"Yes," spoke Curly, and then they went on a little farther until they came to a corn field. The corn was all cut down, and stood in big bunches, called shocks—not the kind of shocks you get from an electric battery, though, but corn shocks.

"Oh, let's take a short cut through the corn field," suggested Curly. "Maybe then we can get ahead of the others."

"All right," said Flop. "We'll do it." And, though they had never gone through this corn field, because it was owned by a cross old alligator gentleman, they now started to crawl under the fence. Just as they were inside the field they heard a little voice crying:

"Oh, dear! What shall I do. Oh, my poor tail!"

"What's that?"' asked Flop in alarm.

"I don't know," answered Curly. "Maybe it's the bad old fuzzy wolf."

"Let's hide!" exclaimed Flop, and they were looking for a place to hide when they happened to see a poor little girl mouse near a shock of corn, and her tail was held fast by a stone that had fallen on it.

"Was that you crying?" asked Flop.

"It was," said the mousie girl. "Oh my poor tail! How can I ever get loose?"

"We'll help you," spoke Curly. "We'll root up the stone with our strong noses, and then you'll be all right."

"Of course we will," agreed Flop. "Oh, how glad we are that you aren't a wolf," he added, and then he and Curly, with their noses which were made stretchy like a rubber ball, soon had the stone off the mousie girl's tail, and she was all right, except that her tail was sore. But when her mamma could put some salve on it that would be all better, too.

"Oh! I can't tell you how thankful I am to you," said the mousie girl to the piggie boys. "Some day I will help you."

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Flop. "How can a little mousie girl like you help us two big boys?"

"Hush!" exclaimed Curly. "It isn't polite to laugh when any one offers to do you a favor, even if they are little. Besides, maybe she MIGHT be able to help us some day."

"Of course," spoke the mousie, and she felt rather badly because Flop Ear had laughed.

"Oh, excuse me!" exclaimed Flop. "I didn't mean to. I'm sure I hope you can help us, little mousie."

So the two piggie boys went on through the corn field, hoping they wouldn't meet the cross old alligator man, who owned it, and who didn't like animal boys. And the mousie went on her way.

"I think we'll soon catch up to the others," said Flop after a bit.

"I guess so," agreed Curly. "And when we do—-"

"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Floppy. "Some one is coming!" Curly heard it, too, and he stopped talking. He looked around the corner of a stone and whispered:

"It's the old alligator man himself. What shall we do?"

"Run!" exclaimed Flop. "Run as fast as we can."

So he and Curly started to run but my goodness me sakes alive and a postage stamp! No sooner had they gone ten steps than the cross old alligator man saw them, and after them he came as fast as he could crawl on his four legs, wiggling his humpy tail. "Oh, he'll get us, sure!" wailed Floppy.

"Run faster!" urged Curly.

Well, they both ran as fast as they could, squealing with fright, and the alligator man was coming right after them, and he had almost caught them when, all of a sudden, a little squeaky voice called out:

"In here, boys! Crawl right in here, under this shock of corn, and he can't see you!"

They looked, and there, in front of a sort of cave, that was made in one of the upright piles of corn, stood the little mousie girl who had been pinched by the stone on her tail.

"In here!" she cried. "Quick, before he comes, and he won't know where you have gone!"

"But he'll know we're hiding in the corn," said Flop.

"Quick! Get inside and talk afterward!" said the mousie girl. "Besides there are so many piles of corn that the alligator man won't know which one you're hiding in, and it will take him all night to peek into them all. And after dark I'll show you the way home."

So into the shock of corn crawled Curly and Flop pulling a lot of stalks behind them to close the hole, and they were only just in time, for, an instant later, up rushed the alligator man. Of course he could not see the piggy boys, and he was much surprised.

"But I know they're hiding somewhere!" he growled. And it all happened just as the mousie girl said. The alligator man peeked in nearly all the corn shocks, but he didn't happen to look in the one where Curly and Flop were hiding. And pretty soon it was dark, and then the piggies came out and the mousie girl showed them the way home, and the alligator man did not get them. So, you see, the mousie helped the piggie boys after all.

And next, in case the salt cellar doesn't hide in the pepper caster and make believe it's a mustard plaster I'll tell you about Flop having a tumble.



STORY XVI

FLOP HAS A TUMBLE

"Come boys!" called Mamma Twistytail, the pig lady, one morning, to her two little boys, Curly and Flop. "Come, hurry, or you'll be late for school!"

"Oh, I guess we have time enough," spoke Flop, as he looked around for the football he and his brother had been playing with. "It's early yet."

"No, it isn't," answered his mamma. "Our clock is slow by your papa's watch. Hurry now, I think I hear the bell ringing!"

"All right," answered Curly. "Come along, Flop." You see, he sometimes called his brother Flop, for short. So they kissed their little sister, Baby Pinky, good-by, and went on to school.

As they hurried along, they met Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boy, and Curly said:

"Oh, Jackie, where is my pencil you borrowed?"

"Here it is!" cried Jackie, turning a somersault, as he used to do in the circus, and he handed the pencil to Curly on the end of his nose—Jackie's nose I mean.

"We chased after you last night, when we got out of school," explained Curly, "and we had a dreadful adventure in the corn field with the alligator man," and he told his doggie chum all about it, just as I wrote it for you in the story before this one.

So Jackie, and Curly and Flop hurried along together toward the school, when, all at once, they came to a nice, big, slanting cellar door, just right for sliding down, and on it was a sign which read:

"NO ONE MUST SLIDE DOWN THIS CELLAR DOOR!"

"Now isn't that queer," said Jackie Bow Wow.

"It certainly is," agreed Curly.

"I wonder why no one is allowed to slide down," spoke Flop. "It's a dandy door for sliding. I've a good notion to try it."

"No, you mustn't!" said his brother. "We are almost late for school now."

"Oh, but I would just love to slide down it," went on Flop, sort of hanging back, while his brother and Jackie went on ahead. "I wonder if a giant lives under that door, or a fairy?"

"Maybe that's the reason no one must slide down it," went on the little piggie boy. But no one answered him and, though he looked all around the cellar door, he could see no reason why he should not slide down it.

"Maybe it's got slivers in, and they'd stick in me," went on Flop, as he came closer to the door, but it was as nice and smooth as heart could wish.

"Well, this is certainly queer," said Flop. "Here is the nicest sliding cellar door in all the world and no one is allowed to slide down it. I wonder who lives in the house," and he looked up at the house to which the cellar door belonged, but it was all closed up, and shutters were over the windows.

"I guess no one is at home," thought the little piggie boy.

"Say, aren't you coming to school?" called back Jackie Bow Wow, for he and Curly were some distance down the street by this time.

"Yes, come on, or you'll surely be late," said Flop Ear's brother.

"I'm coming!" cried Flop, but he thought he would take just one more look at the sliding door.

"I would like to have just one slide on it," he said. "I believe I'll try it."

He looked ahead to where his brother and Jackie were and decided that if he did take one slide he could run and catch up to them, and not be late.

"Here goes;" said Flop, and he laid his books down on a clean stone.

Then he read the sign once more:

"NO ONE MUST SLIDE DOWN THIS CELLAR DOOR!"

"I guess it's only a joke," decided Flop. "Now for one good slide and then I'll go to school."

So he went around to the side of the door, where there was a stone, and, by stepping on this, and giving a little jump, the piggie boy got to the top part of the sliding door, ready for a coast down.

Of course he had no sled on which to slide, but his trousers were good and thick, and he knew he could not wear a hole in the seat just this once. So he gathered his legs together under him, gave himself a little push and down the slanting door he went as nicely as an icicle in the middle of the Fourth of July.

"Wow! This is great!" cried Flop. "I guess the other fellows will wish they'd taken a slide. This is nifty!"

I don't know myself what "nifty" means, but Flop said it, so I have to write it down.

Faster and faster he slid down the cellar door. It was a long one, and now he was half way to the bottom.

"Oh, won't we have fun sliding after school!" the little piggie boy cried. "I don't see why they looked rather sorrowfully after her brothers and put up that sign not to slide. This is the best cellar door I ever saw."

Faster and faster he slid, laughing and shouting in glee, and he was almost at the bottom and he was wondering if he would have time for just one more coast before school, when all of a sudden:

"Crack! Slam! Smash! Ker-bunk!"

Right down through the cellar door fell poor Flop, and down the cellar steps into a tub of water. Into that he went ker-splash! For, you see, the cellar door had broken with him and let him right through, almost half way to China, it seemed.

Into the tub of water went Flop, getting wet all over. But he managed to crawl out after a while, and as he stood there, shivering, in the cellar, looking up at the broken door through which he had fallen, a nice little old rat lady came out of the house, and, looking at Flop, said:

"Dear me! What a terrible accident. Too bad! Did you hurt yourself, little piggie?"

"N-no-not much," answered Flop. "But I—I'm all wet."

"So I see," said the rat lady. "But I thought there was a sign on the door, telling no one to slide down."

"So there was," admitted Flop, "but I didn't see why it was there, so I slid anyhow."

"I put the sign there because the door was so rotten that I knew the first one who slid down it would fall through," said the rat lady. "And to think, some one did fall!"

"Yes'm," said Flop, "I fell."

"Well, don't do it again," said the rat lady, "and tomorrow I'll have a new cellar door made. Now let me dry you off."

So she kindly did, but Flop was late for school. And—well, I suppose it couldn't be helped, even if he had to stay in. But on the next page, in case the mousetrap doesn't catch the cheese by the tail and make it squeal, I'll tell you about Mr. Twistytail's lost hat.



STORY XVII

MR. TWISTYTAIL'S LOST HAT

"Hey, Curly can you be out?" called Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs, as they stood in front of the piggie boys' house one morning when there was no school. I forget whether it was Saturday or because the owl lady school teacher had to go and take her music lesson.

Anyhow, there was no school, and as Peetie and Jackie stood in front of the pig house and called:

"Hey, Curly! Hey, Flop! Come on out!"

"Of course we will!" cried Curly. "What are you going to do?" and he and his brother hurried with their breakfast and ran out in the yard.

"Let's play football game," suggested Jackie, "like we did the other day."

"No, let's go off in the woods and play camping out," suggested Curly.

"Yes, that will be more fun," added Flop, and then the two puppy dog boys thought the same thing, so off to the woods they started.

"I wish I could go," said Baby Pinky, as she their chums.

"Never mind, Pinky," said Mrs. Twistytail. "I'm going to bake pies, and I'll make a specially little one just for you."

