, anyhow?" + +Then, all of a sudden, out of the darkness, there sounded a voice, and +when Buddy heard it he trembled. + +"Who are you?" cried the voice, "and what are you doing in here?" + +"If you please," answered the little guinea pig boy, "I am Buddy, and I +fell down this hole. Whose is it?" + +"It belongs to us," said two voices at once. "We are groundhogs, and you +must get right out of here!" + +"Groundhogs!" exclaimed Buddy, and then he remembered the two who had +teeter-tautered Brighteyes up and down on the plank bridge, and wet her +dress, and he was frightened for fear they would harm him. + +"Oh, please, Mr. Groundhogs!" went on Buddy, "I didn't mean to come +here! I fell in when I was looking for something to eat. Please help me +out, and I'll never come again. I was looking for something to take home +to Brighteyes, my sister." + +"What! Is Brighteyes Pigg your sister?" cried the two groundhogs, +rustling around in the dark hole, and when Buddy said she was, they said +they were very sorry for having frightened her on the plank. They were +only playing a joke, they said, and they promised never to bother her +again. + +"And besides," went on the larger groundhog, "we'll give you something +to eat, and help you out of this hole." + +So they went and got their lantern, which was a bottle filled with +fireflies, and they showed Buddy where there was another hole leading up +out of their underground house, and he crawled out, after they had +given him some clover preserved in molasses candy, and they promised to +come and play with him and Brighteyes some day. + +Then Buddy was happy again, and almost glad he had fallen down the big +hole, because he had something good to take home to eat. + +Now, in case I have cherry pie for supper and the juice doesn't get on +my red necktie and turn it green, I'll tell you soon about a trick the +groundhogs played. + + + + +STORY XXII + + +A TRICK THE GROUNDHOGS PLAYED + +One day, oh, I guess it must have been about a week after Buddy Pigg +fell down the groundhogs' hole, he and Brighteyes were out walking in +the woods. They had been over to pay a visit to Jackie and Peetie Bow +Wow, the two puppy dogs, you know, and were on their way back. + +As they walked along, they both heard a queer little rustling sound in +the bushes, but at first they didn't pay any attention to it, but they +kept on, talking about what a nice time they had had, when, all of a +sudden, the noise sounded more plainly. It was just as if some big +animal had taken hold of the bushes in his teeth, and had shaken +them--shaken the bushes, I mean, of course, for he couldn't shake his +teeth unless they were false, and animals don't have false teeth, thank +goodness. + +"My land sakes! What's that?" exclaimed Brighteyes. + +"Maybe it's a bad fox," said Buddy, and he looked around for a stick or +a stone with which to defend his sister, for Buddy was brave, let me +tell you. + +Then the noise seemed to sort of go away, just like when the teacher +rubs the figures and sentences off the blackboard in school, and Buddy +and Brighteyes weren't so frightened. So they kept on, and just as they +were coming to the path that led to their pen, what did they hear but +the rustling noise in the bushes again. This time they were very much +frightened, and Buddy picked up a stick, almost as large as himself. +Then Brighteyes said: + +"Oh, Buddy, I'm afraid to go home that way. Let's take the other path." + +"But that is so much longer," objected her brother. + +"No matter," answered the little guinea pig girl, "it is better to take +a longer path, than to go on a short one and be eaten up by a fox or a +wolf," and I suppose Brighteyes was right. Anyhow they took the other +path, and as they went along it, they heard a noise in the bushes as if +some one was laughing, only they didn't see how a fox could laugh. So +they hurried on. + +Well, it wasn't very long before they came to something. I was going to +let you guess what it was, but as it might take you some time to think, +and then, maybe, you wouldn't get it right, I have decided to tell you. + +What Buddy and Brighteyes saw on the path in front of them was a small +box--the kind that soap comes out of, you know--and it was standing up +on one edge. And sort of underneath the box were two, big toadstools, +made into tables, and beside each table was a smaller toadstool for a +seat. And, would you believe me? on each toadstool-table there were a +lot of nice things to eat! Believe me, there was, really! There were +bits of cabbage, some red clover tops with marshmallow-chocolate on +them, and candied cherries, and red raspberries with strawberry sauce, +and oh, I don't know what all! + +"Why!" exclaimed Brighteyes, "that is a regular little play-party, +Buddy." + +"To be sure it is," he answered. "And look, there is a sign fastened to +the box. Let's go closer, and read what it says on it." So they went a +little closer, watching on all sides to make sure there was no danger, +and they read the sign. This is what it said: + + "Come in and eat whate'er you wish. + Taste each dainty in the dish. + Make a bow, and wipe your feet, + Fold your napkins nice and neat." + +"Come on," cried Buddy to his sister. "Let's go in and eat." + +"Do you s'pose it's meant for us?" asked Brighteyes. + +"Of course," was his answer. "Come on! See, there's a mat to wipe your +feet on, and there are napkins at each plate. There is a table for you, +and one for me." + +So Buddy and Brighteyes, thinking no harm, went in and, after making +their very best double-jointed bows, and wiping their feet until there +was no more mud on them than on a postage stamp, they sat down to the +tables and tucked in their napkins around their necks. + +Then they began to eat, and oh, how good everything tasted! Just like +when you go visiting to the country, you know, and eat, and eat, and +keep on eating. Well, that's just the way it was, believe me, if you +please. + +Now, something is going to happen. I can't help it, and it's not my +fault. You see that box, with the nice things to eat on the toadstool +tables, was only a trap. No sooner had the two guinea pigs begun eating +than some one hiding in the bushes pulled on a long string, and the +string snapped out a piece of wood that was holding up the box, and the +box fell down, and Brighteyes and Buddy were caught under +it--prisoners--just like a mouse in the trap. + +They stopped eating pretty quickly then, let me tell you. Buddy was just +going to have a second helping of marshmallow-chocolate clover when the +box fell over, and it was so dark inside that he couldn't find his +mouth. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Brighteyes. "What has happened?" + +"We're in a trap!" shouted Buddy. "The bad fox has us in a trap! Come, +we must get out!" + +They jumped down from the toadstool seats and upset the toadstool +tables, and the dishes fell on the floor, but they didn't care. Then the +two guinea pig children tried to lift up the box, but they couldn't, and +they tried to dig under it, but they couldn't, and they didn't know how +in the world they were going to get out. + +Then, all of a sudden they heard some one whispering outside the box. +Buddy thought it was the fox, so he cried: "You had better let us out of +here, Mr. Fox, or we'll have you arrested!" + +"Why, that's Buddy Pigg!" cried the voice, and all of a sudden the box +was lifted and there stood the two groundhog boys; Woody and Waddy Chuck +were their names. "We didn't mean to catch you," said Woody. "We were +only going to play a joke on our big brother, but you got in the box by +mistake. We're very sorry." + +But they couldn't help laughing, and I really think the groundhog boys +meant to play a joke on Buddy and Brighteyes and had followed them +through the woods and hid in the bushes and put the things under the box +and all that just on purpose; I really do. + +But, anyhow, Buddy and Brighteyes weren't hurt a bit, and Woody and +Waddy gave them all the good things they could eat before