STORY I

BUDDY¹ PIGG IN A CABBAGE

Once upon a time, not so many years ago, in fact it was about the same year that Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the little puppy dog boys lived in their kennel² house, there used to play with them, two queer little brown and white and black and white animal children, called guinea pigs. They were just as cute as they could be, and, since I have told you some stories about rabbits, and squirrels and ducks, as well as about puppies, I wonder how you would like to hear some account of what the guinea pigs did?

Anyhow, I'll begin, and so it happened that there lived at one time, in a nice little house, called a pen, four guinea pigs.

There was the papa, and he was named Dr. Pigg, and the reason for it was that he had once been in the hospital with a broken paw, and ever since he was known as "Doctor." Then there was his wife, and his little boy, and his little girl. They were Montmorency and Matilda, but, as the children didn't like those names, they always spoke³ of each other as "Buddy" and "Brighteyes," so I will do the same.

Buddy Pigg (and he had two g's in his name you notice) was black and white, and Brighteyes Pigg was brown and white, and they were the nicest guinea pig children you could meet if you rode all week in an automobile⁴. One day Buddy went out for a walk in the woods alone, because Brighteyes had to stay at home to help to do the dishes, and dust the furniture.

Buddy, who, I suppose, you remember, was a friend of Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, walked along, sniffing⁵ with his nose, just like Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits.

"It seems to me," Buddy said, "that I smell something good to eat. I wonder if it can be an ice cream cone⁶, or some peanuts, or anything like that?" He looked around but he couldn't see any store there in the woods where they sold ice cream or peanuts, and then he knew he must be mistaken. Still he kept on smelling something good.

"I wonder where that is?" he exclaimed, and he sniffed⁷ harder than ever. And then he knew what it was—a cabbage—a great, big cabbage! He ran around the side of a big rock, and there lying on the path, was a fine big cabbage. Some one had dropped it by mistake.

"This is great luck!" cried Buddy Pigg. "There is enough for me and Brighteyes, and I can take some home to mamma and to my papa, the doctor. Yes, indeed, this has been a lucky day for me. I'm as glad I found this cabbage as if I had picked up ten cents! I guess I'll eat some to see how it tastes."

So Buddy Pigg began to gnaw⁸ at the cabbage and, as he had very good teeth for gnawing⁹—almost as good as Sammy Littletail's—he soon had quite a hole made. But he kept on gnawing and eating away, so fine did it taste, until, in a little while if he hadn't eaten a hole right into the cabbage and he found himself inside, just like the mousie in the loaf of bread!

"Ha! This is very fine, indeed!" cried Buddy Pigg. "I think I will take a nap here," and lopsy-flop! if that little guinea pig didn't curl up inside the cabbage and go fast, fast asleep; and not even his tail stuck out, because, you see, he didn't have any tail—guinea pigs never do have any, which is a good thing, I suppose.

Well, Buddy Pigg was sleeping away inside that cabbage, dreaming of how nice it would be to take the rest of it home, when all at once, who should come creeping, creeping around the edge of the rock, but a great, big fox. He had sharp eyes, had that fox, and he saw the little guinea pig asleep inside the cabbage, even though Buddy's tail didn't stick out.

"Ah, ha! Oh, ho!" exclaimed the fox, and he smacked¹⁰ his lips. "I see a fine feast before me! Oh, yes, indeed, a very fine feast! Guinea pig flavored with cabbage! Now, just so that pig can't get out, I'll stop up that hole, while he's asleep in there, and I'll go and get my wife, and we'll come back and have a dandy meal! Oh! a most delectable¹¹ meal!"

So that old fox crept softly, so softly, up to where the cabbage was, with Buddy asleep inside, and the fox took a stone, and he crowded it, and wedged it, fast in the hole, so poor Buddy couldn't get out, though there was some air for him to breathe. Then the fox laughed to himself: "Ha, ha!" and "Ho, ho!" and hurried off down the hill after his wife.

Well, it wasn't long before Buddy Pigg awoke, and he tried to stretch himself, as he always did after a nap, and wasn't he the surprised guinea pig, though, when he found he couldn't stretch!

"Why, what can be the matter?" he cried. "I'm all in the dark! Let's see where was I? Oh, I remember, I found a cabbage, and I began to eat it, and I went inside it—And land sakes, goodness me and a trolley¹² car! I'm inside it now!" he cried, as he smelled the cabbage. "I'm shut in the cabbage just as if I was shut in a closet! However did it happen?" and he tried to turn around, and make his way out, but he couldn't, because the stone which the fox had stuffed in the hole closed it up too tight.

"I'm locked in!" cried Buddy Pigg. "Locked in a cabbage! Isn't it terrible!" and of course it was, and no fooling, either.

Well, Buddy Pigg was a brave little chap, and instead of sitting down and crying there in the dark, he began to think of how he could get out. He thought of all sorts of ways, but none of them seemed any good, and at last he decided¹³ to try to burst the cabbage open. But it was too strong and thick, and he couldn't do it.

He soon discovered, however, that, wiggling around inside it as he did, made the cabbage wiggle too, and the first thing you know the cabbage began to roll down the hill, just like a man in a barrel.

Faster and faster went the cabbage down the hill, over and over, with Buddy inside, and he began to get dizzy, for he didn't know what was happening.

Then, at that moment, who should come along but that bad fox and his wife. The cabbage seemed to be rolling straight at them.

"My sakes alive!" cried Mrs. Fox. "What is that, Oscar?" You see her husband's name was Oscar.

"I don't know," he replied, "but don't bother about it. We'll go and get that guinea pig." So they kept on, but just then the cabbage bounded over a little clod of dirt, went up in the air, and nearly hit Mr. Fox, and that scared him so that he ran away, and his wife ran after him.

Well, the cabbage, with Buddy inside, kept on rolling, and the first thing you know it began to roll down hill in front of the guinea pigs' pen. It made quite a noise, and Matilda ran out to see what it was.

"Oh, mamma!" she cried. "Here is a cabbage rolling down hill."

"Nonsense!" cried Mrs. Pigg. "Whoever heard of such a thing?" but she ran out to see what it was, and at that moment the cabbage bounded right in front of the pen, hit a big stone, burst open with a noise like a torpedo¹⁴, and out rolled Buddy Pigg, over and over, just like a pumpkin¹⁵. But, believe me, he wasn't hurt the least mite¹⁶, but he was rather surprised-like!

Then he got up, walked over to his mother and said:

"Here is some fresh cabbage I brought home," and he was as cool as two cucumbers. Well, the guinea pigs had a fine dinner off the cabbage Buddy brought home in such a funny way, and of course the fox and his wife didn't have any, which served them right I suppose.

Now in the next story, if the cook doesn't burn the potatoes and make stove blacking of them I'll be able to tell you about Brighteyes Pigg and Mrs. Hoptoad.