"Oh, goodie!" cried Pinky, and then she went out in the yard to play in her go-cart. Pretty soon along came Jennie Chipmunk and she played with Pinky, so the little pig girl didn't mind so much, after all, that her brothers had gone away.

But now let us see what happened to Curly and Flop, to say nothing of Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow. On and on they went through the woods, and pretty soon Jackie found a nice juicy bone, and Peetie found a bit of meat, while Flop found an ear of corn and his brother picked up a big turnip.

"Oh, joyfulness!" exclaimed Flop. "Now we can have a lunch in the woods, just like real camping out!" And so they did. Under a tree, on the soft leaves that floated down from the branches above, with a flat stone for a table, and sticks for knives and forks, the piggie boys and their chums ate their lunch and had lots of fun. Then Curly said:

"Now let's play soldier," and so they did, with sticks for guns, and when the boy animals called out: "Boom! Boom!" and "Bang! Bang!" it sounded as real as anything.

Well, they were running around in the woods, shouting and laughing and making believe they were soldiers at war, when all at once, just as Curly passed in front of a hole that seemed to go away under ground, he saw something roll out. It was something round and black and hollow, and at first the little piggie boy thought it was a big black stone. But, when he looked a little closer, he saw that it was a hat—a man-pig's hat—just the kind they always wear.

"Oh, Flop! Oh, fellows! Come here!" called Curly. "See what rolled out of the hole under this old tree."

Of course, they all came running up at that, and stopped playing soldier, and they gathered around the hat.

"Whose is it?" asked Jackie Bow Wow.

"Where did it come from?" inquired Peetie, making his tail go round like a pin wheel.

"It's our papa's hat!" suddenly cried Flop. "I can tell because it's got his initials inside," and, surely enough there were the letters "A.T." inside the hat, standing for "Archibald Twistytail."

"Our papa's hat!" exclaimed Curly. "Is it possible?"

"Of course, it is," said Floppy, as he picked it up. "Papa has lost his hat."

"But it rolled out of that hole," said Curly, "and it isn't lost, for we have found it."

"Then if papa's hat came out of that hole, our papa must be in there," said Flop.

"Why, of course," agreed Jackie Bow Wow.

"But what is he doing in there?" asked Curly, "and what sort of a place is it? I can't see him," he added, as he stooped down and tried to look into the hole.

"I don't know what he's doing in there," said Flop, "but I know what sort of a place that hole is. It's a wolf's den, and the wolf has our papa, Most likely he's eating him now, and he threw the hat out because he couldn't chew it—the wolf, I mean."

"Oh!" cried Curly, jumping up and down, he felt so badly.

"Oh; oh!" barked Jackie Bow Wow.

"Oh! oh! Double Oh!" growled Peetie Bow Wow. "What shall we do?"

"We must get him out of there!" exclaimed Flop as quickly as a rubber band can play the "Annie Laurie" song. "There are four of us here, and we have our wooden guns. I guess we are a match for one wolf. We must save our papa."

"Of course!" agreed Curly, bravely.

"But how?" asked Jackie Bow Wow.

"Listen," said Flop, just like a telephone girl.

"A wolf always have two doors to his den—a back one and a front one. This is the front one—where our papa's hat rolled out. Now, Jackie, you and Curly go to the back door, and make a noise like a soup bone. The wolf will think some company has come to supper with him, and he'll run to the back door. As soon as he gets there, Jackie, you bark like anything, and, Curly, you fire off your wooden gun."

"But what will you do?" asked Curly of his brother.

"Peetie and I will stay at the front door," said Flop. "As soon as we hear you making the noise we'll rush in the den by the front door and get papa and help him out. Then we'll all run away."

Well, every one thought that was a fine plan, and they did just as Flop said. The wolf came rushing to his back door when he heard the noise there, and maybe he wasn't surprised to see Curly and the puppy dog! Then Flop and Peetie rushed in the front door, and there, inside the den, they found poor Mr. Twistytail tied to the table leg.

"Quick!" cried Flop. "Bite the ropes, Peetie." And the puppy dog did, and Mr. Twistytail was free. "Now, come with us!" cried Flop, and he and his papa and Peetie ran out of the wolf's den just in time, for the bad creature, seeing he had been fooled at his back door, rushed up to bite the pig gentleman.

But he was too late, that wolf was, for the piggie boys and their papa and the puppy dog boys got safely away, and the wolf didn't dare follow because he was afraid of the wooden guns. Then when they were all safe home, including the hat, Mr. Twistytail told how the wolf caught him as he was coming back from work, and how his hat accidently rolled out of the den. And if it hadn't been for the hat maybe Mr. Twistytail would not have been saved.

Anyway, he was not hurt a bit, and in the next story, in case the bicycle doesn't roll over the egg basket and make an omelet out of the pin cushion, I'll tell you about Mamma Twistytail's new bonnet.



STORY XVIII

MOTHER TWISTYTAIL'S NEW BONNET

"Archibald," said Mrs. Twistytail, the lady pig, to her husband at the breakfast table one morning, "I think I shall have to have some money today."

"Money? What for?" he asked. "Do the children need new shoes, or have we no more coal left?"

"No, I want the money for myself," said the pig lady. "I need a new bonnet, and I am going down town this morning and get it at the five and ten dollar store."

"Very well," said Mr. Twistytail, good-naturedly, so he put his foot in his pocket and took out a lot of money, which he gave to his wife. Then he kissed Baby Pinky, and Curly and Flop good-by and went to work in the phonograph factory where he put the squeaks in the wheels.

"Oh, if you are going shopping for a new bonnet, mamma!" exclaimed Flop, "may I come with you?"

"Yes, and may I?" asked Curly, as he spun around on his front paws like a top under a Christmas tree. "And if you have any money left, mamma, after getting your bonnet, maybe you will buy us each a hot ice cream soda."

"Oh you boys!" cried Mrs. Twistytail with a laugh. "No, I am afraid I can't take you two with me, for it is Baby Pinky's turn. You boys had a nice time the other day, playing in the woods, when you saved your papa and his hat from the wolf's den, and so now it is Pinky's turn to have some fun. I'll take her shopping with me."

"Oh goodie!" cried Baby Pinky, and she jumped into her go-cart and out again, making the springs jounce up and down like anything.

"But I'll give you and Flop each a penny," said Mrs. Twistytail to Curly, "and you can buy some corn candy with sour milk on top."

That pleased the boy piggies very much, and they ran off to school with their pennies, while Mrs. Twistytail got ready to go shopping after her bonnet with Baby Pinky. Pretty soon they went down town and in the five and ten dollar bonnet store.

"Have you any bonnets?" asked Mrs. Twistytail.

"Indeed I have," said the nice lady frog who kept the store. "I have all kinds of bonnets," and then she sang a little song that went something like this, to the tune "High diddle-diddle:"

"I've bonnets of ribbon, and bonnets of paper, I've bonnets both red, white and blue. Some bonnets of leather, for cold stormy weather, And bonnets of feathers and glue.

"I've bonnets becoming, and some that are stunning; I've bonnets to wear upside down. And if you will try one, I'm sure you will buy one, To go with your new party gown."

"I'm sure I will, too," said Mrs. Twistytail, as the frog lady finished and made a little bow to the looking-glass. "You may show me the blue one," she went on, and frog lady did.

"Oh, mamma! That is lovely!" cried Baby Pinky. "But I think one with more flowers on would be nicer."

"I think so, too," spoke the pig lady, and so she bought a bonnet with a lot of flowers on it that looked as real as those which grow in the woods and fields. Then Pinky and her mamma started for home, Mrs. Twistytail wearing her new bonnet.

"We'll take the short cut through the woods," said the pig lady when they had alighted from the trolley car on which a nice toad gentleman was the conductor, because he could hop on and off so quickly, and not step on any one's toes.

So through the woods went Mrs. Twistytail and Pinky, and they had not gone very far when, just as they got to the wolf's hollow log den out of which Mr. Twistytail's hat rolled that day, up sprang the bad, impolite old animal himself and grabbed the pig lady and her little daughter.

"Ah, ha! Now I have you!" cried the wolf. "Your husband got away from me, Mrs. Twistytail, but I have you, and you can't get away, and I have Pinky, too!" and he held them both tightly, in his paws.

"Oh, please let us go!" begged Pinky.

"No," growled the wolf, sticking out his red tongue because he was so hungry.

"Oh, do!" pleaded Mrs. Twistytail. "I'll give you all the money I have left from shopping if you'll let us go."

"No! No!" answered the wolf, more growlier than before. "You have none left. Besides money is no good to me—I can't eat money!"

"Oh, mercy!" cried Pinky. "Are you going to eat us?"

"Indeed I am," said the wolf, smacking his jaws, and then Pinky and her mamma tried as hard as they could to get away from the wolf, but they could not. Holding them tightly in his paws, the wolf started for his den, and, seeing Mrs. Twistytail's new bonnet, he took it off her head, roughly like, and said:

"And I can't eat this! I guess I'll throw that away, as I did your husband's hat. But no one will see it and come to rescue you as they did him."

"Oh, my lovely new bonnet!" cried Mrs. Twistytail, and Pinky felt so badly that she cried. But you just wait a minute and see what happens to that bad old wolf.

The wolf was just going to toss the bonnet, all covered with almost real flowers as it was, away up in a tree and just about to carry the pig lady and Pinky down into his den, when, all at once, there was a buzzing sound in the air and a voice cried:

"Ah, ha! Here are some flowers. Now we can get some honey!"

"Indeed we can," said another voice up in the air. "It is rather late for such blossoms, but I am glad we saw them in time. Come on, now, everybody, get the honey!"

And with that a whole swarm of stingery honey bees flew down from the sky toward Mrs. Twistytail's flowered bonnet that the wolf held in his paw. You see, the bees thought the flowers were real and that they could gather honey from them.

And then, just as Pinky saw the bees, she had an idea and she cried out:

"Oh, dear little bees! That is my mamma's new bonnet, and the wolf has caught us. Please sting him and make him let us go!"

"Don't you dare sting me!" growled the wolf. "Take the bonnet if you wish, but don't touch me," and he threw the bonnet to one side.

Some of the bees alighted on the bonnet, and as soon as they found that the flowers were not real they got quite angry. And they thought the wolf had played a trick on them, so they flew at him, and stung him on his nose and tail and eyes and lips and even on his tongue, until he cried out with pain and fright. Then he let go of Pinky and her mamma and ran down into his den, and the pig lady was safe. The bees never stung them once, but were very kind to them, and with their wings brushed the dirt off Mrs. Twistytail's bonnet so that it was as good as new.

Then the bees flew away, Mrs. Twistytail and Pinkey went safely home, and the wolf had to stay in his den for a week and put witch hazel on his stings.