the guinea +pigs ran home. + +Now, in case it should happen that all the ice in our refrigerator isn't +melted, so we can fry some for pancakes, I'll tell you next about Buddy +in the berry bush. + + + + +STORY XXIII + + +BUDDY IN THE BERRY BUSH + +Buddy Pigg didn't know what to do. You see he was home all alone, for +his mother and Brighteyes had gone calling on Grandpa and Grandma +Lightfoot, the squirrels and Dr. Pigg was downtown, playing checkers or +dominoes with Uncle Wiggily Longears, so Buddy didn't have any one to +keep him company. + +"I wish some of the boys would come along," he said, as he sat on the +front steps and threw stones out in the dusty road. "I'd like to have a +ball game, or some sort of fun." + +But, though he sat there quite a while, none of the boys came along, +and, at last, Buddy remarked: + +"Oh, I'm going off and see if I can't find Billie or Johnnie Bushytail, +or Sammie Littletail, or some one, to play with." So he locked the front +door, and put the key under the mat, where his mother would find it when +she came home, and off he started, almost as fast as when Sister Sallie +went hippity-hop to the barber shop. + +Pretty soon Buddy came to the woods, and he opened his mouth real wide +and began to yell, not because he was hurt, you understand, but because +he wanted to call some of the boys. He yelled, and he hollered, and he +hooted, and then, all of a sudden, he heard some one yelling back at +him, and he saw Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys, +bounding along on the low branches of the trees. + +"Hello, fellows!" cried Buddy. "Glad to see you! Let's have some fun." + +"What'll we do?" asked Billie. + +"I know," suggested Johnnie. "Let's make a see-saw. Here is a nice +plank, and we can put it across that old stump and have a dandy time." + +So they got the plank and put it across the stump. Then Buddy got on one +end and Billie and Johnnie on the other, as they were a little smaller +than Buddy, and did not weigh so much. Then they began to go up and +down, first slowly, and then faster and faster, until they were jiggling +up and down as fast as the teakettle boils when there's company coming +to supper. + +"Hi, yi!" yelled Billie and Johnnie. "Isn't this fun?" + +"Wow, yow! It certainly is," agreed Buddy. "Only don't jump off too +suddenly when I'm in the air, or I'll fall and be hurt." + +Well, of course, Billie and Johnnie promised that they would be +careful, and they really meant to keep their word; only, just as they +were close down to the ground on the plank, and Buddy was high up, what +should happen but that a new, green, little acorn fell off an oak tree. + +It was one of the first acorns of the season, and Billie and Johnnie +each wanted to get it, so, without thinking what they were doing, they +jumped off the teeter-tauter plank, when Buddy was high up, and, of +course, down he came, with a slam-bang! + +My! how it did jar him up, and shake him, like pepper in the caster, but +that wasn't the worst. No, indeed, and some chocolate cake besides! When +Buddy came down he landed right on an old rubber boot that some one had +thrown away in the woods, and it was so bouncy and springy that he was +tossed high up in the air again, and he curved sideways, just like a +baseball, when he came down this time, and where on earth do you s'pose +he landed? Why, right in the middle of a big, scratchy, blackberry bush! + +Yes, sir, that's where it was! Down poor Buddy went, right into the +midst of the bush, and of course he got scratched some, only not as much +as he might, for he happened to go down through a thin place, where +there were not so many briars. + +Well, at first he was too surprised to speak, and, besides, the breath +was sort of knocked out of him, but, when he did gather himself +together, he saw that he was in a bad place to get out of. By this time +Johnnie and Billie had found the green acorn and had divided and eaten +it, so they came back to find Buddy. + +"Why, where has he gone to?" asked Billie, looking around. + +"Maybe he got mad, because we jumped off the plank so quickly and he has +run home," suggested Johnnie. "We shouldn't have done it." + +"No," cried Buddy, suddenly. "I haven't gone home! I'm in the blackberry +bush over here!" + +"Why, how in the world did you get there?" asked Johnnie, and Buddy told +him. + +"I think it would be more polite to ask him how he's going to get out," +suggested Billie. + +"That's so," agreed Buddy. "It's going to be hard work. But I guess I +can crawl through." + +So he tried to crawl through the bush, but you know how it is when you +go after berries, the briars seem to stick into you all over. That's the +way it was with Buddy. He couldn't crawl out, no matter how hard he +tried, for the stickers caught into his fur and held him fast. + +"Can't you jump out through the same hole you fell in through?" asked +Billie, and Buddy tried to do so, but he was scratched more than ever. + +Then Billie and Johnnie tried to open up a place through the bottom part +of the briars for Buddy to slide out, but they couldn't do it, and they +were very sorry they had jumped off the plank so quickly, for that made +all the trouble. + +Well, it began to look as though Buddy would never get out, and he felt +like crying, only he was brave, and didn't shed a single tear. Then +Johnnie suggested that he and Billie go up a tall tree, and lower a +string down to Buddy in the bush, and try to pull him up that way. They +tried it, but it wouldn't work, for the stickers still caught in the +little guinea pig's fur. + +So they didn't know what to do, and were just going to give up, when who +should come bounding along but Sammie Littletail. He knew what to do in +a second. + +He dug a burrow, beginning outside the berry bush, and slanting it up +under the roots, so that it came out inside, right near where Buddy was +crouched down inside the clump of briars. The burrow was like a tunnel, +and was big enough for Buddy to crawl out through, which he did, never +getting scratched once. They all said Sammie was very smart to think of +that, and I agree with them. Then they all played sea-saw some more, +until it was time to go home. + +Now in case there is a cool breeze, to blow the dust out of the poor +coalman's eyes, I'll tell you next about Buddy and Brighteyes bringing +home the cows. + + + + +STORY XXIV + + +BRINGING HOME THE COWS. + +Not far from where Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg lived, there was a man who +had a farm, and on the farm were a number of cows that gave milk. Out of +the milk butter was made, and sometimes, when the butter was all +churned, the farmer's wife would take some of the buttermilk that +remained in a pail and set it down where Dr. Pigg and his family could +get it. + +They thought this was very kind of the farmer's wife, and Dr. Pigg told +his children that if they could ever do her a favor, they must be sure +to do so. They promised, though for some time they had no chance to do +any kindness to the farmer or his wife either. But just you wait and see +what happens. + +One day, in the middle of summer, when it was very hot every place, +except in the cool and shady woods, Buddy and Brighteyes were strolling +along under the trees near a brook, throwing pebbles in the water and +floating down bits of bark and chips, which they pretended were boats +sailing off to distant countries. + +"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Buddy at last, "I wish I had something to do. +There's nothing to do here." + +"Why do you always want to be doing something?" asked his sister. "Why +aren't you content to sit here in the shady woods, and sail the boats?" + +"Because," answered Buddy, and that was the only reason he could give. +Then Brighteyes thought of a new game to play. She took a piece of bark +for her boat, and she found a nice, white chip for Buddy, and they made +believe their boats were having a race down stream, and Buddy's boat +won, which made him feel quite happy. + +Well, pretty