BUDDY IN THE BERRY BUSH
Buddy Pigg didn"t know what to do. You see he was home all alone, for his mother and Brighteyes had gone calling on Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot, the squirrels and Dr. Pigg was downtown, playing checkers or dominoes with Uncle Wiggily Longears, so Buddy didn"t have any one to keep him company.
"I wish some of the boys would come along," he said, as he sat on the front steps and threw stones out in the dusty road. "I"d like to have a ball game, or some sort of fun."
But, though he sat there quite a while, none of the boys came along, and, at last, Buddy remarked:
"Oh, I"m going off and see if I can"t find Billie or Johnnie Bushytail, or Sammie Littletail, or some one, to play with." So he locked the front door, and put the key under the mat, where his mother would find it when she came home, and off he started, almost as fast as when Sister Sallie went hippity-hop to the barber shop.
Pretty soon Buddy came to the woods, and he opened his mouth real wide and began to yell, not because he was hurt, you understand, but because he wanted to call some of the boys. He yelled, and he hollered, and he hooted, and then, all of a sudden, he heard some one yelling back at him, and he saw Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the two squirrel boys, bounding along on the low branches of the trees.
"h.e.l.lo, fellows!" cried Buddy. "Glad to see you! Let"s have some fun."
"What"ll we do?" asked Billie.
"I know," suggested Johnnie. "Let"s make a see-saw. Here is a nice plank, and we can put it across that old stump and have a dandy time."
So they got the plank and put it across the stump. Then Buddy got on one end and Billie and Johnnie on the other, as they were a little smaller than Buddy, and did not weigh so much. Then they began to go up and down, first slowly, and then faster and faster, until they were jiggling up and down as fast as the teakettle boils when there"s company coming to supper.
"Hi, yi!" yelled Billie and Johnnie. "Isn"t this fun?"
"Wow, yow! It certainly is," agreed Buddy. "Only don"t jump off too suddenly when I"m in the air, or I"ll fall and be hurt."
Well, of course, Billie and Johnnie promised that they would be careful, and they really meant to keep their word; only, just as they were close down to the ground on the plank, and Buddy was high up, what should happen but that a new, green, little acorn fell off an oak tree.
It was one of the first acorns of the season, and Billie and Johnnie each wanted to get it, so, without thinking what they were doing, they jumped off the teeter-tauter plank, when Buddy was high up, and, of course, down he came, with a slam-bang!
My! how it did jar him up, and shake him, like pepper in the caster, but that wasn"t the worst. No, indeed, and some chocolate cake besides! When Buddy came down he landed right on an old rubber boot that some one had thrown away in the woods, and it was so bouncy and springy that he was tossed high up in the air again, and he curved sideways, just like a baseball, when he came down this time, and where on earth do you s"pose he landed? Why, right in the middle of a big, scratchy, blackberry bush!
Yes, sir, that"s where it was! Down poor Buddy went, right into the midst of the bush, and of course he got scratched some, only not as much as he might, for he happened to go down through a thin place, where there were not so many briars.
Well, at first he was too surprised to speak, and, besides, the breath was sort of knocked out of him, but, when he did gather himself together, he saw that he was in a bad place to get out of. By this time Johnnie and Billie had found the green acorn and had divided and eaten it, so they came back to find Buddy.
"Why, where has he gone to?" asked Billie, looking around.
"Maybe he got mad, because we jumped off the plank so quickly and he has run home," suggested Johnnie. "We shouldn"t have done it."
"No," cried Buddy, suddenly. "I haven"t gone home! I"m in the blackberry bush over here!"
"Why, how in the world did you get there?" asked Johnnie, and Buddy told him.
"I think it would be more polite to ask him how he"s going to get out,"
suggested Billie.
"That"s so," agreed Buddy. "It"s going to be hard work. But I guess I can crawl through."
So he tried to crawl through the bush, but you know how it is when you go after berries, the briars seem to stick into you all over. That"s the way it was with Buddy. He couldn"t crawl out, no matter how hard he tried, for the stickers caught into his fur and held him fast.
"Can"t you jump out through the same hole you fell in through?" asked Billie, and Buddy tried to do so, but he was scratched more than ever.