So that's all tonight, if you please, but next, in case the kitchen stove doesn't go out on the porch and play hide-and-seek with the hammock, I'll tell you about Curly and the sour milk.



STORY XIX

CURLY AND THE SOUR MILK

"Oh, mamma!" exclaimed Curly the little piggie boy, as he rushed into the house one noon and nearly upset his little sister Pinky, in her new go-cart. "What do you think? There isn't going to be any school for two weeks!"

"Why not?" asked Mrs. Twistytail, who was just getting dinner.

"Because the schoolhouse roof blew off in the storm last night," said Flop, who was Curly's brother, "and it will take two weeks to put a new one on. So the nice owl lady teacher said we could have a vacation. Oh, I'm so glad!"

"My goodness me, sakes alive and some Montclair caramels!" cried Mrs. Twistytail. "A school vacation this time of year—so near winter. I never heard of such a thing."

"But it will be all the nicer," said Curly, "and we can go after chestnuts every day. Hi-yi! Hurrah!" and he squealed and jumped around the room, and so did Flop, and they were the two most delighted little pigs you ever saw. Just then along came Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit.

"What's this!" he cried. "What is going on here?"

"No school!" squealed Curly. "No school! We have a vacation!"

"The very thing!" suddenly said the old gentleman rabbit. "I was just wishing it was summer time, so some of my animal friends could come away with me. I am going on a little vacation trip myself, and I thought I would have to go alone. But if there is no school, then Curly and Flop can come with me."

"Where to?" asked Flop.

"To Raccoon Island in Lake Hopatcong," answered Uncle Wiggily. "We'll go up to my bungalow, stay two weeks and have a good time."

"Oh, fine!" cried Curly.

"Oh, joyousness!" squealed Flop, as he spun about on one leg and tickled Baby Pinky with the other.

Well, that afternoon, Mamma Twistytail got the two boys ready, and off they went with Uncle Wiggily to Raccoon Island in Lake Hopatcong, which is a very nice place. It was beginning to get dark when they arrived, and, after they had eaten some candy, and Uncle Wiggily had opened the bungalow, he looked around and said:

"Now, boys, you will have to go to the store for something for supper."

"What shall we get?" asked Flop.

"Well, see if you can get a cabbage or a turnip for me," spoke the old gentleman rabbit, "and for yourselves whatever you like. Here is the money."

"I want some sour milk," spoke Curly, for you know piggie boys like sour milk as well as you do sweet.

"And I want a corncob cake," went on Flop.

"Very well, go down to Pop Goes the Weasel's store and get it," said Uncle Wiggily, and the two boys started off to the other end of the island, where Pop Goes the Weasel kept a grocery store. Flop got his corncob cakes first, and as Curly had to wait for the milk to get sour he said to his brother:

"Now, Flop, you hurry back with Uncle Wiggily's cabbage and carrots, and I'll soon come with my sour milk."

"Won't you be afraid?" asked Flop, for the woods were now quite dark.

"Afraid! Nonsensicalness no!" exclaimed Curly, "and a bouquet of wild flowers besides. Run along."

So Flop ran back toward the bungalow, and pretty soon Pop Goes the Weasel said the milk was sour enough, and he gave it to Curly in a pail.

Through the dark woods went the little piggie boy, and he had not gone very far before he heard some one crying, and a voice saying:

"Oh, dear! I'm lost! I can't find my bungalow, and I can't find my motorboat, and I'm afraid—dreadfully afraid!"

"Ha! I wonder who that can be?" thought Curly Tail. "Perhaps it may be the bad alligator trying to scare Cora Janet. No, that can't be," he went on, "for Cora Janet is down in Montclair, making funny music tunes on the piano."

Then he heard the gentle little crying voice again, and he knew it was somebody in trouble, Curly did, and he called out:

"Who is there?"

"I am," sobbed a voice.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Ethel Rose," went on the voice, "and I am lost. Oh, please help me. I'm so afraid!"

"Of course, I'll help you," spoke Curly bravely. "But why is your name Ethel Rose?—that is two names."

"I don't know," answered the little girl, and then she stepped out from the bushes where she had been crying, and the moon shone down on her face and her ear-rings and dark hair, and Curly said:

"Now I know why they call you Ethel Rose."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because you are as pretty as a rose," and at that Ethel laughed. "But come," went on Curly, "I'll show you the way to our bungalow, and then Uncle Wiggily will take care of you."

"Oh, will he?" cried Ethel Rose, and so she walked along beside Curly, who was carrying his pail of sour milk. And, all of a sudden, when they were near the bungalow, there was a rustling in the bushes, and out jumped a big black bear.

"Ah, ha!" the bear cried. "Now I have you Curly, and you, too, Ethel Rose! Oh, how nice! You come with me and I will tell your fortune!"

"But I know my fortune already," said Ethel Rose, and she was just ready to cry again, for she did not like bears.

"Never mind, come along to my den, anyhow!" growled the bear. "I am going to have roast pork for supper!" and he made a grab for Curly and Ethel Rose, and caught them in his big claws.

And then, all at once, he saw the pail Curly was carrying—that bear did—and he growled out:

"Ha! Ha! What have we here? Something good, I'll venture. Well, I'll take that first!" And before Curly could stop him the bear tipped up the pail and drank every drop of sour milk at one mouthful! And then! Oh, dear!

"Wow! Woof! Snickery-snee! Bur-r-r! Lemons! Vinegar! Sourgrass!" cried the bear. And his mouth was puckered up so from the sour milk— just as when you eat lemons if you have the mumps—that the bear couldn't open his jaws to take even one bite. And Curly knew this, so he cried:

"Come on, Ethel Rose, we can get away now! Uncle Wiggily will save us!" So Curly Tail helped Ethel Rose to run away and the bear's mouth was so puckered up from the sour milk that he had to run down to the lake to get a drink of water, and so Curly Tail and pretty Ethel Rose got safely to the bungalow and away from the bear. And that's all there is tonight, if you please.

But the next story, in case the marshmallow doesn't stick on Ethel Rose's hair ribbon, and make a pin cushion of it, will be about Flop and the pie lady.



STORY XX

FLOP AND THE PIE LADY

Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice old gentleman rabbit, and the two piggie boys, Flop Ear and Curly Tail, were sitting on the porch at the bungalow at Raccoon Island, Lake Hopatcong, wondering what they could do next for their autumn vacation fun. Curly was trying to take some snapshot photographs of a little red squirrel, who was jumping down across the cot beds, all in a row like soldiers, and Flop was wondering whether he could catch any fish.

"Well, we must do something," said Uncle Wiggily. "It isn't every day you boys get a vacation after the regular summer one, so you must enjoy it."

"We wouldn't have gotten it if the roof hadn't blown off our school," said Flop, "and, as long as we're here, I say let's go off in the woods and look for chestnuts."

"All right," said Curly, and they were just going to leave the bungalow, when, all at once, there was a rustling in the bushes and out came—no, not a bear or a wolf, or even a bad skillery-scalery alligator, this time. No, it was a nice lady, with real soft, brown hair, and the jolliest whistle you ever heard!

What's that? You didn't know ladies could whistle? Well, this one could, and play the piano at the same time. Out she came from the bushes, and she said:

"Oh, Uncle Wiggily, I'm so glad to see you and the two little piggie boys."

"Well, we are glad to see you, too," said Uncle Wiggily, politely making his best bow, "but I'm afraid I don't know you."

"Oh, yes, you do," said the lady. "I make pies, and if you like I'll make one now."

"Will you, really?" cried Flop. "Oh, I would dearly love an apple pie, with a bit of sour milk cheese."

"Then you shall have it," said the lady, as she trilled out a little tune by whistling until it sounded like a bird in the lilac bush. "Have you any apples?" she asked, puckering up her lips.

"Yes!" exclaimed Flop. "Here they are!" and he brought out a basketful. The lady said they would make a lovely pie, so she rolled up her sleeves, and spoke, saying:

"Now, I am sorry, but I would like you all to leave the bungalow. You, Uncle Wiggily, and you, also, Flop and Curly. For when I make apple pies I get all kerslostrated—which means fussed—if any one is around. So kindly run away, and when you come back the pie will be ready for you."

"All right; we'll go," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll go pull my motorboat up on dry land, so it won't get caught in the ice when the lake freezes this winter, and you boys can help me."

So Curly and Flop went off to help Uncle Wiggily, and the pie lady— for such they called her—started her baking. She peeled the apples and cut them up, and then she got the piecrust mixed. Uncle Wiggily had already built a fire so she did not have to do that. And all the while she whistled and whistled, until it made you feel glad and happy just to hear her. And when you smelled that apple pie baking— well, say! I mustn't write any more about that, or I'll want to put my typewriter down cellar, and go out hunting for the lady myself.

Pretty soon Flop, who was helping Uncle Wiggily with the motorboat, sniffed the air, grunted once or twice, and said:

"I smell something good! I guess I'll go see what it is."

"All right," said Curly, who was quite tired from having assisted his rabbit uncle to haul up the boat. "I'll stay here, Flop, and when you find the good thing that you smell, bring me some."

So Flop promised, and he kept sniffling away, and the lovely smell grew plainer and plainer as he moved toward the bungalow, until he exclaimed:

"Ah, I know what it is! The pie lady! Oh, I wonder if the pie is done?"

Nearer and nearer he went to the bungalow, and he heard a whistle, and then he saw the pie lady bustling around with a long apron on, and Flop asked:

"Is the pie done?"

"Almost, little piggie boy," she answered.

"You may wait for it to come out of the oven. How old are you?"

"Seven," said Flop, and then he asked the lady.

"What is your name?"

"Margaret," she answered. "Margaret More."

"More what?" asked Flop.

"More pies, I guess," laughed the pie lady as she whistled again, this time just like a canary trilling when it swings at the top of its cage in the sunshine. Curly laughed, too, and then the lady went to the oven to take out the pie.

And, would you ever believe it if I didn't tell you? No, I'm sure you wouldn't. But, anyhow, all of a sudden, out from the bushes came a bad, fuzzy old wolf, and he stood in front of the bungalow, crying:

"I smell apple pies! I smell apple pies! Also a little piggie boy! Oh, what a fine lunch I am going to have!"

Well, Flop was so frightened that he couldn't even walk, much less run, and all he could do was to squeal, "Oh dear!"

The pie lady heard him, and came running to the door of the bungalow.

"What is the matter?" she asked, and then she saw the wolf.

"Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "What shall I do?"