soon, the sun began to go down behind the hills, and the +two guinea pig children knew it was time to go home, so they started +off. But they had not gone very far before they came to a field, with a +fence around it, and the field was quite hilly and stony and very large. +Near the fence sat a man, and he had one shoe off, and he was looking at +his foot. + +"Oh dear!" Buddy and Brighteyes heard him say, for they could understand +the man's language, if they couldn't talk it. "Oh dear! I've cut my foot +on a sharp stone," the man said, "and I don't see how I can walk away +over through the field and climb the hills after the cows. Oh dear; this +is bad luck, and it's almost milking time, and the cows are sure to be +away back in the far end of the pasture, and I can't go after them. I'll +call them, and maybe they'll come to me, for I surely can't walk after +them." + +So the man stood up on one foot and called: "Co Boss! Co Boss! Co Boss! +Co! Co! Co!" Then he waited quite some time, but the cows didn't come, +and he called again: "Co Boss! Co Boss! Co Boss!" and he waited some +more, but still the cows didn't come. "Oh, I guess I'll have to go after +them, no matter if I have cut my foot," said the man at last, and he put +on his shoe, though it hurt him, and he began to limp over the hilly +field, very slowly and painfully. + +All at once Brighteyes said to Buddy: "Oh, Bud, that man is the farmer, +and it's his wife who gives us the buttermilk! Wouldn't it be nice if we +could do him a favor, and go and drive the cows home for him?" + +"How, could we?" asked Buddy. "The cows are big and we are little. We +never could drive them home." + +"We can try," said Brighteyes cheerfully. "Come, we'll hurry on ahead of +the farmer and perhaps I shall think of a plan." + +So the two little guinea pig children slipped under the fence and ran +up across the hilly field, and the farmer, who was limping along, +calling "Co Boss!" every once in a while, never saw them. His foot was +hurting him very much and he had to go slowly. + +Well, Buddy and Brighteyes kept on, bounding over the stories and +stopping now and then to eat some blackberries or huckleberries or +raspberries or a few late, wild strawberries, and pretty soon they came +to the back part of the field, where, resting in the shade of some +trees, were all the cows. + +Oh, I guess there was a dozen and a half of them--big, nice mooley cows, +with brown eyes and long tongues, and they were all chewing their cuds +like gum, you know, and wondering why the farmer didn't come to drive +them home to milk, for they hadn't heard him calling them, you see. + +"How are we ever going to drive them home?" asked Buddy of his sister. + +"Let me think a minute," said Brighteyes, so she thought real hard for a +minute, or, possibly a minute and a little longer, and then she +exclaimed: "We must each take a long, leafy tree branch, and go up +behind the rows, and wave the branches, and tickle the cows with the +leaves, and they'll think it's a boy driving them home, and they'll +march right along, and the poor farmer, with his sore feet, won't have +to come after them." + +And that's exactly what Buddy and Brighteyes did. They got some +branches, gnawing them off a tree with their sharp teeth, and with the +leaves they tickled the cows until they almost made them sneeze. + +The cows looked around, expecting to see some boys driving them, but +Buddy and Brighteyes hid behind their big branches, and the cows were +none the wiser. So they swallowed their cuds, blinked their eyes, +switched their tails, and started up and down the hills, over the field, +toward the barnyard to be milked. + +Now, before the farmer-man had come very far from the fence, he met the +cows, and maybe he wasn't surprised to see them coming. But he was glad, +too, let me tell you, for he didn't have to walk any farther with his +cut foot. + +Then Brighteyes and Buddy ran and hid, for they did not want to be seen, +and the man jumped upon the back of a gentle cow, and rode her all the +way home, and told his wife how the whole herd, in some strange manner, +had come all the way from the back of the field alone. You see he didn't +know Buddy and Brighteyes had driven them. + +Well, in a few days the man's foot was well, so he could drive the cows +himself, and the farmer's wife gave Dr. Bigg's family lots of +buttermilk; for, somehow, she guessed that the little guinea pig boy and +girl had done the farmer a kindness, as their papa had told them to. + +Now the following story will be about Buddy on horseback--that is, +providing no cats get into our coalbin to scratch the furnace and make +it go out. + +[Illustration] + + + + +STORY XXV + + +BUDDY RIDES HORSEBACK. + +One night Buddy Pigg's mamma came into his room, where he was sleeping +soundly and dreaming he was playing a ball game with Bully and Bawly, +the frogs, and Mrs. Pigg gently shook her little boy by the shoulder. + +"Wake up, Buddy!" she called. "Wake up!" + +"What's the matter, mother?" Buddy exclaimed, as he sat up in bed. "Is +the house on fire?" + +"No," she answered, "but your papa is very sick, and I want you to go +for Dr. Possum." Then Buddy jumped up very quickly and began to dress, +for he loved his papa very much, and would do anything in the world for +him. When Buddy was ready to start he heard Dr. Pigg groaning very hard, +and saying: + +"Oh, dear, what a pain I have! Oh, dear! When will Dr. Possum come?" + +"Buddy is going for him at once," Mrs. Pigg said. "He will soon be here. +But have you no medicine that you can take?" For Dr. Pigg had once +worked in a hospital, and generally had some medicine in the house, but +this time he had none that would stop his pain. So Buddy had to get +ready to go for the doctor, while Mrs. Pigg and Brighteyes made mustard +plasters for Dr. Pigg. + +Well, when Buddy was all dressed, he happened to look out of the window, +and he saw how dark it was, for there was no moon that night, and the +stars were all hidden behind clouds. But do you s'pose Buddy was going +to stay home on that account? No, sir-ee! He was frightened, and I guess +you'd have been, too, but he was brave, and he made up his mind he'd go +for Dr. Possum. + +So Buddy put on his hat and coat and went out of the front door and into +the dark night, where, for all he knew, a bad fox might be waiting to +grab him. But Buddy took a long stick, and he filled his pockets with +stones, and he made up his mind he would throw them at the fox if he saw +him. + +The little guinea pig boy went on, and on, through the woods, toward Dr. +Possum's home, and, after a while, he was not so frightened as he had +been at first. Then, all of a sudden, as he was passing a big, black +bush, he heard a funny noise. First he thought it was a wolf or a bear, +and then he heard a voice say: + +"Oh, come on down into the burrow, Waddy." + +Then Buddy knew it was the two groundhog boys, Woody and Waddy, who had +made the funny noises, but they didn't mean to scare him, and he wasn't +at all frightened now. Woody and Waddy had heard Buddy coming along, +and, a moment later, they saw him and asked where he was going. + +"I'm going after Dr. Possum, because my papa is sick," said Buddy. + +"Wait and we'll let you take our lantern," said Woody, and he hurried +down into the burrow, and came back with a large bottle, filled with +lightning bugs, which gave plenty of light. And it had a string on, to +carry it by. As Buddy took it, very thankfully, Waddy said he hoped he +would find the doctor at home. + +Then Buddy started off again, but he hadn't gone much farther through +the woods before he heard another noise. This noise was a real loud one, +like some giant tramping up and down, and stamping his feet, and +suddenly there came a great snort, and the earth seemed to shake, and a +big, black thing jumped up in front of Buddy, scaring him frightfully. + +He trembled so that the cork nearly came out of the bottle of lightning +bugs, and, if it had, the fireflies would have been spilled all over the +ground, worse than when you spill your ice cream cone--only it didn't +happen, I'm glad to say, but almost. Then the black shape stood still, +and a great voice called out: + +"Where are you going with that lantern?" + +"If you please, kind sir," answered the little boy guinea pig, "I'm +going for Dr. Possum for my papa, who has a terrible pain. The groundhog +boys lent me this lantern. But who are you, if you please, kind sir?" + +"Why, I am Gup, the horse," was the answer. "So you are going for Dr. +Possum, eh? He is a friend of mine. I'm sorry if I frightened you. Yes, +I'm only Gup, the horse. You see, my name is Gup because there is a +little boy at our house, and he can't talk very plainly, and he calls me +'Gup' when he wants to say 'get up,' you see. However, it doesn't much +matter, and I don't mind. + +"But, speaking of doctors, I know where Dr. Possum lives, and I'll take +you right to his house in less than no time. Besides, you and your +sister were so kind as to drive the cows home for the man who cut his +foot, and as he is a friend of mine I want to return your kindness to +him. Jump upon my back, Buddy." + +"Oh, I'm afraid I'll fall," said Buddy, when he saw how high up Gup's +back was from the ground. + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed the horse. "I wouldn't let you fall for the +world. Here, hold up your firefly lantern so you can see, climb upon +that low stump, and then you can jump on my back. I'll stand still, and +then I'll take you right to Dr. Possum's house." + +So Buddy got up on Gup's back. It was the first time he had ever ridden +a horse or been up so high, and, of course, for a while, he was +frightened. But Gup told him just how to cling tightly to his big neck +and how to hold the lantern so the lightning bugs would shine on the +path, and then Gup started off. + +Oh, how fast he went! Right through the woods, he galloped, and he never +bumped into a tree or a bush even once. He went gently, too, so that +Buddy would not fall off, and, my goodness sakes alive! in a short time +the little guinea pig boy was at Dr. Possum's house. He knocked on the +door, rat-a-tat-tat, and, luckily, the doctor was at home. He got right +out of bed, took his satchel of medicines and was just going to get into +his automobile to go to Dr. Pigg's house, when he found that his auto +was broken. Either the spark was off the plug or the plug was off the +spark, I forget which. Then Gup said: + +"Get right up on my back, doctor. I can carry you and Buddy, too. It's +no great weight, I assure you. Never mind the automobile. They are +always making trouble." + +So Dr. Possum, with his medicine box, climbed upon Gup's back, behind +Buddy, and he helped hold the little guinea pig on during the ride home. +Faster and faster went Gup through the dark woods his hoofs going +"tat-a-tat-too," and he didn't bump into a tree or a bush, and he did +not jar off Buddy or Dr. Possum, and pretty soon there they were safe at +Dr. Pigg's house, and Dr. Possum gave Buddy's papa some medicine that +soon made him better. Then Gup, the kind horsie, took Dr. Possum safely +back through the dark woods as straight as a string. + +In the morning Dr. Pigg was all well again, and he said Buddy was very +brave to go off for a doctor in the night, and I think so, too. + +Now, in case it doesn't thunder too hard and scare the chimney so that +it falls off the roof, I'll tell you next about Buddy and Brighteyes +tumbling down hill. + + + + +STORY XXVI + + +BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES FALL DOWN HILL + +Not far from where Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg lived in the pen with their +papa and mamma, there was a big, tall hill. Oh, ever so much taller than +a house, but not quite so high as the church steeple, and it was a very +hard hill to climb, but, once you had gotten to the top, you could see +off, ever so far; farther than from here to the end of the rainbow, +which is very far indeed. + +Now, though Buddy and Brighteyes, the two little guinea pig children, +had lived near the hill ever since they were mere babies, they had never +climbed to the top of it. There were two reasons for this. One was +because the hill was so high and the other was because it was so steep. + +It seemed as if no one would ever be able to scramble up the sides of +this hill, or, if they did, very likely they would tumble down again, +just like a boy sliding over the ice and snow on his sled. + +But one fine morning when the sun was shining and the birds were +singing Buddy said to Brighteyes: + +"Let's climb up to the top of the hill to-day?" + +"What for?" asked his sister, as she tied her hair ribbon in a double +bow knot, very pretty indeed to look at, let me tell you. + +"Why, so we can see away off where the sky and the mountains come +together beyond the hill," said Buddy. "You can see beautiful scenery +from the tip-top, you know." + +"What good will that do?" asked Brighteyes, who was very fond of asking +questions that were hard to answer. "What is the good of looking at the +scenery?" she wanted to know. + +"Because," answered her brother, "every one does that where there is a +high hill. I heard some of the summer boarders at the farmhouse, near +our pen, telling each other what a beautiful view there was to be had +from the hill. We must see it for ourselves. There is no one around now, +and we can climb to the top." + +"I don't care very much about it," spoke Brighteyes. "I would rather +find another box of peanut candy;" but because she loved Buddy, and did +not want him to start off alone, she consented to climb the big hill +with him. So they started off. At first it was rather easy, and they +went up quite fast. At the foot of the hill were blackberry bushes and +the guinea pig children gathered as many berries as they could eat. + +But, as they went farther and farther up, the bushes grew more scarce, +until there were none. Then came a place where there was tall grass and +many stones, so that it was hard to walk. But Buddy and Brighteyes kept +on, and pretty soon they met a grasshopper. + +"Where are you going?" asked the grasshopper. + +"To the top of the hill, to see the view," answered Buddy. + +"You will never get there, the way you are going," said the grasshopper. +"You should jump as I do," and he gave three big hops and a little one +to show how well he could do it. + +"We cannot hop," remarked Brighteyes, "but we have a friend who can." + +"Who?" asked the grasshopper, as he scratched his two big hind legs +together, like a man playing the fiddle. + +"Sammie Littletail, the rabbit," said Buddy. "He can hop." + +"Yes, Sammie is a good jumper," admitted the grasshopper, and he hid +under a stone, for just then he saw a big bird looking hungrily at him. +Well, Buddy and Brighteyes went on and on, and up and up, and pretty +soon they met an ant. + +"Where are you going?" asked the ant. + +"To the top of the hill, to see the fine view," replied Brighteyes, as +she paused to get her breath, which she had nearly lost. + +"You will never get up the way you are going," said the ant. "You should +crawl, as I do," and she crawled over a stone to show how it should be +done. But Buddy and Brighteyes could not crawl, and they told the ant +so. Still they kept on, and pretty soon they met a bird. + +"You had better fly to the top of the hill as I do," said the bird. +"It's much easier than walking," only, of course, Buddy and Brighteyes +could not fly. + +But the two guinea pig children were not discouraged, and they kept on +and on, and pretty soon, really and truly honestly, they were at the +very top of the hill--a place where they had never been before. + +They could look off to the mountains, and they saw a lake, and they +could see the place where the end of the rainbow was, whenever there was +a rainbow, and they felt happy, because everything was so lovely, and +Buddy said: + +"I feel so glad, I must sing a little song." So he sang this one, which +can only be sung on top of a hill: + + "It's very