Then Billie and Johnnie tried to open up a place through the bottom part of the briars for Buddy to slide out, but they couldn"t do it, and they were very sorry they had jumped off the plank so quickly, for that made all the trouble.
Well, it began to look as though Buddy would never get out, and he felt like crying, only he was brave, and didn"t shed a single tear. Then Johnnie suggested that he and Billie go up a tall tree, and lower a string down to Buddy in the bush, and try to pull him up that way. They tried it, but it wouldn"t work, for the stickers still caught in the little guinea pig"s fur.
So they didn"t know what to do, and were just going to give up, when who should come bounding along but Sammie Littletail. He knew what to do in a second.
He dug a burrow, beginning outside the berry bush, and slanting it up under the roots, so that it came out inside, right near where Buddy was crouched down inside the clump of briars. The burrow was like a tunnel, and was big enough for Buddy to crawl out through, which he did, never getting scratched once. They all said Sammie was very smart to think of that, and I agree with them. Then they all played sea-saw some more, until it was time to go home.
Now in case there is a cool breeze, to blow the dust out of the poor coalman"s eyes, I"ll tell you next about Buddy and Brighteyes bringing home the cows.
STORY XXIV
BRINGING HOME THE COWS.
Not far from where Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg lived, there was a man who had a farm, and on the farm were a number of cows that gave milk. Out of the milk b.u.t.ter was made, and sometimes, when the b.u.t.ter was all churned, the farmer"s wife would take some of the b.u.t.termilk that remained in a pail and set it down where Dr. Pigg and his family could get it.
They thought this was very kind of the farmer"s wife, and Dr. Pigg told his children that if they could ever do her a favor, they must be sure to do so. They promised, though for some time they had no chance to do any kindness to the farmer or his wife either. But just you wait and see what happens.
One day, in the middle of summer, when it was very hot every place, except in the cool and shady woods, Buddy and Brighteyes were strolling along under the trees near a brook, throwing pebbles in the water and floating down bits of bark and chips, which they pretended were boats sailing off to distant countries.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Buddy at last, "I wish I had something to do.
There"s nothing to do here."
"Why do you always want to be doing something?" asked his sister. "Why aren"t you content to sit here in the shady woods, and sail the boats?"
"Because," answered Buddy, and that was the only reason he could give.
Then Brighteyes thought of a new game to play. She took a piece of bark for her boat, and she found a nice, white chip for Buddy, and they made believe their boats were having a race down stream, and Buddy"s boat won, which made him feel quite happy.
Well, pretty soon, the sun began to go down behind the hills, and the two guinea pig children knew it was time to go home, so they started off. But they had not gone very far before they came to a field, with a fence around it, and the field was quite hilly and stony and very large.
Near the fence sat a man, and he had one shoe off, and he was looking at his foot.
"Oh dear!" Buddy and Brighteyes heard him say, for they could understand the man"s language, if they couldn"t talk it. "Oh dear! I"ve cut my foot on a sharp stone," the man said, "and I don"t see how I can walk away over through the field and climb the hills after the cows. Oh dear; this is bad luck, and it"s almost milking time, and the cows are sure to be away back in the far end of the pasture, and I can"t go after them. I"ll call them, and maybe they"ll come to me, for I surely can"t walk after them."
So the man stood up on one foot and called: "Co Boss! Co Boss! Co Boss!
Co! Co! Co!" Then he waited quite some time, but the cows didn"t come, and he called again: "Co Boss! Co Boss! Co Boss!" and he waited some more, but still the cows didn"t come. "Oh, I guess I"ll have to go after them, no matter if I have cut my foot," said the man at last, and he put on his shoe, though it hurt him, and he began to limp over the hilly field, very slowly and painfully.
All at once Brighteyes said to Buddy: "Oh, Bud, that man is the farmer, and it"s his wife who gives us the b.u.t.termilk! Wouldn"t it be nice if we could do him a favor, and go and drive the cows home for him?"
"How, could we?" asked Buddy. "The cows are big and we are little. We never could drive them home."
"We can try," said Brighteyes cheerfully. "Come, we"ll hurry on ahead of the farmer and perhaps I shall think of a plan."
So the two little guinea pig children slipped under the fence and ran up across the hilly field, and the farmer, who was limping along, calling "Co Boss!" every once in a while, never saw them. His foot was hurting him very much and he had to go slowly.