"Nothing!" exclaimed the wolf, sticking out his red tongue. "I'll do all that's necessary. But first I'll eat the apple pie, and then I'll carry you and Flop off to my den!"

Well, when Flop heard that—heard that the wolf was going to eat the lovely pie—he became real brave, that little piggie boy did.

"You shan't have that pie!" he cried.

Then the wolf, with a big jump, started for the bungalow to get the pie and the pie lady, but what do you think Flop did? He just grabbed up the pan of apple peelings—long, curling peelings they were—and he threw them at the wolf! Right at the bad creature's legs he threw them, and the apple peelings tangled up in the wolf's fur and in his tail, and his legs and paws, and head-over-heels he went, falling down on the ground and bumping his nose on a hard stone.

"Oh, wow! Oh, woe is me! Oh too-badness!" growled the wolf, and he ran away to his den to get some salve to put on his bumped nose, and so he didn't get the pie lady, nor the pie, nor Flop, either, at least not that day.

Then the apple pie was done, and the pie lady whistled a nicer song than ever, and Curly and Uncle Wiggily came to the bungalow and they all ate pie and were as happy as happy could be. But, as for the wolf, the less said about him the better.

So on the next page, in case the door-knob doesn't tickle the dining room bread-board and make the sawdust come out of the breakfast oatmeal, I'll tell you about the piggie boys and the jelly.



STORY XXI

THE PIGGIES AND THE JELLY

One day, when Curly and Flop, the two piggie boys, had been at Uncle Wiggly's bungalow on Raccoon Island for some days, the old gentleman rabbit said to them:

"Now, boys, I have to go down to the store, kept by Pop Goes the Weasle, to see about some butter and things for supper. Will you be afraid to stay here alone?"

"Indeed we will not!" exclaimed Curly.

"Not even if the bad fuzzy wolf comes out of his den after more apple pies?" asked the rabbit gentleman.

"Not even then!" exclaimed Flop. "If he does, I'll throw more apple peelings at him, and trip him up so that he bumps his nose again."

"Good!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily, as he limped off on his red, white and blue rheumatism crutch. "And if the apple pie lady comes whistling along again, get her to make us a prune pudding," he said.

"We will," promised the piggie boys, and then they began to play games in front of the Lake Hopatcong bungalow, while Uncle Wiggily went to see Pop Goes the Weasle, who kept the grocery store.

"Well, I guess she isn't coming," said Flop, after a while.

"Who?" asked Curly.

"The pie lady. I do wish she would, for I am hungry," and he looked at the bushes, and, all of a sudden, they began to rustle, and the piggie boys didn't know whether to run away or stay there.

"Maybe it's the pie lady," said Curly.

"Yes, and maybe it's the bad black bear," suggested Flop. "I'm going to run into the bungalow!"

Well, he was just going to run, and Curly was going to follow, when, all at once, a sweet gentle voice said:

"Oh, dear, I'm sure I'll never find any! Oh, and I want it so much! I wonder where I could get any?"

The two piggie boys looked, and there they saw an Indian maiden coming out of the bushes. They knew she was an Indian maiden because her hair was in two long braids, hanging down in front of her, and she had a brown dress on, and she was very beautiful, just like a picture.

"We needn't be afraid of her," whispered Curly to his brother.

"No indeed," agreed Flop. "I wonder what it is she is looking for?"

"Jelly," answered the Indian maiden, who heard what the piggie boy asked. "I am looking for a jar of jelly. Oh, I just love jelly, and I haven't had any in so long that I forget how it tastes! Since early morning I have been traveling looking for jelly, but I can't find any. Some wild bees offered me honey, but I would like jelly. Have you any?" and she looked at the bungalow,

"Why, I think we have some," said Curly politely.

"I'll go look!" exclaimed Flop, for they were both anxious to do some kindness for the Indian maiden, whom they liked as soon as they saw her. She was not a wild Indian, you know, but the kind that lives in Montclair, maybe; a tame one.

So Flop ran in the bungalow to look for the jelly and Curly picked a nice bunch of flowers for the Indian maiden, and she put them in her hair and looked prettier than ever.

"Here is the jelly!" cried Flop, coming out with as much as he could carry. "I'm sure Uncle Wiggily would want you to have it," he said, and then he gave the Indian maiden a spoon and she began to eat jelly and was as happy as anything.

"Oh, that is very good!" she exclaimed. "I hope some time I can do you piggie boys a favor for being so kind to me." So she ate all the jelly up—that is, all that was good for her—and she was just going away, having thanked Curly and Flop, when all at once, on a sudden, out from behind a tree came the big black bear. He waved his paws in the air, and, wrinkling up his black nose, he growled out:

"Ha! I smell jelly! I'm going to have some, too, to eat on my roast pork!" and he looked hungrily at the two piggie boys. They were both too frightened to move, but the Indian maiden was brave.

"Come! Come! Give me that jelly!" growled and grumbled the bear! "Then I'll take you piggie boys off to my den and make the Indian maiden cook you."

"Oh, but I'll not do it!" said the Indian maiden whose name was Pocohontas. "I like Curly and Flop, for they were kind to me and gave me jelly."

"Well, then, I want jelly, too!" growled the bear. He made a jump, intending to take the jelly away from the Indian maiden, but Curly and Flop cried out:

"No, you don't! Get away from here at once, you bad bear."

"Well, if I go, I'll take you with me!" said the bear. "If I can't have jelly I'll have you piggie boys!" and he caught one of them under each paw.

"Oh, help!" cried Curly, trying to get loose, but he could not.

"Save us! Save us!" begged Flop, making his tail spin like a pinwheel.

"I will save you!" called the Indian maiden.

"Oh, if I only had a bow and arrow I would shoot the bear and rescue the two piggie boys! I know what I'll do. I'll make a bow and find an arrow."

So she took a bent branch of a tree for the bow and for the string she used some strands of her long braids. But the needed an arrow, and all the while the bear was carrying Curly and Flop off to his den.

"I know!" cried the Indian maiden. "A hat pin! My very longest and sharpest hat pin! That will do for an arrow!"

She ran to where she had left her hat in the bushes when she was looking for the jelly, and quickly got a hat pin. This she shot at the bear from her bow.

"Whizz!" it went through the air, hitting the bear on the end of his soft and tender nose.

"Oh, wow!" he cried. "Oh, woe is me!" and his nose pained him so that he dropped Curly and Flop and back to the bungalow ran the piggie boys as fast as they could. And the bear went off to put some cooling mud on his nose, where the hat pin had hit him.

So that's how the Indian maiden saved the piggie boys from the bear, and they gave her more jelly and thanked her, and then, using a long thorn instead of a hat pin, which the bear carried off in his nose, Pocohontas went off looking for more jelly, and Curly and Flop went to asleep.

And next, in case the horse radish doesn't jump over the oysters and scare them so they fall into the clam chowder, I'll tell you about Flop and the marshmallows.



STORY XXII

FLOP AND THE MARSHMALLOWS

"Boys," said Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, to Curly and Flop, the piggie chaps, one morning. "Boys, do you think you can get along by yourselves this afternoon?"

"Why, I guess so," answered Curly, as he looked off across the beach at Raccoon Island in Lake Hopatcong. "But where are you going, Uncle Wiggily?"

"Oh, Pop Goes the Weasel wanted me to come down to his store and have a game of Scotch checkers after dinner," said the old gentleman rabbit. "He says he is lonesome since all the summer folk went away."

"Of course, we can get along all right," spoke Flop. "We'll have our lunch and, we'll do the dishes, so you can go and play Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel."

"But what are Scotch checkers?" asked Curly.

"Oh, when you play that game," said Uncle Wiggily, "you have a nice Scotchman standing near you all the while to cook Scotch scones over a hot fire. And scones are good to eat; something like pancakes, with maple syrup on, only different. It is fun to play Scotch checkers."

"I should think so," said Flop. "And could you bring us a few scones, Uncle Wiggily!"

"I'll try," said the old gentleman rabbit, "though Pop Goes the Weasel and I are very fond of eating them when we play checkers."

So in the afternoon Uncle Wiggily went to visit his friend at the store on Raccoon Island, and the two piggie boys stayed home to keep house. And, when they had washed the dishes, Curly said:

"Now, Flop suppose we go looking for adventures. I'll go one way and you can go the other, and we'll see who can find an adventure first."

"All right," said the other little piggie boy. So they started away from the bungalow. But as Curly fell asleep before he had gone much farther than the Sylvan Way (which is a nice little rustic bench on the island) no adventure happened to him. But wait until I tell you what happened to Flop.

Off he started, and he had not gone very far before he heard some one crying out:

"Oh, what shall I do with them? Oh, so many as there are! I never can eat them all!"

"My!" exclaimed Flop, "I wonder if that is a bad bear who has caught a whole lot of piggie or rabbit children? Who ever it is can't eat them all, so it must be something extra good. I wonder what it is?"

So he hid behind a stump, and after a bit he peeked out and there he saw his old friend, little Cora Janet, of Montclair, walking around in the woods with a big box in her arms. And on the box was a sign which read:

CANDY

"My gracious sakes alive and some lollypops!" exclaimed Flop. "She has so much candy she doesn't know what to do with it! I wonder if I can help her?"

So Flop jumped out from behind a bush, made a low bow, and said, most politely:

"Can I help you, Cora Janet?"

"Oh, yes, you can!" she exclaimed. "You see I came up here looking for the Indian Maiden who likes jelly so much. I thought I would give her some of my marshmallows, as I have a whole box full-many more than I can eat. But I can't find the Indian Maiden—Pocohontas —and now I shall have to eat all the marshmallows myself."

"Why?" asked Flop, curious like.

"Because," answered Cora Janet, "because there is a big bear chasing after me. He smells the sweet candy and he is so hungry that he will want to eat the marshmallows and me, too. But if I could only get rid of the candies he might let me alone. Oh, what shall I do? I've toasted them, and roasted them and eaten them just as they are out of the box, and put them in a cake and everything, but still the bear chases after me!"

"Of course I do!" suddenly growled a voice in the bushes and just then out popped the bear. The hat pin which the Indian maiden had shot in his nose was out now, and that bear was as angry as anything. He wanted to grab Cora Janet and take her off to his den I guess. Anyhow he growled as angry as could be!

"Oh, what shall I do!" called the little girl. "How can I get rid of all these marshmallows, for if the bear takes them it will only make him the more hungry and then he will want to eat me, and you too, Flop."

"That must never be!" exclaimed the little piggie boy. "Ha! I have it!" he cried. "We will throw the marshmallows at the bear, and make him so stuck up that he won't want ever to eat anything again except pepper-hash!"