hard to climb a hill, + But when you're at the top, + You feel so very fine and good + Because it's there you stop. + If you should still keep on and on, + I wonder where you'd land? + By sliding down the other side + With sandals full of sand?" + +Then Buddy tried to do a little dance, but what do you s'pose happened? +Why, he lost his balance, and toppled over, and then he grabbed hold of +Brighteyes, who was looking at the fine view, and she toppled over, and +then, wiggily-waggily, woggily-wee! they both tumbled down that steep +hill, head over heels like Jack and Jill. + +And they went down faster, and faster, and faster, rolling over and +over, and they saw stars, and several different lakes, and lots of +clouds and ever so many things. They were both frightened, and they +thought surely they were going to be hurt, for they were nearing the +bottom, when all of a sudden what should come along but a big load of +hay! + +Buddy and Brighteyes hit a stone, bounced up in the air, and then came +down, flippity-flop! right on top of the soft hay, and they weren't hurt +the least bit. Then they slid down off the hay, before the man who was +driving it saw them, and ran home. And they didn't climb a hill again +for ever and ever so long. + +Now, if I hear a potato bug whistle a tune on a cornstalk fiddle, I'm +going to tell you next about Buddy and Brighteyes going in bathing. + + + + +STORY XXVII + + +BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES GO BATHING + +"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg one day. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear me suz +dud!" + +"Why, Buddy, dear, whatever in the world is the matter?" asked his +mamma, and Brighteyes, who was mending some stockings, looked up at her +brother in much surprise. + +"Oh, dear!" cried the little guinea pig boy again, "I wish I had +something to do. It's so hot and dry and dusty here. I wish some of the +fellows would come around or--or I even wish school would begin again, +so I would have something to do." + +Now when a boy wishes for school, in the middle of vacation, you may be +sure something serious is the matter. Mrs. Pigg knew this at once, so +she asked: + +"What would you like to do, Buddy?" + +"I don't know," he answered, rather cross and fretful-like, which wasn't +very nice, I suppose. + +"All the boys have gone to Asbury Park or Ocean Grove," said Brighteyes, +"and I guess you are lonesome, Buddy. It must be lovely at the +seashore," and Brighteyes sighed the least bit, and took such a big +stitch in the stocking she was mending that she had to rip it out and do +it over again. + +"Well, we can't go to the seashore this season because the salt air +doesn't agree with your father," said Mrs. Pigg. "If all goes well, we +shall soon be in the country, however. But now, what do you like best +about the seashore, Buddy?" + +"Going in bathing," he answered. + +"You can do that right here at home," said his mamma. "I will get out +your bathing suits, and you and Brighteyes can go swimming in the pond +back of our house." + +"That will be lovely!" cried Brighteyes, and she jumped up so quickly +that she dropped the basket of stockings, and her pink hair ribbon came +off, and she was all confused-like. + +"There are no waves in the pond, like down in the ocean at Asbury," +complained Buddy. "It is no fun to go in bathing where there are no +waves." + +"Ha! What's that?" cried a voice, and then Percival, the old circus dog, +who was staying with the Piggs while the Bow Wow family, with whom he +lived, was away for the summer--Percival, I say, got up from where he +had been sleeping under a mosquito net to keep off the flies. "No waves, +eh? So you want waves, do you, when you go in bathing, Buddy?" asked +Percival. + +"Yes," answered Buddy Pigg, "I do, Percival." + +"Then," exclaimed the old circus dog, "you and Brighteyes shall have +them. Get on your bathing suits and come down to the pond. When you get +there you'll find waves enough; I'll guarantee that! Oh, my, yes, and a +life-preserver besides!" + +"How?" asked Buddy. "There are never any waves in that pond." + +"Just you wait and see," said Percival. + +Mrs. Pigg smiled, but she didn't say anything, and went after the +bathing suits, while Buddy and Brighteyes wondered what was going to +happen. Percival ran out, winking first one eye and then the other, and +not both together, like some dollies do when they go to sleep, and he +gave three short barks and a long one, just to show how glad he felt to +be doing something. + +Well, it didn't take Buddy and Brighteyes very long to put on their +bathing suits. Then they hurried out of the back of the house and went +toward the pond. + +"Do you really s'pose there'll be waves?" asked Buddy. + +"I don't know," answered his sister. "Percival is a very smart dog, you +know." + +Well, they ran down to the pond, and the first thing they saw when they +got there were cords fastened to sticks driven down into the ground, +just like the ropes at Asbury Park, you know--if you've ever been there. +The ropes are for the bathers to take hold of when the waves come. + +"Well," remarked Buddy, "I see the ropes, but I don't see any waves." +But, no sooner had he spoken than a big wave rolled, +splish-splash-splosh, right up the shore of the pond, which was rather +sandy, and it sprayed itself over the toes of Buddy and Brighteyes--the +wave splashed, you understand--not the sand, of course. + +"Whee!" cried Buddy, all excited-like. "There's a wave!" + +"Yes, and here comes another!" cried his sister, and, sure enough, +another wave came sizzling and sloshing up out of the pond. And then +another, and another, and another, until there were a dozen, or, maybe a +dozen and a half of waves, one after the other. + +"Oh, this is grand!" cried Buddy. "It's almost as good as Asbury Park!" +and, really it was, I'm not fooling a bit. Of course the waves weren't +as big as those at the seashore, but they were pretty good size. Well, +Buddy and Brighteyes rushed into the water, keeping hold of the ropes, +and the waves splashed all around them, and they splashed around in the +waves, and pretty soon Buddy cried: + +"Oh, I got a mouthful of water, and it's salty, just like the ocean!" + +"Sure enough it is!" agreed Brighteyes, taking a small mouthful to +taste. "I wonder what makes it?" + +"And I wonder what makes the waves, and I wonder where Percival is?" +went on Buddy, and just then there came such a big wave that it almost +knocked him over, and he had to cling to the ropes. Then what should +happen, but that at the far end of the pond, up rose old dog Percival, +laughing as hard as he could laugh. + +"I told you I would make waves!" he cried, and how do you s'pose he did +it? + +Why, he had a big, empty box, and he would raise that up and down in the +water of the pond, as hard as he could, and this splashed, and made the +waves; and Percival had a bag of salt, to make the water salty. Now, +wasn't he the smart dog though? + +Well, he went on, making more salty waves, and Buddy and Brighteyes +paddled around in them, and yelled and hollered, and held on to the +ropes, and ducked each other, and splashed and had as good a time as if +they had been at the seashore; and so did Percival, too, I guess. Then, +after a while they came out of the water and dried off, after thanking +Percival. + +Now, if our bathtub doesn't freeze up so the canary bird can't go in +swimming I'll tell you presently about Buddy building a sand house. + + + + +STORY XXVIII + + +BUDDY BUILDS A SAND HOUSE + +The little guinea pig children had so much fun bathing in the pond, +where Percival, the circus dog, made the salty waves for them, as I told +you about in the previous story, that they went in swimming as many +times as their mamma would let them. + +Percival was only too glad to make the waves, and hold the bag of salt +in the pond, to make it salty, just like the ocean. Sometimes the old +dog would jounce a box up and down, to make the waves, and again, when +he wanted larger ones, he