Well, by hard work the three of them did manage to get the turnip started, and it rolled along, first slowly and then more quickly, and then with a rush, and land sake! if all at once it didn"t roll down into a big hole.
"Oh, now we"ll never get it up!" cried Buddy, much disappointed, and he and his sister felt very sorrowful. But not for long, for in a little while along hopped Uncle Wiggily Longears, with his crutch. It didn"t take him any time, with the aid of the June bug, and Buddy and Brighteyes, to pry that turnip up out of the hole.
"Now I"ll show you how to get the turnip home," said Uncle Wiggily.
"You need some way to steer it, so it won"t run away from you and get into a hole again."
Then he took his crutch and punched a hole through that turnip, and put a stick through the hole, so the turnip was just like the wheel of a wheelbarrow.
Then he fastened long pieces of strong gra.s.s to the stick that was stuck through the turnip, and he and Buddy and Brighteyes and the June bug took hold of the gra.s.s, and they rolled that turnip along and steered it just as you pull your sled or wheel the baby carriage or guide a horse with a bit in his mouth.
And pretty soon they were safely at the pen, and Dr. Pigg and his wife were much surprised and delighted when they saw the big turnip which their children had found. They gave Uncle Wiggily Longears some, but the June bug said he would rather have a ginger snap, and he got it.
Now the next story will be about Buddy and the burglar fox, in case the milkman isn"t late to school, and if he brings a bottle of water for teacher to sprinkle the blackboards with.
STORY XIX
BUDDY AND THE BURGLAR FOX
"We must lock all the windows and doors very tightly to-night," said Mrs. Pigg to her husband, one evening, when they were getting ready for bed.
"Yes," agreed Dr. Pigg, "we must. I"ll see to it, my dear, and you put the children to bed."
"Why do you have to lock up so carefully, mamma?" inquired Buddy.
"Because," said Mrs. Pigg, "I heard that there have been a number of tramps and burglars around lately."
"Indeed, that"s true," added Dr. Pigg. "Mr. c.o.c.k A. Doodle, the rooster next door, was telling me that he thinks some one tried to get in his coop last night. The door rattled and some one shook the window."
"Perhaps it was the wind," suggested Brighteyes.
"It may have been," agreed her father. "I hope it was, for I don"t like burglars at all. Now go to bed and don"t be afraid, for I"ll lock up carefully, and I have a pail of water right beside my bed and I"ll throw it on a burglar if he dares to come in."
So Buddy and Brighteyes went up stairs to bed with their mother, while Dr. Pigg put out the cat, locked the doors and windows and set the alarm clock to wake him up at five o"clock, for he had to go downtown to attend to some business in the morning.
"I wish the June bug would come again," said Brighteyes, as she was falling asleep.
"Why?" asked her mother from the next room.
"Oh, so he could tell us some stories, and then I wouldn"t think about burglars."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Pigg. "How silly! Burglars will never hurt you. Go to sleep now."
"If any burglars come in I"ll fix "em"!" cried Buddy, bravely, from his room. Then Brighteyes went to sleep, and so did Dr. Pigg and his wife.
But, somehow, Buddy couldn"t sleep. Why it was he didn"t know, only he couldn"t. He thought of everything he could think of; ice cream cones and turnips and baseball games, and being in the boat that time, and going to the North Pole and then he thought of the stories the June bug had told him, but still he couldn"t go to sleep.
"I guess I"ll get up and sit by the window a while," he said to himself. "Then maybe I"ll feel sleepy."
So he got up and sat down in a comfortable chair and looked out. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and he could see things almost as well as if it was day.
Well, Buddy hadn"t sat there very long, before he saw something long and black and shadowy creeping along, as softly and as gently as a mouse.
First he thought it was a cat, but when he looked again he saw that it was a fox. And the fox had a bag over his shoulder, and he was sneaking along, looking around to be sure no policeman dogs saw him.
Well, sir, as true as I"m telling you, if that fox didn"t come softly up to Dr. Pigg"s house, right to the front door, as Buddy could see by leaning out of his window, which was open, and looking down, as his window was right over the front door.
Then that fox took a screw-driver out of his bag, and he began to work at the door to force it open, in spite of the lock on it. Oh, how softly and quietly he worked! But Buddy looked down and saw him, and he knew right away that it was a burglar fox, who was coming in the house.
At first Buddy was frightened, and then he knew that he ought to do something. He thought of awakening his papa and mamma, and then he feared that this would scare Brighteyes, and so he decided to drive that burglar fox away all by himself.
Then he tried to think of the best way to do it. He moved softly about his room, looking for something with which to scare the fuzzy old fox, and what do you think he found? Why, his baseball, to be sure!
"That will be as good as a bullet!" thought Buddy.
Then he moved softly to the window, leaned out, where he could see the fox, who was still trying to force open the front door, and raising the ball in his hand, Buddy threw it down with all his might, just as if he was throwing to first base.
Well, sir, the ball hit that bad fox right on the head, and it bounced up almost into Buddy"s hands again, but not quite.
My, how surprised that fox was! In fact he was so surprised that he fell down, and when he got up and saw Buddy looking at him from the window, he was more amazed than ever.
"Get right away from here, you bad burglar fox you!" cried Buddy, "or I"ll throw forty-seven more big bullets at you!"
Of course he really couldn"t, because he didn"t have any other baseb.a.l.l.s to throw, but the fox didn"t know that, and really thought the one baseball was a big bullet.
Then, without even stopping to pick up his bag, the fox ran away, and so he didn"t get in at all in Dr. Pigg"s house, and Buddy went to sleep.
Well, when Buddy told his papa and mamma and Brighteyes the next morning what he had done, maybe they weren"t proud of him. Yes, indeed!
I wish I could say that the fox was arrested, but he wasn"t, and made lots more trouble later. But he never broke into Dr. Pigg"s house and I"m glad of it.
Now, do you think you"d like to hear, in the next story, about a queer adventure which Brighteyes had? Well, I"ll tell it to you if the water sprinkler man gives us a nice big piece of ice to bake in the oven for a pudding.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
STORY XX
BRIGHTEYES HAS AN ADVENTURE
It was a very hot day. It was as hot, in fact, as some of the days we have had around here lately, and when Brighteyes, the little guinea pig girl, saw the yellow sun beaming down as she looked out of the pen in the morning, she said to her papa:
"Now, be very careful not to get overheated to-day, daddy, dear."