"Oh, do!" pleaded Mrs. Twistytail. "I"ll give you all the money I have left from shopping if you"ll let us go."
"No! No!" answered the wolf, more growlier than before. "You have none left. Besides money is no good to me--I can"t eat money!"
"Oh, mercy!" cried Pinky. "Are you going to eat us?"
"Indeed I am," said the wolf, smacking his jaws, and then Pinky and her mamma tried as hard as they could to get away from the wolf, but they could not. Holding them tightly in his paws, the wolf started for his den, and, seeing Mrs. Twistytail"s new bonnet, he took it off her head, roughly like, and said:
"And I can"t eat this! I guess I"ll throw that away, as I did your husband"s hat. But no one will see it and come to rescue you as they did him."
"Oh, my lovely new bonnet!" cried Mrs. Twistytail, and Pinky felt so badly that she cried. But you just wait a minute and see what happens to that bad old wolf.
The wolf was just going to toss the bonnet, all covered with almost real flowers as it was, away up in a tree and just about to carry the pig lady and Pinky down into his den, when, all at once, there was a buzzing sound in the air and a voice cried:
"Ah, ha! Here are some flowers. Now we can get some honey!"
"Indeed we can," said another voice up in the air. "It is rather late for such blossoms, but I am glad we saw them in time. Come on, now, everybody, get the honey!"
And with that a whole swarm of stingery honey bees flew down from the sky toward Mrs. Twistytail"s flowered bonnet that the wolf held in his paw. You see, the bees thought the flowers were real and that they could gather honey from them.
And then, just as Pinky saw the bees, she had an idea and she cried out:
"Oh, dear little bees! That is my mamma"s new bonnet, and the wolf has caught us. Please sting him and make him let us go!"
"Don"t you dare sting me!" growled the wolf. "Take the bonnet if you wish, but don"t touch me," and he threw the bonnet to one side.
Some of the bees alighted on the bonnet, and as soon as they found that the flowers were not real they got quite angry. And they thought the wolf had played a trick on them, so they flew at him, and stung him on his nose and tail and eyes and lips and even on his tongue, until he cried out with pain and fright. Then he let go of Pinky and her mamma and ran down into his den, and the pig lady was safe. The bees never stung them once, but were very kind to them, and with their wings brushed the dirt off Mrs. Twistytail"s bonnet so that it was as good as new.
Then the bees flew away, Mrs. Twistytail and Pinkey went safely home, and the wolf had to stay in his den for a week and put witch hazel on his stings.
So that"s all tonight, if you please, but next, in case the kitchen stove doesn"t go out on the porch and play hide-and-seek with the hammock, I"ll tell you about Curly and the sour milk.
STORY XIX
CURLY AND THE SOUR MILK
"Oh, mamma!" exclaimed Curly the little piggie boy, as he rushed into the house one noon and nearly upset his little sister Pinky, in her new go-cart. "What do you think? There isn"t going to be any school for two weeks!"
"Why not?" asked Mrs. Twistytail, who was just getting dinner.
"Because the schoolhouse roof blew off in the storm last night,"
said Flop, who was Curly"s brother, "and it will take two weeks to put a new one on. So the nice owl lady teacher said we could have a vacation. Oh, I"m so glad!"
"My goodness me, sakes alive and some Montclair caramels!" cried Mrs. Twistytail. "A school vacation this time of year--so near winter. I never heard of such a thing."
"But it will be all the nicer," said Curly, "and we can go after chestnuts every day. Hi-yi! Hurrah!" and he squealed and jumped around the room, and so did Flop, and they were the two most delighted little pigs you ever saw. Just then along came Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit.
"What"s this!" he cried. "What is going on here?"
"No school!" squealed Curly. "No school! We have a vacation!"
"The very thing!" suddenly said the old gentleman rabbit. "I was just wishing it was summer time, so some of my animal friends could come away with me. I am going on a little vacation trip myself, and I thought I would have to go alone. But if there is no school, then Curly and Flop can come with me."
"Where to?" asked Flop.
"To Racc.o.o.n Island in Lake Hopatcong," answered Uncle Wiggily.
"We"ll go up to my bungalow, stay two weeks and have a good time."
"Oh, fine!" cried Curly.
"Oh, joyousness!" squealed Flop, as he spun about on one leg and tickled Baby Pinky with the other.
Well, that afternoon, Mamma Twistytail got the two boys ready, and off they went with Uncle Wiggily to Racc.o.o.n Island in Lake Hopatcong, which is a very nice place. It was beginning to get dark when they arrived, and, after they had eaten some candy, and Uncle Wiggily had opened the bungalow, he looked around and said:
"Now, boys, you will have to go to the store for something for supper."
"What shall we get?" asked Flop.
"Well, see if you can get a cabbage or a turnip for me," spoke the old gentleman rabbit, "and for yourselves whatever you like. Here is the money."
"I want some sour milk," spoke Curly, for you know piggie boys like sour milk as well as you do sweet.
"And I want a corncob cake," went on Flop.
"Very well, go down to Pop Goes the Weasel"s store and get it," said Uncle Wiggily, and the two boys started off to the other end of the island, where Pop Goes the Weasel kept a grocery store. Flop got his corncob cakes first, and as Curly had to wait for the milk to get sour he said to his brother:
"Now, Flop, you hurry back with Uncle Wiggily"s cabbage and carrots, and I"ll soon come with my sour milk."
"Won"t you be afraid?" asked Flop, for the woods were now quite dark.
"Afraid! Nonsensicalness no!" exclaimed Curly, "and a bouquet of wild flowers besides. Run along."
So Flop ran back toward the bungalow, and pretty soon Pop Goes the Weasel said the milk was sour enough, and he gave it to Curly in a pail.
Through the dark woods went the little piggie boy, and he had not gone very far before he heard some one crying, and a voice saying:
"Oh, dear! I"m lost! I can"t find my bungalow, and I can"t find my motorboat, and I"m afraid--dreadfully afraid!"
"Ha! I wonder who that can be?" thought Curly Tail. "Perhaps it may be the bad alligator trying to scare Cora Janet. No, that can"t be,"
he went on, "for Cora Janet is down in Montclair, making funny music tunes on the piano."
Then he heard the gentle little crying voice again, and he knew it was somebody in trouble, Curly did, and he called out:
"Who is there?"
"I am," sobbed a voice.