would use a barrel. Then the waves of the pond +would be over the heads of Buddy and Brighteyes, and they had to cling +to the ropes with all their might. + +One day Buddy was sitting in the sand, on the banks of the pond, when, +all at once, he had an idea. + +"I know what I'm going to do!" he exclaimed. "I'm gong to build a sand +house. I wish Brighteyes was here to help me," but his sister had gone +in the pen to help her mamma get dinner ready, for Mrs. Pigg expected +company that day; Mr. and Mrs. Bushytail were coming. So Buddy had to +start to build the house all alone. He piled a lot of sand in a heap, +together with stones, and sticks and bits of duck-weed, and then he +started in. + +First he scooped out a hollow place, and that was for the cellar. Then +he stuck sticks up around the edges of the hole, and began to pile up +the sand, to make the walls of the house. Just as he was doing this, +what should he hear but footsteps running along the sand. He looked, up +and gave a shout of delight. + +"Hello, Billie and Johnnie Bushytail!" he cried, as he saw the two +little squirrel boys. "You're just in time! Come on and help me build +this sand house!" + +"Sure!" agreed Billie and Johnnie, as they frisked their tails, just as +the cook sometimes frisks the dusting brush when she wants to knock the +crumbs from the table to the floor. "Can you stay long?" asked Buddy. + +"As long as papa and mamma do," answered Johnnie. "They are in your +house now, and so is Sister Sallie. We're going to stay to dinner, but +first we'll help you build the sand house." + +So they all three got busy. They piled and scooped the sand up around +the upright sticks, and, pretty soon, believe me, if it really didn't +begin to look like a real house. It was about as big as a big box, and +nearly as high; and the cellar was quite large. + +"What will we do with the house when we've finished it?" asked Billie +Bushytail. + +"We'll go in it and play we're robbers," suggested Johnnie, as he patted +the sand with his paws, to make it smooth. + +"No, we'll be pirates," decided Buddy. "Pirates always stay near salt +water, and this is salt water, because Percival emptied a whole bag of +salt in it." + +"All right," agreed the squirrel boys, so they went on building the +house. They put little pebbles all around it for a fence, and laid a +gravel walk up from the pond to the front door, and stuck up little +sticks for trees in the front yard, and made a garden, because Buddy +said, even if they were pirates, they would have to have something to +eat, and they planted duck-weed in the garden and made believe it was +radishes and lettuce and cabbage and ever so many things; even apples +and pears and peaches. + +Well, pretty soon the sand house was finished; that is, all but the top. + +"What will we have for a roof?" asked Billie. + +"I'll show you," said Buddy, so he laid sticks across the top of the +sand walls, and on top of the sticks he placed duck-weed. Then, on top +of the weed he and the squirrel boys put sand, until it was really the +nicest house of its kind you could find if you walked a mile, or, maybe +even two miles. + +"That certainly is one fine, dandy house!" exclaimed Johnnie, as he +stepped back to admire it. + +"Yes, and now let's get inside and pretend we're robbers," proposed +Billie. "I'll be the head robber and you two can work for me." + +"No, we're going to be pirates, and I'm the chief one," insisted Buddy. +"We must begin to pirate right away and do all sorts of things." + +"First, let's see if we can get in the house," said Johnnie. "Go in very +carefully." + +So they went in, very slowly and carefully through the front door, so as +not to knock the sand down, and honestly the sand house was just big +enough for those three, and not a bit bigger. They even had to hold +their breaths, and not all breathe at once, or they never would have +fitted in it. + +"Now," said Buddy, "we'll pretend we're pirates, and we'll bury all the +gold and diamonds we have." + +So they played that game, and buried gold (make-believe you know) in +the cellar, and they were having a lovely time, when all at once, +without a word of warning, the roof of the sand house fell right in on +top of them! I suppose it was because Pirate Chief Buddy gave such a +loud shout. + +Anyway, the roof caved in, and part of the walls, and there those three +pirates were, buried under the sand. They tried to yell, and call for +help, but their mouths were full of the dirt, and they couldn't speak. +Then they tried to scramble out, and they couldn't do that, and I really +don't know what would have happened to them, if at that moment +Brighteyes Pigg and Sister Sallie hadn't come out of the pen where their +mammas and papas were talking, to see what the boys were doing. + +The two girls saw the sand house, all caved in, and they guessed that +Buddy and Billie and Johnnie were under it. + +"We must dig them out!" cried Sister Sallie. + +So she and Brighteyes got some pieces of shingle, and my goodness me, +sakes alive! how they did make that sand fly! Percival, the old circus +dog, helped them, and pretty soon Buddy and his friends were safely +rescued. They were pretty well scared, I can tell you, but they were +soon all right again, and then it was time to go to dinner, and after +dinner they all went in bathing and had lots of fun. + +Now, I'm going to tell you next about Buddy helping Sammie Littletail, +that is if the man comes to cut our grass and lets our puppy dog hide +under the door-mat to scare the parrot next door. + + + + +STORY XXIX + + +BUDDY HELPS SAMMIE LITTLETAIL + +When Johnnie and Billie Bushytail went home, after having paid a visit +to Buddy Pigg that time when they built the sand house that fell in on +them, they told Sammie and Susie Littletail, the two rabbits, of what a +nice time they had had. + +"Oh, I am going over to see Buddy some day, and go in bathing," declared +Sammie. + +"You had better be careful about bathing in salt water," said Susie, his +sister, "it might take all the color out of your eyes, or out of your +fur, or your fur might even fall out." + +"Oh, I guess not," answered Sammie. "I have heard that salt water keeps +hair from falling out. Anyway, if there's any danger of such a thing, +Percival, the old circus dog, doesn't need to hold the bag of salt in +the water when we go in bathing." + +"That's so," agreed Susie, and just then along came Uncle Wiggily +Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, and he was eating some +peppermint-flavored cabbage, and he gave Sammie and Susie some. + +Well, it wasn't very many days after this before Sammie asked his mamma +if he couldn't go over and play with Buddy Pigg, and, as Sammie had been +a very good rabbit boy lately, his mother allowed him to go. + +"I am so glad you came, Sammie," said Buddy, "what shall we do, go in +bathing, or build a sand house?" + +"Let's do both," answered Sammie. So first he and Buddy went in bathing +and, for fear the salt water would make the red color fade out of +Sammie's eyes, Percival didn't hold the bag of salt in the pond when he +made the waves. Sammie and Buddy had a good time splashing around, and +then they built a sand house. But they took care to make it strong +enough so that it would not cave in. They played together for a long +time and then Buddy asked: "What shall we do next?" + +"I know," replied Sammie, as he looked at the pond of water which was +sparkling in the sun, "let's play soldier, and we'll make a plank bridge +across the pond and run over it and have lots of fun." + +"All right," agreed Buddy, "come on, and help me lift the plank." So +they placed a long board across one end of the pond, where it was quite +deep, and began to play soldier, while Percival went to sleep in the +shade. + +Buddy got a tin can, and tied it around his neck with a string. That was +for the drum, and when he beat upon the tin can with two sticks, believe +me, it did sound just like a drum in the army, when the soldiers beat it +softly. + +Then Sammie got