"Good!" cried Cora Janet. So she and Flop opened the box of marshmallows. Just then the bear made a rush for them, intending to grab them both in his big, long claws and carry them off to his den.

But Flop threw a sticky marshmallow candy, and it landed in one of the bear's eyes and stayed there.

"Oh, wow!" cried the shaggy creature, and he could only see out of one eye. Then Cora Janet threw another marshmallow and it closed up the bear's other eye. Then he couldn't see at all.

"Oh, wow again! Double wow!" cried the bear. Then, as fast as they could throw them, Flop and Cora Janet tossed the sticky marshmallow candies. They stuck up the bear's nose so he couldn't hear, and got in his ears so he couldn't smell. Oh! just listen to me, would you! I'm so excited that I got that part wrong. But, anyhow, the bear couldn't see, nor smell, nor hear. And then more marshmallows got in his mouth, and they were like sponges, and he couldn't even bite any one, for they stuck on his teeth like gum. Then Flop said:

"We are safe now, Cora Janet, and we have enough marshmallows left to roast at the camp fire tonight."

And so they had. And that bear was so stuck up with the soft marshmallow candies—in his eyes and nose and mouth and ears and paws and tail and fur—that he had to go to sleep in the lake for a week and a day to get them washed off.

So he didn't bother Cora Janet nor Flop any more, and pretty soon Curly awakened and came back to the bungalow to hear about his brother's adventure. And Uncle Wiggily came back from playing Scotch checkers with Pop Goes The Weasel, and everybody was happy, even Cora Janet, and they had roast marshmallows for supper.

And on the next page, in case the little boy across the street doesn't slide down the front steps and scare the milkman's horse so that it drinks up all the ice cream, I'll tell you about the piggie boys and the big fish, and it will be a Hallowe'en story.



STORY XXIII

THE PIGGIES AND THE FISH

On the morning of the day when it was to be Hallowe'en, Curly Tail, and Flop Ear, the two piggie boys, awakened in Uncle Wiggily's bungalow, on Raccoon Island in Lake Hopatcong, and Curly Tail whispered:

"What are you going to dress up like, Flop Ear?"

"Oh, I guess I'll make believe I'm a loaf of bread. What are you going to be?"

"An apple pie," said the other little piggie boy, "I'll stick apples all over myself, and some bits of pie crust, and when we get through playing Hallowe'en we can eat them."

"Fine!" cried Curly Tail. "I wish I was going dressed up like an ice cream cone, but then I'd melt so fast I wouldn't have any fun. So I guess I'll be a loaf of bread."

"And we'll fool Uncle Wiggily, won't we?" said Flop Ear.

"We surely will," declared his brother. But if they could have looked into the next room, and have seen Uncle Wiggily laughing to himself, and winking his eyes, and rubbing his leg that had rheumatism in it—well, maybe those piggie boys wouldn't have felt so funny.

"Fool me, eh? Will they?" whispered Uncle Wiggily. "We'll see about it," and then he hopped about on his crutch to help the boys get breakfast.

"We must have all the good times we can," said the old gentleman rabbit, "for soon the new roof will be on your school and you will have to begin studying your lessons again. Be happy while you're here, for soon the snow will fly and the ice will come, and we will have to go away from the lake."

"Oh, we're going to have a good time, Uncle Wiggily," said Curly Tail, or Curly, as I often call him for short, and then he looked at his brother, and they both laughed and pretended it wasn't anything at all. But Uncle Wiggily knew better.

"Well," said the old gentleman rabbit, after breakfast, "I guess I'll go down and play Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel. You boys can stay here, but if the bad alligator or the fuzzy fox tries to get you, just call for me."

"All right," said Curly Tail, and when his uncle was out of sight he and his brother began to dress up for Hollowe'en, which is the night everyone puts on false faces you know.

One of the piggie boys made a lot of flour paste, colored with brown sugar, and that was to fix him so he would look like a loaf of bread. And Flop Ear made himself look like an apple pie.

"Now, we'll just practice, ready for tonight, when we're going to fool Uncle Wiggily," said Curly Tail, and they did, having lots of fun.

Just before supper Uncle Wiggily came home from having played Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel. The old gentleman had something under his coat, but when Curly Tail and Flop Ear asked him what it was he only laughed and said:

"Oh, you'll soon see!"

Well, it got pretty dark, and Curly Tail and his brother thought it was time for them to dress up and play a trick on their uncle. So they took their false faces, one like a lump of buttered bread and the other like a piece of cheese, and went out in the woods to dress. They intended to come and knock on the bungalow door and see what Uncle Wiggily would do and say when he saw them.

Pretty soon they were both ready, and, really, if I do say it myself, Curly Tail looked just like a ten-cent loaf, with flour in his buttonhole and all that, only he didn't have any real butter on, as that was so greasy. And Flop Ear, or Flop, or Floppy, for short, looked too cute for anything—just exactly like an apple pie, and he even carried a bit of cheese to go with it, and a toasting fork.

"Now, we'll fool Uncle Wiggily," they said, as they started for the bungalow. But they didn't know what had happened to the rabbit gentleman. They hadn't gone very far before, out in a boat on the lake, not far from shore, they heard a voice calling:

"Oh, help! Help! He's such a big one that I can't get him in, and Percival has fallen overboard! Help! Help!"

"My goodness! What's that?" asked Curly Tail, in surprise.

"Some one must be in trouble," said Flop Ear. "Let's see who it is."

"But it might be the bad skillery-scalery alligator, with the lumps on his tail," said the other piggie boy. Then Flop Ear looked out on the lake, where it was all lighted by the moon and he said:

"I see a lady in a boat. Surely she would not harm us. And she spoke of Percival—she must mean the old circus dog! I am going to see what is the matter!"

"Better not! Maybe it's a trick to catch us!" said Curly Tail.

But just then a lady on the lake called again: "Oh help! He is such a big one that I can't get him into the boat, and Percival has fallen overboard!"

Then there was a great splashing, and a rustling in the bushes and Flop Ear called:

"We're coming to help you, lady! What have you got that is so big?"

"A fish," she answered. "My husband, Percival, is a great fisherman and he caught the biggest fish in all the lake, but it pulled him out of the boat. However, I have hold of the pole and line, and the fish is still fast to the hook. Oh, help me to catch him!"

So the piggie boys said they would, and they ran down to the shore, and the lady in the boat passed them the pole. Then Curly and Flop pulled as hard as they could, and old circus dog Percival scrambled out of the water, and he helped pull, too, and, all of a sudden, from the bushes along the edge of the lake—on dry land, but not in the water—there suddenly flopped the biggest fish any one had ever seen.

"Oh, what long ears the fish has!" cried Curly Tail, when the moon shone on the fish. "I never saw a fish with ears!"

"I'm not a fish," said a voice. "Oh, please let me go. The hook is caught in my collar. Please let me go!"

"Who are you?" asked Percival, in wonder.

"I'm Uncle Wiggily Longears," was the answer. "I dressed up like a Hallowe'en fish to fool Curly Tail and Flop Ear. I was walking along the shore in the dark, thinking I could catch the piggie boys, when, all of a sudden, something caught in my coat collar, and I was dragged through the bushes. I was choked so I could hardly speak, and I didn't know what had happened to me."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Percival. "I guess I happened to catch you on my fishhook by mistake, when I was tossing it around. But why are you all dressed up?" he asked Curly Tail and Flop Ear and Uncle Wiggily.

"Because it is Hallowe'en," said Flop Ear; "but I guess we have had enough of it."

"Yes," said Uncle Wiggily, "come up into the bungalow and we will duck for apples, eat marshmallows and have fun."

So Curly Tail took off his bread crumbs clothes, and Flop Ear his apple pie suit, and Uncle Wiggily his fish scales, and they all took off their false faces, and Percival and the lady whose name was Gertrude, had a good time.

And in the next story in case the ash can doesn't roll off the roof and fall on the dog house to scare the puppy cake I'll tell you about Curly Tail and the little afraid girl.



STORY XXIV

CURLY AND THE AFRAID GIRL

One day, when Uncle Wiggily, the nice old gentleman rabbit, went down to the store on Raccoon Island, in Lake Hopatcong, kept by Pop Goes the Weasel, there was a letter there for Curly Tail and also one for Flop Ear.

"I wonder who can be writing to the piggie boys," said the rabbit gentleman. "I'll take the letters to them."

So he stopped to play just one game of Scotch checkers with Pop Goes the Weasel, only they didn't quit finish it because Mr. Pop's cat jumped on the middle of the board to catch a mosquito and scattered the checkers all over.

"Scat!" cried Pop Goes the Weasel. "Why did you do that?"

"Never mind," said Uncle Wiggily. "She didn't mean to."

And really the cat didn't mean to, and the mosquito got away after all, and Pop Goes the Weasel began picking up the checkers, but the rabbit gentleman said:

"I'm afraid I can't stay to finish the game. I must get back with the letters for Flop and Curly," calling them thus for short.

"Very well," said Pop, "and take them some sour milk chocolate candy with my best wishes, for the letters may be from home, telling them to come back to school."

And really, that is just what the letters said. They were from the nice owl lady school teacher, saying that the roof was back on the school now, and that in a few days all the animal children must begin reciting their lessons again.

"Well, then, we must have all the fun we can the few remaining days that we are to be on Raccoon Island," said Flop Ear.

"Correct," spoke Curly Tail. "Let's take a walk and see if we can find an adventure."

So off they started from Uncle Wiggily's bungalow, and when they came to a place where there were two paths through the woods, Curly Tail said:

"Now, Flop Bar, you go one way and I'll go the other, and we will see who first meets with an adventure."

"Very well," agreed Flop Ear, and off he went through the woods, but, as nothing happened to him except that he fell down a well and had trouble getting out again, I shall not tell his adventure. Instead, I will relate what happened to Curly Tail.

On and on he went, and he was wondering what would happen to him, when, all at once, as he came to a little river that flowed through the island, he heard a voice saying:

"Oh, I shall never get across. I know I shan't. I'm so afraid of water, and I know there are cat-tails and pussy willows and all sorts of things like that around here. Oh! what shall I do? I want to get across to see my grandmother, but how can I?"

"Hum! That is queer," thought Curly Tail. "I wonder who that can be? I had better be careful, though, for it may be the fuzzy fox trying to fool me."

So, carefully hiding himself behind a stone, he peered over the top, and once more he heard the voice saying:

"Oh! isn't it dreadful to be afraid!"

"Why, it's a little mousie girl," exclaimed Curly Tail out loud.

"Of course, it is," said the little creature beside the river. "And I'm afraid of the water, and the cat-tails and the pussy willows and all that."

