It seemed as if no one would ever be able to scramble up the sides of this hill, or, if they did, very likely they would tumble down again, just like a boy sliding over the ice and snow on his sled.
But one fine morning when the sun was shining and the birds were singing Buddy said to Brighteyes:
"Let"s climb up to the top of the hill to-day?"
"What for?" asked his sister, as she tied her hair ribbon in a double bow knot, very pretty indeed to look at, let me tell you.
"Why, so we can see away off where the sky and the mountains come together beyond the hill," said Buddy. "You can see beautiful scenery from the tip-top, you know."
"What good will that do?" asked Brighteyes, who was very fond of asking questions that were hard to answer. "What is the good of looking at the scenery?" she wanted to know.
"Because," answered her brother, "every one does that where there is a high hill. I heard some of the summer boarders at the farmhouse, near our pen, telling each other what a beautiful view there was to be had from the hill. We must see it for ourselves. There is no one around now, and we can climb to the top."
"I don"t care very much about it," spoke Brighteyes. "I would rather find another box of peanut candy;" but because she loved Buddy, and did not want him to start off alone, she consented to climb the big hill with him. So they started off. At first it was rather easy, and they went up quite fast. At the foot of the hill were blackberry bushes and the guinea pig children gathered as many berries as they could eat.
But, as they went farther and farther up, the bushes grew more scarce, until there were none. Then came a place where there was tall gra.s.s and many stones, so that it was hard to walk. But Buddy and Brighteyes kept on, and pretty soon they met a gra.s.shopper.
"Where are you going?" asked the gra.s.shopper.
"To the top of the hill, to see the view," answered Buddy.
"You will never get there, the way you are going," said the gra.s.shopper.
"You should jump as I do," and he gave three big hops and a little one to show how well he could do it.
"We cannot hop," remarked Brighteyes, "but we have a friend who can."
"Who?" asked the gra.s.shopper, as he scratched his two big hind legs together, like a man playing the fiddle.
"Sammie Littletail, the rabbit," said Buddy. "He can hop."
"Yes, Sammie is a good jumper," admitted the gra.s.shopper, and he hid under a stone, for just then he saw a big bird looking hungrily at him.
Well, Buddy and Brighteyes went on and on, and up and up, and pretty soon they met an ant.
"Where are you going?" asked the ant.
"To the top of the hill, to see the fine view," replied Brighteyes, as she paused to get her breath, which she had nearly lost.
"You will never get up the way you are going," said the ant. "You should crawl, as I do," and she crawled over a stone to show how it should be done. But Buddy and Brighteyes could not crawl, and they told the ant so. Still they kept on, and pretty soon they met a bird.
"You had better fly to the top of the hill as I do," said the bird.
"It"s much easier than walking," only, of course, Buddy and Brighteyes could not fly.
But the two guinea pig children were not discouraged, and they kept on and on, and pretty soon, really and truly honestly, they were at the very top of the hill--a place where they had never been before.
They could look off to the mountains, and they saw a lake, and they could see the place where the end of the rainbow was, whenever there was a rainbow, and they felt happy, because everything was so lovely, and Buddy said:
"I feel so glad, I must sing a little song." So he sang this one, which can only be sung on top of a hill:
"It"s very hard to climb a hill, But when you"re at the top, You feel so very fine and good Because it"s there you stop.
If you should still keep on and on, I wonder where you"d land?
By sliding down the other side With sandals full of sand?"
Then Buddy tried to do a little dance, but what do you s"pose happened?
Why, he lost his balance, and toppled over, and then he grabbed hold of Brighteyes, who was looking at the fine view, and she toppled over, and then, wiggily-waggily, woggily-wee! they both tumbled down that steep hill, head over heels like Jack and Jill.
And they went down faster, and faster, and faster, rolling over and over, and they saw stars, and several different lakes, and lots of clouds and ever so many things. They were both frightened, and they thought surely they were going to be hurt, for they were nearing the bottom, when all of a sudden what should come along but a big load of hay!
Buddy and Brighteyes. .h.i.t a stone, bounced up in the air, and then came down, flippity-flop! right on top of the soft hay, and they weren"t hurt the least bit. Then they slid down off the hay, before the man who was driving it saw them, and ran home. And they didn"t climb a hill again for ever and ever so long.
Now, if I hear a potato bug whistle a tune on a cornstalk fiddle, I"m going to tell you next about Buddy and Brighteyes going in bathing.
STORY XXVII
BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES GO BATHING
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg one day. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear me suz dud!"
"Why, Buddy, dear, whatever in the world is the matter?" asked his mamma, and Brighteyes, who was mending some stockings, looked up at her brother in much surprise.
"Oh, dear!" cried the little guinea pig boy again, "I wish I had something to do. It"s so hot and dry and dusty here. I wish some of the fellows would come around or--or I even wish school would begin again, so I would have something to do."
Now when a boy wishes for school, in the middle of vacation, you may be sure something serious is the matter. Mrs. Pigg knew this at once, so she asked:
"What would you like to do, Buddy?"
"I don"t know," he answered, rather cross and fretful-like, which wasn"t very nice, I suppose.
"All the boys have gone to Asbury Park or Ocean Grove," said Brighteyes, "and I guess you are lonesome, Buddy. It must be lovely at the seash.o.r.e," and Brighteyes sighed the least bit, and took such a big st.i.tch in the stocking she was mending that she had to rip it out and do it over again.
"Well, we can"t go to the seash.o.r.e this season because the salt air doesn"t agree with your father," said Mrs. Pigg. "If all goes well, we shall soon be in the country, however. But now, what do you like best about the seash.o.r.e, Buddy?"
"Going in bathing," he answered.
"You can do that right here at home," said his mamma. "I will get out your bathing suits, and you and Brighteyes can go swimming in the pond back of our house."
"That will be lovely!" cried Brighteyes, and she jumped up so quickly that she dropped the basket of stockings, and her pink hair ribbon came off, and she was all confused-like.
"There are no waves in the pond, like down in the ocean at Asbury,"
complained Buddy. "It is no fun to go in bathing where there are no waves."
"Ha! What"s that?" cried a voice, and then Percival, the old circus dog, who was staying with the Piggs while the Bow Wow family, with whom he lived, was away for the summer--Percival, I say, got up from where he had been sleeping under a mosquito net to keep off the flies. "No waves, eh? So you want waves, do you, when you go in bathing, Buddy?" asked Percival.
"Yes," answered Buddy Pigg, "I do, Percival."