a long stick, pretending it was a gun, and the two of +them marched around and around, and sideways, and up and down, and +through the middle, and across the plank, and back again, several times. +Then, Sammie would fire the gun, yelling, "Boom-Boom!" as loudly as he +could, and shooting maybe a dozen bad Indians or pirates or robbers, or +maybe more, for all I know, and Buddy would beat on the drum louder than +ever, and he would cry: + +"Charge! Charge on the enemy! Hurrah! Hurrah! The victory is ours!" and +he would wave a flag he had made out of a piece of white cloth, red +flannel and a bit of Brighteyes' blue hair ribbon, that she had lost. + +Oh, it wag great fun, I tell you! But the best of all was rushing across +the plank over the deep part of the pond, for then it sounded exactly as +if horses and cannon were coming over the bridge, and the plank +teetered and tautered up and down, and sometimes Buddy and Sammie almost +fell off. But they didn't mind this; they only thought it all the more +fun. + +Then, at last, something did happen. Buddy was ahead, waving the flag +with one hand, and beating the drum with the other, and Sammie was +firing his wooden gun as fast as he could fire it, with ever so many +"Boom-Booms!" real loud ones, too, and shooting, oh, ever so many +make-believe Indians, when, all of a sudden, poor Sammie Littletail +slipped off the plank, and fell into the deep part of the pond! + +"Oh, save me; save me, Buddy!" cried Sammie, splashing around. + +"I'll save you!" cried Buddy, and he got so excited that he threw away +his drum, and the drumsticks and the flag, only he tossed the flag +safely on shore, where it wouldn't get wet, for he loved the flag, even +if it was only a make-believe one. "I'll save you," he cried. "Can you +swim any, Sammie?" + +"A--a--lit-tle--bit!" gasped the rabbit boy, as he floundered around in +the water. "But I could swim more if nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy was here to +show me," and then he couldn't talk any more, for his mouth was full of +water. + +Well, Sammie was terribly frightened, as he floundered around in the +pond, with his wooden gun, and so was Buddy frightened, up on the plank +bridge. Buddy looked all around, to see if there was any one coming to +help him save Sammie, but there wasn't. Percival had gone in the house, +and Brighteyes and her mother had gone berrying. Then Buddy made up his +mind that he would have to save Sammie all by himself. + +First he tried to kneel down on the plank, and reach his hand to his +little rabbit chum, but he couldn't reach far enough. Then he called to +Sammie to hold up the wooden gun, thinking maybe he could get hold of +that, and so drag the rabbit boy out, but the gun wiggled so, when +Sammie splashed around that Buddy couldn't get hold of it. + +Then it began to look as if Sammie would drown, but Buddy had one more +thing to try. On shore there was a rope. Buddy ran and got it, and in +one end he made a loop, just like the cowboys do when they lasso a wild +steer, or a horse. + +Buddy took good aim, tossed the loop of rope over Sammie's head, and +Sammie grabbed hold with his front paws, and then Buddy braced his feet +in the sand and gave a long, strong pull, and pulled Sammie safely out +of the water, and saved him; just in time, too, let me tell you, for his +breath was nearly gone. Well, Sammie soon got over being scared, and +when he was dried off the two friends played soldier some more, only +they kept off the plank. + +Now the next story is going to be about Brighteyes and Jennie +Chipmunk--that is, if our hired girl doesn't leave and make me wash the +dishes so I can't typewrite. + + + + +STORY XXX + + +BRIGHTEYES AND JENNIE CHIPMUNK + +It happened one day that after Brighteyes Pigg had finished combing her +hair, and had put on a nice, pink ribbon, which she tied in two, big +bows, that she heard a knock at the door. There was no one home, for her +mamma had gone down to the five and ten cent store to get a wash boiler; +Dr. Pigg was seeing some friends in the hospital, and Buddy was off +playing ball with Bully and Bawly, the two frogs, and some others of his +friends. So Brighteyes went to the door herself. + +And whom do you suppose she found there? + +Well, I don't believe you'd guess in sixteen minutes, so I'll tell you. +It was Jennie Chipmunk, the little girl who lived with Grandpa and +Grandma Lightfoot, the squirrel grandparents of Johnnie and Billie +Bushytail, you know. + +Jennie was smiling so that she showed her pretty white teeth, and she +was humming a little song, one of those she always sang when she washed +the dishes. This is the song, and you are allowed to sing it if you +have helped your mamma dry the dishes. It goes to the tune of "Oh fie +lum diddle daddy de dum," which is a very nice tune if you can sing it. +Anyhow, Jennie Chipmunk sang: + + "I love to wash the dishes, + And also dry them, too. + It makes your paws so soft and white, + I really think--don't you? + Some folks are awful fussy, + When e'er they dust or sweep. + They'd rather pile the dirt all up + In corners, in a heap. + + "But I just love my housework, + For making beds I sigh. + I love to wash the tablecloth + And make a cherry pie. + I knead the bread and bake it, + I starch and iron the clothes, + I wash the windows Saturday--" + +"That's enough, my goodness knows!" finished Brighteyes for Jennie, with +a laugh. "Land sakes! Jennie Chipmunk," the little guinea pig girl went +on, "I should think you'd be tired with all that work! Come on and we'll +take a walk in the woods." + +So the two started, after Brighteyes had locked the door and put the +key under the mat, where her mother could find it when she came back +from the five and ten cent store, where she had gone to get a diamond +ring--no, I mean a dishpan--no, a wash boiler--there, I've got it right +at last. + +Well, Jennie and Brighteyes walked on through the woods and sometimes +they found huckleberries to eat, or they found pennyroyal, which is a +nice plant to smell, and it keeps the mosquitoes away, when they want to +stay away. And the two children found some blackberries, and they found +spearmint and peppermint and then they got in a field where there was a +lovely apple tree and they were just eating a few of the apples and +putting some in their pockets, to take home, when, all of a sudden they +heard a voice calling to them from behind the tree. + +"Here, what are you doing with those apples?" cried the voice, and oh, +such a harsh, ugly, cross voice as it was! It fairly made Brighteyes and +Jennie shiver. + +First they thought it was the man who owned the tree, and then +Brighteyes remembered that he was the kind farmer whose cows she and +Buddy had once driven home, when he had cut his foot, and she knew he +wouldn't speak so cross to her. Then she thought it was a bad boy, but +she looked, and so did Jennie, and they couldn't see any boy. Then the +voice growled out again: + +"Here, you leave those apples alone!" and goodness sakes alive, and a +can of tomato soup! from behind the apple tree, there appeared the bad, +ugly, old burglar fox! Oh, how frightened Brighteyes and Jennie Chipmunk +were! They fairly trembled and shivered, though it was a hot day! + +"Ah! ha!" cried the fox, curling back his lip, to show his ugly teeth, +and blinking his eyes as fast as a moving picture goes when it skips +along very quickly. "Ah! ha! Now I have caught you! Do you know what I +am going to do to you for taking my apples?" + +"We--we didn't know they were your apples," said Jennie. + +"No matter about that," said the bad fox. "Do you know what I am going +to do to you?" + +"No," answered Brighteyes. "What are you going to do to us, good Mr. +Fox?" + +"I'm not good Mr. Fox; I'm bad Mr. Fox," he answered, "and what I'm +going to do is to eat you all up--all up--all up!" and he smacked his +lips and gnashed his teeth something terrible. + +But don't be afraid. Just you wait and see what Brighteyes did to that +fox. All the while she was thinking how