"There are no pussy willows out now, they only come in the spring," said Curly Tail. "Though there may be some cat-tails. But they are not real cats, you know. They won't hurt you. Are you a little afraid, mousie girl?"

"Yes, but that isn't my name," she said. "My name is Edna, and I'm dreadfully afraid of the water. How shall I get across?"

"I'll get a big board and make believe it is a boat," said Curly Tail. "Then you won't be afraid."

"Oh, yes, I will," she said. "Can't you think of some other way?"

Curly Tail shook his head, and even twisted up his ear, and then he thought real hard.

"I have it!" he cried. "You shall get on the board boat, and all the while you must keep looking up at the sky. Then you will not see the water, and you'll think you're flying and you won't be afraid."

"The very thing!" cried Edna, the little afraid mousie girl. So Curly Tail got a nice, big board for a boat, and pushed it into the water. Then he got a pole to shove himself and the mousie girl across the river, and they both got on the boat.

"Now mind!" exclaimed Curly Tail. "Keep looking up, and you won't be afraid."

Off they started, and Edna wasn't much afraid. When they were about halfway across, and she felt real glad that she would soon see her grandmother, she said:

"Oh, I guess I'm brave enough to look at the water now. I think I'm not afraid with you, Curly Tail."

"All right," spoke the little piggie boy, and he was just going to tell the mousie girl to look down if she wanted to, when, all at once, after the boat, with his big jaws open, and his tongue going over his teeth like a nutmeg grater, came the bad skillery-scalery old alligator, with a double hump on his tail.

"Oh, my!" thought Curly Tail. "If she looks down now, and sees that alligator, she'll surely be so afraid that she'll faint, and maybe fall into the water, and then I'll have to jump in to save her, and the alligator will get us both. What shall I do?"

Well, the mousie girl was just going to look down, and she would surely have seen the 'gator, when Curly Tail cried:

"Don't look! Don't look! Oh, lobster salad! don't look!"

"Why not?" asked the mousie girl.

"Because—because it's—it's a surprise!" was all Curly could think of to say.

"Oh, if it's a surprise I must surely look!" said the mousie girl. "I just love surprises!"

"I guess she won't like this kind!" thought Curly Tail, but what he said was:

"Quick! Tie your handkerchief over your eyes, and make believe you are playing blind man's bluff. Then you can't look until it's time. Quick!"

So the mousie girl, whose name was Edna, did as Curly Tail told her. She blinded her eyes, and then, the piggie boy knew she would not see the 'gator. On came the ferocious creature, ready to swallow the boat, Curly Tail and little afraid girl all at once. But Curly Tail just stuck the push pole down the alligator's throat, and that made the 'gator so angry that he lashed out with his tail, made a big wave, and that washed the boat and the piggie boy and the mousie girl safely up on shore. And then they were all right, for on dry land they could run faster than the 'gator could.

"Where's the surprise?" asked Edna, as she took off the handkerchief.

"There he goes," said Curly Tail, showing her the alligator, who was swimming away, and Edna was glad she had not seen it when on the boat or she knew she surely would have fainted. Then she went on to her grandmother's, after thanking Curly Tail, and the little piggie boy went back to the bungalow.

And on the next page, if the boys don't take my cocoanut cake for a football and roll it up hill, I'll tell you about the piggies and the dinner party.



STORY XXV

THE PIGGIES AT THE PARTY

One day a nice lady stopped in front of the house where lived Curly and Floppy Twistytail, the two piggie boys, and called to them as they were playing football in the yard.

"Is your mamma in?" asked the lady, as she looked to see if her earrings were dingle-dangling.

"Yes," replied Curly Tail, "she is. Would you like to see her?"

"Indeed, I would!" exclaimed the lady, as she blinked her two eyes and laughed in a jolly fashion.

"But she is lying down," explained Flop Ear, "so if you want to sell her some new kind of soap to make our faces clean or some baking powder that will puff a cake up like a balloon, I don't believe she wants any."

"Bless your dear little pink noses!" exclaimed the lady. "I'm not selling anything. I just came to ask your mamma if you could come to my party."

"A party?" cried Curly Tail. "Are you getting up a party for us?"

"For all the animal children," explained the lady, whose name was Sadie. "I want you all to come to my dinner party and have a good time. It's going to be away up in Montclair."

"Oh, I guess we can come," spoke Flop Ear. "Are you going to have ice cream?"

"Yes, ice cream," replied the Sadie lady, "and all sorts of good things. Uncle Wiggily will be there, and all your friends, so I wanted to ask your mamma if you could come."

"Of course we can!" cried Curly Tail. "We'll be there!"

"Very good," replied the lady whose name was Sadie. "Then I shall expect you," and off she hurried to invite some other animal children, her long earrings going dingle-dangle as she walked along, and the rose in her hair falling over sideways.

You see, Curly Tail and Flop Ear had come back from Raccoon Island at Lake Hopatcong, where they went to visit Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, while a new roof was being put on their school in place of the one that had blown off. The piggie boys had now been back for some little time, and in a few days school would open again.

"But, before it does, we'll go to the lady's dinner party," said Curly Tail, as he combed out the bristles on his back to make them look like a paint brush.

"Indeed we will!" exclaimed his brother, and then they heard their mamma stirring about in the house, so they knew she was awake.

"Let's go ask her!" suggested Curly Tail, and in they ran to tell about the Sadie lady asking them to the party.

Their mamma said they might go, and they felt so happy that they even let their little sister, Baby Pinky, play football with them. And it would have been all right, except that when Flop Ear kicked the ball to Pinky, she couldn't get hold of it in time, and it flew up and broke Grandpa Squealer's window. But he said he didn't mind.

Well, in a few nights, it was time for the dinner party, and Curly Tail and Flop Ear dressed in their best, with their velvet hats on their heads, started for the high part of Montclair where the Sadie lady lived.

And Oh! How nice the house looked when they got there. It was all lighted up, and there were paper roses on the piano, for it was too late for real ones, and the table was all set with nice dishes and things to eat, and all of the piggie boys' friends were there, from Sammie and Susie Littletail, to Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman.

Then they began to eat, for this Sadie lady was one who loved animal children, and was always giving dinner parties, and affairs like that for them. Oh! Such good things as there were to eat, and when it was all over, and the candy and nuts were served, the Sadie lady read some poetry about a funny little lake, all made of sweet ice cream, and every time you fell in it you had a funny dream.

Then, after supper, they all sat about the fire on the hearth—Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Goosey Gander and all the animal children, and the Sadie lady and Uncle Wiggily told ghost stories, and all sorts of other tales.

And, all of a sudden, just at the most scary part, where the big giant falls down stairs, jumps over the cot bed and scares Cora Janet's doll and Pocahontas and Ethel Rose—all of a sudden, I say, just as Uncle Wiggily got to that part, there was a noise out on the porch, and a voice cried:

"I want to come in! I must come in!"

"Oh, dear!" gasped Flop Ear.

"Who can that be?" asked Curly Tail, and he shivered so that you would have thought he was eating cold ice cream again, only he wasn't, for he was chewing on hot marshmallows.

"Let me in! Let me in!" cried the voice again.

"Oh, it's the bad skillery sealery alligator!" cried Flop Ear. "I know it is."

"Or else the fuzzy fox!" spoke Curly Tail, and just then there was a noise at the window, and they all looked up, and there stood a big black bear, tapping his paws on the glass.

"Oh, wow!" cried Uncle Wiggily.

"Sour milk and maple sugar pancakes!" yelled Grandpa Squealer, and everyone was so frightened that no one knew what to do. But the Sadie lady cried out:

"Ha! I'm not going to have a bad bear break up my dinner party in this way!" so she caught up a box of marshmallows, opened the window, and tossed the white sugar coated candies right in the bear's face.

All over him they flew, and he was so surprised that he thought it was snowing big white flakes.

"Oh, wow!" the bear cried. "Winter is here, and I must hurry back to my den before I get snowed in. I thought I was going to have a good supper, but I guess I was mistaken. Oh, woe is me! It's snowing! It's snowing!"

Then he ran down off the porch as fast as he could, and the Sadie lady called up the policeman dog on the telephone, and she hollered like anything because she was so excited.

But there was no need for the police, for the bear was so kerslostrated by the marshmallows and the powdered sugar snow flying all over him that he went and hid in his den for a week and a day, and didn't bother anyone for sometime.

Then Ethel Rose, one of the real pretty girls at the party, and Pocahontas, the Indian maid, and Cora Janet's doll and everybody else had more ice cream, and then they went home; and so did Curly Tail and Flop Ear, and the Sadie lady's dinner party was over, but every one said it was just fine, and they wanted to know when she was going to have another.

So that is all now, if you please, but on the next page, in case the sewing machine doesn't pull all the threads out of my little dog's hair ribbon, I'll tell you about Floppy and the bon fire.



STORY XXVI

FLOPPY AND THE BONFIRE

One night, after an election in Woodland, where the Twistytail family of pigs lived, Curly, one of the piggie boys, asked his brother Floppy if they couldn't have some fun.

"I guess so," spoke the other little piggie. "I have a big pile of leaves, so why can't we make a bonfire?"

"The very thing!" cried Curly Tail. "There are always bonfires after election, and we'll have ours now."

"And we'll invite all the other animal boys to help us," suggested Curly Tail. "Sammie Littletail will want to come, I know, and so will the squirrel boys, and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck, and the Bow Wow puppy boys."

So, as it was after school, and they had done their home work lessons, the piggie boys could run out and play. In a vacant lot, not far from their house, Flop Ear had collected a big pile of leaves, ready for the fire, and he said to Curly Tail:

"Now, if you go get the other fellows, I'll find some more leaves, and some old boxes and barrels and we'll have a fine big fire."

"All right, I will," agreed Curly Tail. So off he ran over the fields and through the woods to call all his friends to the bonfire which Flop Ear was going to make.

"Now for a surprise!" exclaimed the little piggie boy who was left near the pile of leaves. "I'll look for some potatoes and I'll put them to roast in the bonfire and when it is all over we'll eat them, and sit about the blaze, telling stories about the election."

So he crawled through a fence into a field near by, where there were some late potatoes, and soon, with his strong, rubbery nose, he was rooting them up. The field belonged to Grandfather Goosey Gander, and Flop knew the old gentleman goose would not mind if the boy animals took a few potatoes.

"Now to make the fire and roast them," spoke the little piggie boy, and when he had shoved the leaves all up in a heap with his nose he lit them with a match.

