STORY III BUDDY PIGG AND SAMMY LITTLETAIL Getting up quite early one morning, Buddy Pigg washed himself very carefully, so that his black and white fur was fairly shining in the sunlight, and then the little guinea pig started off to take a stroll before breakfast. "Who knows," he said, "perhaps I may meet with an adventure; or else find a cabbage, just as I did the other day. But if I do, I'm not going to get inside it and go to sleep. No, indeed, and a feather pillow besides!" So Buddy Pigg walked on, leaving his sister and his mamma and Dr. Pigg slumbering in the pen. Oh, it was just fine, running along through the woods and over the fields that beautiful, summer morning. The grass was all covered with dew, and Buddy had a second bath before he had gone very far, there was so much water on everything, but he didn't mind that. He looked at the flowers, on every side, and smelled them with his little twinkling nose, and he listened to the birds singing. Well, in a short time he came to a place where a lot of little trees grew close together, making a sort of grove, not large enough for a Sunday-school picnic, perhaps, but large enough for guinea pigs. "This is a fine place," said Buddy Pigg. "I think I'll rest here a bit, and perhaps an adventure may come along." You see Buddy was very fond of adventures, which means having something happen to you. He was almost as much that way as Alice Wibblewobble, the little duck girl, was fond of romantic things—that is she liked fairies, and princes, and kings, and knights with golden swords, and all oddities like that. Well, Buddy Pigg went in the little grove of trees, and now you just wait and listen—an adventure is going to happen in less than five minutes by the clock. All of a sudden, just as the little guinea pig got close to one of the trees, he smelled something good, and he looked up, and, bless him! if he didn't see the nicest turnip that ever grew. "Oh, that certainly is fine!" he cried, and his eyes twinkled and his nose wiggled, both at the same time. "I must take that home for breakfast," he went on. But my goodness me and the mustard spoon! if, when he went to get it, he didn't discover that the turnip was hung up by a string on the branch of the tree! "Hello!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg. "I never saw turnips growing that way before. This must be a special kind, but it will be all the better. It is a little high up, but I think I can reach it by standing on my hind legs, and stretching up my front paws." So he moved a little nearer the curious hanging turnip, and was about to reach up for it when who should come bounding out of the bushes but Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy. "Hello, Buddy Pigg!" he called. "What are you going to do?" "I'm going to get this turnip down," answered Buddy. "It is a fine one; but it is hanging quite high. I'll give you some when I pull it down," for Buddy Pigg was very kind, you know. Well, he stood up again, and was just about to step a little closer, so he could grab the turnip, when Sammie cried out: "Here, Buddy! Come right away from that! Jump back as fast as you can! Quick! Quick! I say!" "Why?" asked Buddy, "is it your turnip?" "No, but don't you see? That turnip is nothing but a trap. It is hung up there on purpose. Come away. I can see the trap as plain as anything. Uncle Wiggily Longears taught me how to keep away from them, for I was caught in one, once upon a time." "A trap?" asked Buddy. "Is this a trap?" "To be sure," answered Sammie. "See, the turnip hangs right over a loop of wire, and inside the wire loop there is a piece of wood. Now to reach up and get the turnip you must step on the piece of wood, and as soon as you do so that tree branch, to which the wire is fast, will spring up, the wire will slip around your neck, you will be yanked up into the air, and that will be the last of you." "The last of me?" asked Buddy, who, being a little boy, had not seen as much of the world as had Sammie. "The very last of you," answered the rabbit. "You would be choked to death by the wire. Yes, the turnip was put there to catch some one, but they won't catch us, Buddy. We'll fool them!" "Oh, I say! This is too bad!" exclaimed Buddy. "I was just counting on this turnip. Isn't there any way we can get it?" "I don't believe so," replied Sammie, wrinkling up his nose, just as Buddy was doing. They smelled that turnip, and it had a most delicious odor, better to them, even, than strawberries are to you. "Maybe we can throw some stones up and knock it down," suggested Buddy. So they threw up stones, and, though they hit the turnip, and made it swing back and forth, like the pendulum of the clock, it didn't fall down, and by this time Buddy and Sammie were getting very hungry. "Let's try throwing sticks," proposed Sammie. "We'll toss them at the cord, and maybe we can break it." So they threw sticks, and, though Buddy did manage to hit the cord, the turnip didn't come down, and they were more hungry than ever. "Let's take a long pole and poke the turnip down," said Sammie after a while, and they did so, but Buddy accidentally came within half a dozen steps of going too near the trap, and was almost caught. "Oh, I guess we'll have to give it up," spoke Sammie, but Buddy didn't want to, because he was very determined, and did not like to stop until he had done what he set out to do. So he tried every way he could think of, until he was all tired out, but nothing seemed to do any good. Then he and Sammie sat down and looked up at that turnip, swinging over their heads, and they were so hungry that their tongues stuck out like a dog's on a hot day. Then, all at once, before you could sharpen a lead pencil with a dull knife, if out from the bushes didn't pop Billie Bushytail, the squirrel. "What's up?" he asked, just like that, honestly he did. "The turnip is," said Buddy; "it's up high and we can't get it down." "Ha! That's a mere trifle—a mere trifle!" cried Billie. "I will climb up the tree, run out on the limb and gnaw through the string. Then the turnip will fall down to you." Which he did in two frisks of his tail, without any danger from the trap at all, for that was on the ground, while Billie was above it in the tree. So Buddy and Sammie had the turnip after all. And they divided it evenly, Sammie gnawing it through with his teeth, and each one took his half home. Billie didn't like turnip, you see for he would rather have chestnuts. Now, I think I'll tell you next about Buddy Pigg playing ball—that is, if our tea kettle sings a nice song for supper and makes the rag doll go to sleep.