she could save herself and +Jennie, for she knew those apples didn't belong to the fox. + +First Brighteyes thought maybe Buddy would come along and help her, or +maybe the farmer, but no one came, and the fox was creeping nearer and +nearer to Jennie, getting ready to grab her first, when what did +Brighteyes do but pull up some horseradish leaves that grew nearby and +throw them right in the eyes of that bad fox. + +Now, horseradish leaves are very smarty and peppery, you know, almost +like mustard, and when they got in the fox's eyes they made him so he +couldn't see, and they hurt him, too. + +Then I wish you could have heard him howl. No, on second thought, I'm +glad you couldn't hear him, for it might scare you. Anyhow, he jumped up +and down and sideways, and he whirled around, and he howled and he +yowled and he jowled, and then Brighteyes called: + +"Come on, Jennie, now is our chance. We can get away before he sees us!" + +So they ran away, taking all the apples they could carry, and the fox +couldn't see for ever so long, for he couldn't get his eyes open. So +that is how Brighteyes and Jennie Chipmunk were saved, and they went +home, and nothing happened to them on the way. Now, the next story will +be about Buddy and Brighteyes in the mountains--that is, providing I +catch some fish the next time I go fishing and don't lose my watch in +the water for the alligator to tell time by. + + + + +STORY XXXI + + +BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES IN THE MOUNTAINS + +One day Dr. Pigg came home from paying a visit to Uncle Wiggily +Longears, and said: + +"Well, children, get ready, we are going away for a vacation to-morrow." + +"Oh goody!" cried Brighteyes, jumping up and down in the middle of the +floor, until her pink hair ribbon flopped up and down, like the wings of +a butterfly. + +"Are we going to the seashore?" asked Buddy, while Brighteyes went over +and kissed her father, standing on her tiptoes to reach him. + +"No," said Dr. Pigg, "we are not going to the seashore. We are going to +the mountains, where there is a nice lake. The salt air of the seashore +does not agree with me. I have asked Uncle Wiggily Longears to go with +us, and he does not like the salt air, either. It is bad for his +rheumatism, which is a little better now, and he does not want it to get +worse." + +"Oh, that's fine, if Uncle Wiggily is coming!" said Buddy. "He'll take +us all over the mountains, into caves and out rowing on the lake, and +show us how to have lots of fun." + +Well, the Pigg family began to pack up, and, in a few hours they were +ready to go. Uncle Wiggily came to help them, as he had all his things +packed. He brought along his crutch, in case he might happen to need it, +but he hoped he would not. + +"Couldn't Sammie and Susie Littletail come, too?" asked Buddy. + +"No, they have gone to Belmar, at the seashore, for the summer," +answered Uncle Wiggily. "But now we must hurry off to the mountains." + +So they hurried off, and in a little while, oh, not so very long, Dr. +Pigg and his family, and Uncle Wiggily arrived at a nice pen, right on +the side of a mountain, at the foot of which was a large lake. + +There were so many things to see that Buddy and Brighteyes did not know +at which to look first, and they ran all about, now to one place, and +now to another. Then, when they had had their supper, Uncle Wiggily +said: + +"Come now, we will take a walk. I think I know where there is a cave, +and we will see if a giant lives in it." + +"A real giant?" asked Buddy. + +[Illustration] + +"No, only a make-believe one," answered Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh. +So he and the two guinea pig children started off up the side of the +mountain toward the cave. All around them were other mountains, and it +was a lovely place, with the red sun sinking down behind the hills, just +like it does in poetry. + +"Ha, here we are at the cave!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, at length, as +they came to a big hole in the side of the mountain. "Now, Buddy and +Brighteyes, be very careful. Keep close to me, and don't go in very far, +or you may get lost." + +Then they started to go in, but just at that moment Uncle Wiggily +stepped on a stone and twisted his ankle, the one that had some +rheumatism still left in it, and he had to sit down and rub his foot +with a bottle of liniment which he carried in his pocket. + +While he was doing this Buddy and Brighteyes wandered a little way into +the cave. It looked perfectly safe, and it was so pretty, with the sun +shining in, and reflecting back from the crystals that hung down from +the roof, and those that stuck up from the floor, that, almost before +they knew what they were doing, the two children had gone some distance +inside. + +And, once they were in, it was so pretty that they kept on going farther +and farther, until, land sakes, if, in about ten minutes they weren't +away inside that cave, and they had forgotten all about what Uncle +Wiggily Longears had told them about keeping close to him. + +"Oh, we mustn't go any further!" cried Brighteyes at length. "It's +getting quite dark, Buddy. We'll have to go back." + +"All right," agreed her brother. "Uncle Wiggily will take us farther in +I guess. We'll go and get him." + +So they started back, but, would you believe it, they couldn't find +their way! No, sir, there they were lost in that big cave! the more they +tried to get out, the more lost they became. + +Outside, Uncle Wiggily was in great distress. When his foot ceased +hurting he looked for the children, but he couldn't see them. Then he +knew they must have gone into the cave, and he was much frightened. + +"Here it is, night coming on," he remarked, "and soon it will be very +dark in there. Then I never can find Buddy and Brighteyes, and they'll +be lost in there all night--and--oh dear--why did they go in without +me?" + +But in they had gone, and now Uncle Wiggily had to get them out. But he +was a wise old rabbit, and, to make sure he would not get lost himself, +he took a string, and tied it to his crutch, and left the crutch +outside the cave. Then he took the ball of string and started in the +cave, unrolling the cord as he went along, and keeping tight hold of it, +so he could find his way back in the dark. + +Then he tramped on, though it was hard work without his crutch, looking +for Brighteyes and Buddy. I don't believe he ever would have found them, +but for a kind old lightning bug, who flew on ahead, to light the way +for him. + +Then, after a while, by the gleam of the firefly, Uncle Wiggily did come +upon Buddy and Brighteyes fast asleep in a corner. They had tried, and +tried to find their way out, until they were so tired that they fell +asleep. + +Uncle Wiggily awakened them, and then, keeping tight hold of the string +that was fast to his crutch, he led them out of the cave. And, oh, how +thankful they were! They promised never to go in the mountain cave alone +again, and they never did. + +Well, Buddy and Brighteyes stayed in the mountains for quite awhile, and +had lots of fun, which I may tell you about later, but now I think I +will start some new stories--some that you have never heard, and, what +do you think? they're going to be about some kittie cats. + +I know most of you children must love cats, for I do, and it isn't so +very long ago that I was a little chap myself. + +So, if you please, the next book of Bedtime Stories will be called +"Joie, Tommie and Kittie Kat." Their names are spelled with a "K" you +may notice, but they are not at all proud, or stuck-up, on that account. +I hope you will like them as well as you have Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg. + +So now, for a little while we will say good-by, and it will not be long +before you can read about the funny things the Kat children did, and +about the walnut shells, and all that. + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Buddy And Brighteyes Pigg, by Howard R. 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