"Won't Curly Tail and the others be surprised when they come up, and see the fire already going?" thought Flop Ear. "And they'll be more surprised when I pull out the roast potatoes for them. Oh! I almost forgot! I must get some salt to eat on them."

Into the house he ran, with his queer little kinky tail twisting around like a piece of strawberry shortcake, and Floppy got the salt. His mamma was busy getting supper, and she did not see him, and as his sister, Baby Pinky, was practising her piano lesson on the tin dishpan, she made so much noise Mrs. Twistytail did not hear the piggie boy, so no one stopped Flop Ear.

Maybe if mamma had known that he had a bonfire she would not have liked it, and I want you children—especially you little ones—to promise Uncle Wiggily that you will never, never make a fire unless some older person is there to watch you. Fires are very bad, you know—and burns—Bur-r-r-r! How burns do hurt!

Well, anyhow, Flop Ear had his fire going, and the potatoes were roasting in the hot leaves, and he had the salt all ready to eat on them. As he came running back to the blaze, out of the shadows stepped someone, and a voice said:

"Ah ha! Good evening! I was wondering who had made this good fire for me."

"I—I did," said Flop Ear, "but I didn't make it for you. I made it for us."

"Never mind, it will do very well for me," went on the voice. "It will save me the trouble of kindling one to roast my pork sausage and chops—I mean you!" exclaimed the voice.

Flop Ear gave a jump, and looked more closely at the figure in the shadow by the fire. And then he saw that it was a big, bad old fox, with a fuzzy tail.

"Oh! Oh!" gasped the little piggie boy. "You don't mean that, do you; that you're going to roast me!"

"Exactly what I'm going to do," replied the fox, and he caught hold of Flop Ear. "We will wait until the fire is a little hotter," he said.

Oh, how poor Flop Ear did try to get loose, but he couldn't because the fox held him too tightly. And the fire got hotter and hotter, and the little piggie boy was hoping that Curly Tail and the other animal boys would come back in time to save him, but he could neither see nor hear anything of them.

"I guess I'm going to be roasted!" he cried. "Oh, if Uncle Wiggily were only here. Or even Grandpa Squealer!"

"Ha! No one will come to save you!" snarled the bad fox, and just then, what do you think? Out from the fire rolled some of the potatoes Flop Ear was roasting for his friends. Out rolled two big potatoes, and the fox, seeing them, exclaimed:

"Ha! What have we here? Something good to eat, I should say," and he smelled the baked potato. "Oh Yum yum!" he cried, and he smacked his lips. "That will go most excellently with roast pork. I think I will eat one, and then I'll put you on the fire to cook," he said to Flop Ear.

The little piggie boy didn't say anything, but he felt very bad. And the fox, holding him with one paw, took up a roasted potato in the other, and cracked it open with his teeth.

And then—!

Well, you know how hot roast potatoes are, just out of the oven, I dare say. This one, from Flop Ear's bonfire, was even hotter. It was just roasting hot, and the fox had bitten into it.

"Oh, wow!" cried the fuzzy creature. "Oh, double wow, and some ice cream cones! Oh, pepper casters! Oh, mustard! Oh, my mouth, how it burns! And my paws!"

And then he had to let go of Flop Ear, and run to the brook to get a drink of cold water—that fox did—because the hot potato burned his mouth so, but I guess it served him right.

Anyhow, Flop Ear was free, and the next minute along came Curly Tail and all the other animal boys, and then of course the bad fox had to run away and put cold cream on his tongue. Flop Ear told all that had happened, and then the bonfire was made bigger than ever, and when the roast potatoes were cool they all ate some, and had a fine time.

So, that's all now, but in the next story, in case the pear doesn't fall off the apple tree and hit the ragman on the nose, I'll tell you about Flop Ear and the skate wagon.



STORY XXVII

FLOP AND THE SKATE WAGON

One morning Flop Ear, the little piggie boy, awakened in his bed of straw, and said:

"I don't feel very well today."

"I wish I didn't, too," spoke Curly Tail.

"Why?" asked his brother in surprise. "I'm not fooling. Honestly, I don't feel well. Do you want to be sick, too?"

"Just a little bit," answered Curly Tail. "Just sick enough so as not to have to go to school."

"Oh, that's so!" exclaimed Flop Ear. "There is school today. I thought it was Saturday, and I was sorry I didn't feel well, but now—-"

Well, as it happened it was Friday, instead of Saturday, and, of course, there was school. But when Mrs. Twistytail heard that Flop Ear did not feel well, she said:

"Perhaps you had better not go today. Just lie abed and maybe you will be better by afternoon."

So Curly Tail had to go to school alone, and he felt rather lonesome, and Flop Ear stayed at home, just like the little pig in the story.

But pretty soon, oh, I guess about 10 o'clock, when it was too late to go to school, Flop Ear got out of bed and said:

"I don't feel quite so badly now, mother. Maybe if I go out in the air, I'll be all well."

"All right," she said, and there was a funny little twinkle in her eyes. "But first you must take some castor oil, and then I will be sure you will be better," she added.

Then Flop Ear wished he had gone to school, whether he felt well or not, but there was no help for it; he had to take the castor oil. After it was down—and it wasn't much fun swallowing it, let me tell you—after it was down, Flop Ear walked out in the street sort of slow and thoughtful-like, and wished he had someone to play with, or something to do.

"It isn't so much fun staying home as I thought it would be," he said. Just then, in an ash barrel, he saw one roller skate. It was pretty well battered and worn, but the four wheels of it were good yet, and Flop Ear, as he took it out and knocked the ashes from it, said:

"Ha! One roller skate. Now if I had two I might have some fun, and forget about the castor oil."

"You can have fun with one roller skate," said a voice behind the little piggie boy, and turning, Flop Ear saw Uncle Butter, the goat gentleman, just coming back from having delivered all his milk.

"How can you have fun with one roller skate?" asked Flop Ear.

"By making a skate wagon," said the goat gentleman. "I saw some boy animals up in Roseville playing on them yesterday, and I'll tell you how to make one. First, you have to have a box, a long, narrow board, a stick and some nails and string."

"I can get all those!" exclaimed Flop Ear, and he did. Then Uncle Butter took the roller skate apart at the place where it slid together to be made smaller or larger. Right apart he took it, and there were two wheels on one part and two on the other.

The goat gentleman used the string to fasten two wheels on one end of the long narrow board and two wheels on the other end. Then he nailed the box on the front end of the board, right over the front wheels, and on top of the box he nailed the stick for a handle, just as on a bicycle, only this handle was straight and not curved.

"There is your skate wagon," he said to Flop Ear. "You take it to some street that runs down hill and you start at the top. Stand up on the board, near the box, and lean against it so you won't fall off. Take hold of the handles, and then push yourself off. Down the hilly street you will roll on the skate wheels, just like a coaster wagon."

"Fine!" cried Flop Ear, as he thanked Uncle Butter. Then he ran to the top of a hilly, smooth street to try his skate wagon.

He stood up in the middle of the long narrow board, took hold of the handles on top of the box, and steadied himself. Then, with one foot he gave himself a good push, and down the hill he went as fast as anything, making a noise just like a real roller skater boy only louder.

"Oh, this is great!" he cried as he reached the bottom of the hill, and ran back for another coast down it. Then Flop Ear forgot all about being sick, and he had lots of fun riding on his skate wagon, so you see that even one roller skate may be good for something.

Well Flop Ear was just going to coast down the hill for about the forty-'leventh time when, all of a sudden, he heard a voice calling:

"Save me! Save me! Oh, help me!"

He looked around and there he saw a poor old lady cat being chased by a bad dog that had once caught Uncle Butter to pull out his horns. The lady cat was running as fast as she could with her tail all swelled up like a bologna sausage.

"Save me from the bad dog!" she cried.

"Bow-wow! Woof! Woof! Bur-r-rr!" barked the dog. "I'll get you!"

"No you won't!" cried Flop Ear. "Get on my skate wagon!" he called to the old lady cat, and with one jump she landed in the box. Flop Ear gave a good push, jumped on the wagon himself, and down the hill he went faster and faster, with the dog coming after him.

"Oh, he'll get us!" cried the lady cat.

"No he won't!" shouted Flop Ear. Faster and faster went the skate wagon down the hill, and the bad dog tried so hard to catch up to it that, all of a sudden, his legs got tied up in a hard knot—yes, sir, just as hard a knot as if a sailor had made it. And, of course, that dog turned a somersault, and went head over heels and he couldn't run any more until one of his friends untied the knots in his legs.

But by that time Flop Ear and the lady cat were safe at the bottom of the hill on the skate wagon, and the dog could not get them. Then the cat lady thanked the piggie boy very much, and gave him a penny, and Flop Ear went to school that afternoon, and was all better, and later he and Curly Tail had lots of fun on the queer wagon Uncle Butter had told how to make.

And so in case the rose bush doesn't scratch the lilac leaves off the pie plant and make the clothes line catch cold, I'll tell you next about Baby Pinkie and the lemon.



STORY XXVIII

PINKY AND THE LEMON

One day, when Flop Ear and Curly Tail were at school, Mrs. Twistytail, the pig lady, said to Baby Pinky, her little girl:

"Pinky, I am going to run across the street for a minute to ask Mrs. Wibblewobble to lend me a spool of thread. It is so chilly out that I don't want to take you along. So will you be afraid to stay here alone, just a little while?"

"No, indeed, mamma," spoke Pinky. "Why, what is there to be afraid of?" she asked with a laugh.

"Nothing in the least," replied her mother, "but sometimes little girls, and boys, too, for that matter, are afraid to stay alone, even when their mamma wants to go get a drink of water."

"Oh! I hope I'm not that kind, mamma," spoke Pinky.

"Then I'll just run across the street for a minute," went on Mrs. Twistytail. "Everything is all right here. There is nothing on the stove to boil over, but be careful not to go near the fire."

"No, I'll stay right here, mamma," said Pinky. "I'll look out of the window, and watch the leaves dancing up and down in the breeze."

So Mrs. Twistytail went over to Mrs. Wibblewobble, the duck lady's house, and Pinky sat down to wait for her to come back. But you know how it is sometimes, when ladies get talking together, they have so many things to say, about how to make the loaf of bread last longer, and how high the butter is—so high that they have to get on a step ladder to reach it—and how boys wear out their shoes and trousers so fast and the newest way to fix your hair, and what to do when your best dress gets all spotted with ice cream, and how scarce coal is, and what a long winter we're going to have—all things like that ladies find to talk about, and it was that way with Mrs. Twistytail and Mrs. Wibblewobble.

