Then, all at once, as quickly as you can eat an ice cream cone on a hot day, if something didn"t happen. Buddy looked up, after reaching the North Pole, and he found that the boat was adrift, floating off across the big pond, with the wind blowing it faster, and faster, and faster.
At first Buddy thought it was fun; then, as he saw that he was getting farther and farther from sh.o.r.e, he became frightened. He looked for something with which to send the boat back to land, but there was no sail in it, and no oars; and, if there had been, the little guinea pig boy couldn"t have used them, I don"t suppose. Well, there he was, really sailing off to some unknown country this time, in earnest, and not make believe.
Then he began to cry, and he called out as loudly as he could:
"Help! Help! Help!" and who should come running down to the sh.o.r.e but Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the two puppy dogs. They hadn"t gone to Asbury Park yet, you see, but they were going soon.
"What"s the matter?" asked Peetie.
"The boat is taking me away off," answered Buddy.
"Jump out and swim to sh.o.r.e!" cried Peetie.
"I can"t swim," called back Buddy.
"Oh, we"ll show you how," went on Jackie, and then he and Peetie jumped into the water and began to show Buddy how to swim, but he was too frightened to learn, and, besides, the two puppy dogs were too far off for him to see them plainly. Then they swam out, and they tried to pull the boat back to sh.o.r.e, but they were not strong enough.
"Oh, I"ll be drowned! I"ll be drowned!" cried Buddy. "What shall I do?
Tell my mamma good-by for me," he said to Jackie.
"We"ll tell her you"re in trouble, and maybe she will know of a way to save you," called Peetie and Jackie.
So they ran and told Mrs. Pigg, and she and Brighteyes came running down to the sh.o.r.e of the pond.
"Oh, my poor little boy," cried Mamma Pigg, when she saw Buddy being carried farther and farther away.
"Oh, how can we reach him?" wailed Brighteyes, wringing her paws. "We must save him, somehow!"
Just then along came Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels.
"Stick up your tail like a sail and the wind will blow you ash.o.r.e!" they cried to Buddy. "That"s what we did."
"I haven"t any tail," answered Buddy, real sorrowful-like.
"That"s so," said the little squirrel boys, and it began to look pretty bad for poor Buddy, let me tell you.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Mamma Pigg. "I"ll never see my poor boy again," for he was quite far off by this time.
Then, all of a sudden, down to the edge of the pond, came rushing Percival, the old circus dog.
"I"ll save Buddy!" he cried. "I"ll carry a rope out to him, and he can fasten it to the boat, and then we can pull him ash.o.r.e."
Well, Percival took a rope in his mouth and started to swim out, but a funny thing happened. The water got in his mouth and washed the rope away, and he couldn"t carry it, though he tried a number of times.
Then everybody felt sorry, and Jackie Bow Wow was just suggesting that they build a raft and float out on it to Buddy, when who should come along but Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck. They all told him what the trouble was, and he said, "Quack! Quack! Quack!" three times, just like that, and exclaimed:
"I have it! I can swim out with the rope in my bill, for my head will be above the water."
He did it too, in about two quacks and a quarter. Then he helped Buddy fasten the rope to the side of the boat, and those on land, including Percival, the two Bow Wows and Mamma Pigg and Brighteyes, soon pulled the boat and Buddy in it ash.o.r.e.
Buddy said he was never going sailing again, and I guess he never did, for he was very much frightened, but he soon got over it and played with Jimmie and Jackie and Peetie, while Mamma Pigg had to go home to take something for her nerves.
Now, if I have rhubarb pie for supper, and the ham sandwich doesn"t squeal when they put mustard on it, I"ll tell you about Brighteyes and the peanut candy in the next story.
STORY XIV
BRIGHTEYES AND THE PEANUT CANDY
It happened, once upon a time, that Brighteyes and Buddy Pigg were walking through the woods together, not far from their home. They had been over to see Sammie and Susie Littletail, and they had had a very nice time. In fact, there had been a little party at the Littletail home.
It was Sammie"s or Susie"s birthday, I forget just whose, and after games had been played, there were good things to eat; nuts of various kinds for the squirrels who came; candy, lemonade, ice cream flavored with turnips and carrots, and oh! lots of cake, and I don"t know what else besides. There was so much that Buddy and Brighteyes couldn"t eat all their share, and they were bringing it home to their papa and mamma.
Well, as they were walking along, thinking what a good time they had had, the two guinea pig children heard a rustling sound in the bushes, and two big, round, staring eyes peered out at them, and there was a noise like a dog growling.
"Oh, quick! Hurry up, Buddy!" cried Brighteyes. "Something will catch us sure!" and she began to run as fast as fast could be, or even faster, maybe.
"Oh, I don"t think it"s anything but old Percival, the circus dog," said Buddy. "He won"t hurt us."
And he was going to stand still and look in those bushes; yes, sir, that"s what Buddy was going to do, only he happened to see a big, bushy tail sticking out, and then he knew it was a bad fox there, and not the good, kind dog, so Buddy ran as fast as he could run, if not faster, right after Brighteyes.
And the fox ran, too, only he had stepped on a piece of gla.s.s and cut his foot and couldn"t run very fast. He was the same fox who lighted the firecracker in Dr. Pigg"s house, and I"m glad to say that he didn"t catch Buddy or Brighteyes, for they ran faster than the fox did.
Well, they hurried on for quite a distance further, and all at once, just as they were getting tired, and when they knew the fox had stopped chasing them, they happened to look down on the path, and what should they see but a white box; yes, indeed, a white box, tied with pink string.
"Oh, I wonder what can be in there?" asked Brighteyes.
"I don"t know, but I"ll go see," said Buddy.
"Oh, no, don"t go too close," begged his sister. "It might be a trap, or perhaps the bad fox is hidden inside it."
"It"s too small for a fox to get in," declared the boy guinea pig. "I"ll take a smell, anyhow."
So he crept slowly, slowly, slowly up to the white box, and sniffed, and sniffed and sniffed.
"Oh! Ah! Um! La-la! Um! Um!" exclaimed Buddy Pigg, and he laid down the packages of candy, nuts, cakes and other things he had carried home from the Littletails" party, so that he might smell the better.
"What is it?" asked Brighteyes Pigg. "What"s in the box?"
"I don"t know," replied her brother, "but whatever it is, it smells the nicest of anything I ever smelled. It"s just like when mamma bakes a ginger cake in the oven. I"m going to open it and see."
So, with his sharp teeth, Buddy loosened the pink string around the box, and off came the cover. Then, what do you suppose was in the box? Why, a whole lot of peanut candy, all nice and fresh, shining, golden brown, with just enough peanuts in, and not a bit more, really and truly!
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Brighteyes in delight, as she saw it. "Peanut candy, Buddy! If there"s anything I love it"s peanut candy! Some good fairy must have left this for us. Come on, we"ll take it over here, under a bush, where the bad fox won"t see us, and we"ll eat some of it, and save some to take home. Oh, how lovely!"
"I don"t think I care for peanut candy very much," said Buddy. "When I smelled it I thought it was going to be chocolate caramels."