Well, do you know, the first thing Mrs. Twistytail knew she had forgotten all about what she came after—let's see now, what was it —I declare I've forgotten myself. Just excuse me while I look back and see. Oh! I remember, it was a spool of thread.

Yes, Mrs. Twistytail got so interested talking to the duck lady about a new way to make a tight dress loose that she forgot all about the spool of thread.

"Well, mamma is staying quite a long time," said Baby Pinky after a bit, as she sat by the window. "I hope nothing has happened to her." She looked, but she could not see her mamma coming back, and then Pinky said:

"I guess I'll just dust off the piano, to keep busy, and it won't seem so long until mamma comes home."

So she began knocking the dust off the piano to the floor just as Jennie Chipmunk did it with her tail brush, and Pinky made so much noise that she did not hear the door open and some one come in. That is she did not until she heard some one walking in the room behind her, and then the little piggie girl turned around and exclaimed:

"Oh, mamma! How you frightened me."

But, oh my! when she saw who was in the room, poor Pinky was frightened more than ever. For there, with his face all swollen, stood a bad old baboon who had escaped from the monkey circus down the street.

"Bur-r-f! Ah ha! Wow! Now I have you!" barked the baboon, for they make a noise something like a dog with the chicken-pox.

"Why, why, what is the matter?" asked Pinky, never dreaming that there would be trouble, for she was such a gentle little thing. "Why is your face all swelled up?" she asked.

"I have the mumps," explained the baboon, who had a blue nose. "I have the mumps, and I am hungry. Little pigs are good for the mumps, I have been told. I guess I'll take you."

"Oh! I'm sure you must be mistaken," said Pinky, politely. "Surely you are wrong. I am not good for mumps, and I'm sure they're not good for me."

"Nor me, either," cried the baboon, putting his paw to his swollen jaw. "I don't want 'em but I have to have 'em, and, as you are the only thing that's good for them, I'm going to take you away with me. No, on second thought, I'll eat you up here and now."

"Oh, please don't!" cried Baby Pinky, and she wished, Oh! how she did wish her mamma would come back. "How did you get in here?" she asked.

"I just waited until I saw Mrs. Twistytail go out," said the blue- nosed baboon, "and then I knew you were here alone. So in I came, here I am, and now this is the end of you!"

"Oh, please don't hurt me!" cried Baby Pinky, but that savage baboon, rubbing his blue nose with the end of his tail—for he had a red tail—that baboon, I say, made a jump for Pinky.

"Oh!" she cried, as she leaped out of the way. "I'll get you something to eat, and then you won't have to take me," and out into the kitchen she ran, with the mumpy baboon after her. All Pinky saw on the table was a lemon, and, thinking the baboon might like lemonade, she caught hold of it, cut it open with a knife, and then—

Well, that baboon made a jump for her, and, as he did so, Pinky accidentally squeezed the lemon. Now, as everybody knows, when you have the mumps, if a person even says "pickles," or "vinegar," or "lemons" to you, it makes your throat all pucker up and pain you like anything, and you can't even seem to swallow. Mumps and sour things don't seem to go together.

And when the sour lemon juice got in the baboon's mouth and eyes, and some trickled down on his mumpy throat. Oh, wow! if you will excuse me saying so.

"Bur-r-! Scumpf! Fuffphmn, Xzvbgetyriep! Bfrewcript! Xvbnhytrwewqauitopekgsteredse!" cried that baboon, and no one could understand what he said, not even a phonograph, for you see his mouth and throat were nearly closed up by the puckery lemon.

And of course he couldn't eat Pinky, for he could not even swallow some slippery elm, which as everybody knows, is the slipperiest thing there is.

"B-r-r-r!" cried the baboon again.

"Zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba!" and he said the alphabet backward. Then, holding his mumpy jaws in both paws and winding his red tail around his blue nose, out of the house he ran, leaving the little piggie girl safe. And her mamma saw the baboon running away, and, without even stopping for the spool of thread, she came home and felt very badly that Pinky had been frightened.

"But you were very brave to hand the mumpy baboon a lemon," she said, and I think so, too, for it was just the right thing.

And next, in case the fire shovel doesn't burn a hole in the tablecloth and let the sugar run out and catch cold, I'll tell you about the piggies and Santa Claus.



STORY XXIX

THE PIGGIES AND SANTA CLAUS

"Oh, so many things as I have for you to do today!" exclaimed Mrs. Twistytail, the pig lady, to her two boys, Flop Ear and Curly Tail, one morning. "Such a lot of work!"

"My!" exclaimed Flop Ear. "What is it, mamma? Have we wood to chop or water to bring in?"

"Oh, neither one," said Mrs. Twistytail, with a smile, as she shook the crumbs off the tablecloth, for the family had just finished dinner. "I mean we have so many things yet to get for Christmas. There are plums to buy for the plum pudding, and the candy and nuts and oranges and figs and dates and the sour milk lollypops and everything that Santa Claus hasn't time to bring."

"Why!" exclaimed Baby Pinky, who was putting on her new lemonade- colored hair ribbon, "I thought Santa Claus brought everything."

"No, not quite everything," explained Mrs. Twistytail. "He brings all the presents, of course, but he lets the papas and mammas get the good things to eat, because different children like different things. You wouldn't like, for instance, to have nothing but hickory nuts, or walnuts, or chestnuts in your stockings, would you, boys?"

"No, indeed!" exclaimed Curly Tail and Flop Ear together, just like twins, though they weren't.

"For those things are for Billie and Johnny Bushytail, the squirrel boys," went on Mrs. Twistytail. "And they wouldn't like to have sour milk, and cold boiled potatoes, and the things that you like.

"So, as I say, there are lots of things for us to do to get ready for Christmas, and you boys will have to help me. I think today I'll send you to the store for some raisins and citron and plums and other things to make puddings and pies."

"Oh, goodie!" cried Flop Ear.

"And maybe we can clean out same of the cake and pie dishes after you get through baking," suggested his brother.

"I think you may," said their mamma.

"But what can I do?" asked Baby Pinky, the littlest pig of them all. "Can I go to the store for anything?"

"You will stay home with me," said Mrs. Twistytail, "and help me bake. Now, boys, you had better start, so as to get home before dark. Here are the things I want," and she gave them a list written out on paper.

Oh! so many lovely victuals as there were! I can't write about them, for I haven't had my supper yet, and I'm so hungry, when I think of the good things, that I might even take a bite out of my typewriter, and then I couldn't print any more stories for you, and that would be too bad for me.

Anyhow, there were many good things that Mrs. Twistytail wanted, and soon Curly and Flop were on their way to the store with a big basket.

They got them all, and they took sniffs and smells, though not so much as weenyteeny nibble of the Christmas things. But, oh! how they did wish the time would come when they might really eat them!

"What do you most want for Christmas?" asked Curly as he and his brother tramped on through the snow-covered woods.

"A toy steam engine," replied Flop Ear. "And what do you want, Curly Tail?"

"A make-believe automobile."

"I hope we get them," went on Flop Ear with a sigh, and pretty soon, off in the woods, they heard a voice calling:

"Whoa, now! Stand still there, if you please. Some of the things are slipping off my sleigh, and I want to fasten them on. Whoa there, reindeer!"

"Listen to that, would you now!" whispered Curly Tail to his brother, as they hid down behind some bushes.

"Reindeer!" exclaimed Flop Ear. "There's only one person who has reindeer and he is—"

"Santa Claus!" interrupted Curly Tail. "We've found Santa Claus, Floppy, and this is the best chance in the world to tell him what presents we want for Christmas!"

"That's right," agreed the other piggie boy. "We'll speak to him," and then they walked on a little farther and they saw the dear old saint himself, with his red coat, all trimmed with white fur, and his white beard, and he was as round and fat and jolly as anything.

"What ho! Hello!" cried Santa Claus, when he saw the piggie boys. "What are you doing here?"

"We are on our way home from buying Christmas things," said Flop Ear. "But have you really Christmas presents there, Mr. Santa Claus?"

"I have indeed," replied the jolly old saint, with a twinkle in his eyes. "But no one is allowed to see them until the right time. You see I am traveling about, measuring the sizes of different chimneys, so I can tell whether or not I can slide down them. Just as I got here some of the toys began to slip off the sleigh and I stopped to fasten them on. But I suppose you have your toys all picked out?"

"Yes," replied Flop Ear. "I want a toy steam engine, and Curly wants a toy automobile."

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Santa Claus, and his voice seemed rather sad.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked Curly.

"Alas," said Santa Claus. "This year I have only one toy engine, and a poor little lame boy has asked for that in a letter he sent to me up the chimney the other night. And I have only one toy auto, and a little boy who has no papa or mamma, and who is very poor, has asked for that. I was going to give the toys to them, but since you have met me in the woods I must grant your request, since whoever meets Santa Claus face to face, can have just what they ask of him.

"But I know the little lame boy and the other poor little boy will be much disappointed. Still it can't be helped. I will grant your wishes, Floppy and Curly, but—"

"Stop!" suddenly cried Flop Ear.

"Hold on!" exclaimed Curly Tail.

Then, somehow, into their hearts there came a feeling of sadness, and yet not so much sadness as gladness and happiness.

"I—I guess I don't want a toy steam engine," said Flop Ear. "Give it to the lame boy."

"Good," cried Santa Claus.

"And I don't need the toy auto very much," went on Curly Tail. "Give it to the poor little boy."

"Good!" cried Santa Claus again, and then his face seemed to shine like the sun, and there seemed to be wreaths of holly and bunches of mistletoe sticking all over him, and he sprang into his sleigh, the reindeer shook their horns, making the bells jingle like anything, and then, off on top of the snowflakes rode Santa Claus, calling back:

"All right, piggie boys, I won't forget you, or any of the earth children. It will soon be Christmas, and if you don't get autos or steam engines you'll get something else," and then he vanished from sight, and Flop Ear and Curly Tail went home, wondering very much at what had happened.

And in the next story, in case the telephone man doesn't crawl through the water pipe and scare the window shutter so that it goes bang-bang all day, I'll tell you about Flop Ear and the stockings.



STORY XXX

FLOPPY AND THE STOCKINGS

"Flop Ear," said Mrs. Twistytail, the pig lady, to her son one afternoon, "I think you will have to go to the store for me now."

"All right, I'm ready to go," said Flop Ear, "only I thought Curly Tail just went, and that I could stay home and read my picture book."

"He did go," said the pig lady, "but after I sent him for the cocoanut to make the Christmas cake, I happened to remember that I needed some chocolate to make a chocolate cake, so I think you will have to go for that. I could send Baby Pinky, only she is over at Jennie Chipmunk's, playing with her dolls."